Accident

Investigati
on

Accident
An accident is an unexpected,
unplanned event, in a sequence
of events that occurs through a
combination of causes; it results
in physical harm- injury or
disease- to an individual, damage
to property, a near miss, a loss or
any combination of these effects.

Accident Investigation
An accident investigation is a
structured process that attempts to
uncover the sequence of events that
produced or had the potential
supervisors did not enforce the rule.
It determines corrective actions so
that future accidents are prevented
and the overall safety program is
improved.

Reasons to investigate a
workplace accident
include:
most importantly, to find out the cause

of accidents and to prevent similar

accidents in the future
to fulfill any legal requirements
to determine the cost of an accident
to determine compliance with applicable
safety regulations
to process workers' compensation
claims

Who should do the

accident investigating?
Ideally, an investigation would be
conducted by someone experienced in
accident causation, experienced in
investigative techniques, fully
knowledgeable of the work processes,
procedures, persons, and industrial
relations environment of a particular
situation.

Who should do the

accident investigating?
Some jurisdictions provide guidance
such as requiring that it must be
conducted jointly, with both
management and labor represented,
or that the investigators must be
knowledgeable about the work
processes involved.

Who should do the accident

investigating?
In most cases, the supervisor should
help investigate the event. Other members
of the team can include:
employees with knowledge of the work
safety officer
health and safety committee
union representative, if applicable
employees with experience in investigations
"outside" expert
representative from local government

What should be looked at

as the cause of an
accident?

Accident Causation Models

Immediate and
underlying causes
Immediate causes may be defined as
substandard acts or conditions that lead directly
to the accident. These might be removal of a
machine guard, employee error, non-use of
personal protective equipment, lack of
concentration, stress, fatigue and poor
housekeeping.
Behavioral safety advocates would subdivide
these immediate causes into unsafe acts (88%)
and unsafe conditions (10%). The other 2% are
the unpreventable (or "acts of God") according to
research in the 1920s by HW Heinrich, the father
of behavioral safety.

Immediate and
underlying causes
Underlying or root causes may be defined as
inadequacies in the occupational safety and
health (OSH) management system that allow the
immediate causes to arise unchecked, leading to
the accidents.
These may include: unrealistic demands or
expectations placed on employees, poor
maintenance, inadequate training or instruction,
poor supervision, inadequate selection and
placement of employees, incomplete risk
assessments, unsatisfactory systems of work, and
even poor accident investigations which only
highlight one or two immediate causes.

Immediate and
underlying causes
These underlying causes (sometimes
referred to as basic causes) can be
grouped loosely into three
interrelated categories:
(lack of) management control factors
personal or job factors
Environmental factors.

Follow-up actions
include:
Respond to the recommendations in the
report by explaining what can and cannot
be done (and why or why not).
Develop a timetable for corrective actions.
Monitor that the scheduled actions have
been completed.
Check the condition of injured worker(s).
Inform and train other workers at risk.
Re-orient worker(s) on their return to work.