Incident and Accident Investigation
Your company should conduct an investigation for all injury accidents, property-damage incidents and non-injury near misses. Be sure to adequately document all reports. Only those who are properly trained and trusted should conduct investigations involving injury or property damage.
The primary goal of conducting an investigation is to determine the "root cause(s)," or system weakness in the "6-Ps" of the CSMS: plans, programs, policies, processes, procedures and practices. Uncovering the root causes will best help to prevent the risk of future incidents and accidents on the worksite.
Investigation reports should help determine injury and illness trends over time, so that patterns with common root causes can be identified and prevented. Investigations should not place blame.
Accidents and "near-miss" incidents should be investigated by qualified and trained persons in your company. It's important that the person also be one who is trusted by employees. The reports should be reviewed by the executive in charge of your company (or the person in your company that has the power and ability to address the findings of the report) and the Safety Committee within a specified amount of time after an accident/incident. (More on this topic in course 702 Effective Accident Investigation).
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
7-7. John is conducting an accident investigation. What is his primary goal?
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