Investigation of Incidents
Once the immediate needs following an incident are taken care of, an incident investigation should begin promptly. The basic steps in conducting incident investigations are:
- Report as required. Determine who needs to be notified, both within the organization and outside (e.g., authorities), when there is an incident. Understand what types of incidents must be reported, and what information needs to be included. If the incident involves hazardous materials additional reporting requirements may apply.
- Involve workers in the incident investigation. The employees who work most closely in the area where the event occurred may have special insight into the causes and solutions.
- Identify Root Causes: Identify the root causes of the incident. Don't stop an investigation at "worker error" or "unpredictable event." Ask "why" events occurred at least five times. Doing this will help you arrive as the safety management system weaknesses (programs, policies, processes, procedures) that may have contributed to the incident.
- Collect and review other information. Depending on the nature of the incident, records related to training, maintenance, inspections, audits, and past incident reports may be relevant to review.
- Investigate Near Misses. A near miss situation that could potentially have resulted in death, injury, or illness should be promptly investigated as well. Near misses are caused by the same conditions that produce more serious outcomes, and signal that some hazards are not being adequately controlled, or that previously unidentified hazards exist.
For more information on Incident/Accident Investigation principles and procedures, see OSHAcademy course 702 Effective Accident Investigation.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
4-8. To determine the possible root causes for a violent incident, it's a good idea to _____.
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