Investigating Incidents
Module: 6
Investigating accidents and incidents
❑ Key learning points:
1. Why investigate accidents and incidents?
2. How do accidents and incidents happen?
3. How do you carry out an investigation?
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Investigating Incidents
Why investigate accidents and incidents?
For most of this course, we’ve been raising your awareness of the things you need to do to
manage health and safety and minimize the chances of things going wrong through, for example,
introducing risk controls. But while you can minimize the chances of injury and ill health, it’s
impossible to reduce to zero the chances that occasionally things will go wrong.
So we need to know what to do on these occasions, and how to learn from them.
That’s why we need to discuss accident and incident investigation.
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What is an Incident?
Incident – an event or condition that doesn’t cause harm but has the potential to do so.
In many organizations, these events will be recorded as ‘near misses’.
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What is an Accident?
Accident – an undesired event that results in injury and/or property damage.
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Near Miss
Near Miss - A near miss can be described as an incident that results in no injury or
damage, but which has the potential to do so.
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Incident
❑ Incident are rarely caused by a single factor- there are usually Several contributory
factors. Also, these factors will include obvious and immediate causes and less obvious
underlying causes.
❑ Immediate causes: Unsafe action or lack of action or Unsafe condition.
➢ Unsafe action: Operating an equipment with missing guards, bypassing interlocks, using
the wrong PPE.
➢ Unsafe condition: Damage tools and equipment, high noise and low lighting levels.
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Reasons to Investigate Incidents
▪ To collect the information you need to pass it on to the enforcing authority.
▪ To identify the cause of the incident to stop it happening again.
▪ To get the information needed for an insurance claim.
▪ To find out the cost of an accident.
▪ To identify any other hazards or risks and training requirements.
▪ To ensure legal compliance.
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Cause of Incident
Underlying causes: Factors that allow unsafe actions and conditions to happen. The
majority of these are related to the way the organization manages safety and health and how
people perceive risk.
For example,
inadequate training, poorly designed equipment, or insufficient safety policies and
procedures can all be underlying causes.
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Cause of Incident
❑ Root causes: Among the many contributory factors to an incident, there will be root causes.
A root cause is a factor that may cause conditions that could result in an undesirable event.
If the problem were correct, it would prevent the undesirable event from happening. In other
words, a root cause is an event from which all other causes spring.
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Cause of Incident
Warehouse
Office hour : 9.00am- 5.00pm
Now: 4.50pm
Speed Limit: 30 mph
Use wrong road
Now: 50 mph
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Cause of Incident
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Cause of Incident
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How do you carry out an investigation?
You’ll need to have a system in place and to develop this you’ll need to think about the
following factors:
Make sure the injured person is looked after
When someone’s injured in an accident, they must get the treatment they need as soon as
possible. First aid is the initial management of the injury until expert medical attention is
available. First aid aims to preserve life, prevent deterioration, and promote recovery. You’ll
need to provide enough equipment, facilities, and personnel of the right kind to make sure
you can give first aid to employees if they’re injured or become ill at work.
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How do you carry out an investigation?
Preserving the scene of the accident
An effective investigation depends on getting all possible evidence together, so it’s essential to
secure the accident scene as soon as possible after the accident. Other areas separate from
the main scene but relevant to the investigation may also need to be secured.
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How do you carry out an investigation?
Reporting the accident or incident
As soon as possible after the accident, you need to tell the injured person’s line manager, who
should then start the reporting process. This means completing the organization’s reporting
forms and the statutory accident book.
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Minimal investigation – a supervisor looks at the circumstances of the undesired event and tries
to identify how to prevent further similar events.
Low-level investigation – a supervisor or line manager does a short investigation into the
circumstances and looks at the immediate, underlying, and root causes of the undesired event to try
to prevent it from happening again.
Medium-level investigation – a more detailed investigation, involving a health and safety
practitioner and employee representatives.
High-level investigation – the highest level of investigation, using a team-based approach that
includes line managers, supervisors, health and safety practitioners, and employee representatives,
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and is led by a senior manager.
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