How To Perform An Incident Investigation
The success of an incident investigation focuses on determining what happened, as well as answering "how and why the accident happened." Thorough investigations are an important step in formulating preventive measures. Quite often, accidents occur as a result of both unrelated and related causes that eventually converge, thus causing the accident. However the accident occurred, it is important to take the information learned from the events leading up to the accident to prevent it from recurring.
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Things You'll Need
- Eyewitnesses
- Interview notes
- Related records
- Scene photos, measurements and/or videotape
- Interested persons
Instructions
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How To Perform An Incident Investigation
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Seek medical assistance or first aid if necessary. Some incidents that occur may not require medical assistance; for those that do, the worker's well-being is your first concern.
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Secure the scene. Securing the scene keeps pertinent evidence and information intact until the preliminary investigative protocols are completed. It allows for any evidence to remain in place until the initial photos or sketches of the scene are made regarding the incident.
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3
Formulate, in detail, the steps leading up to the incident. Make sure the information is described in great detail. This will enable anyone who is unfamiliar with the event to gain a clear picture of the incident. The incident itself does not have to be described in detail yet; however, the chain of events leading up to the incident is important.
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Analyze the events leading to the incident.This must be done in order to determine the underlying cause of the incident. There may be superficial reasons that are very noticeable. However, there are usually more reasons that may be unseen to the naked eye that will possibly shed light on how the incident occurred. These will take a longer time to investigate, but will enlighten the management of weaknesses that contribute to incidents.
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Developing preventive measures from the investigative report that will help keep further incidents from occurring. Recommendations should be made on both the causes that are in plain sight as well as those causes that are deeper. Recommendations should focus on both the underlying reasons as well as those found on the surface.
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Tips & Warnings
Surface causes are those obvious hazardous conditions that are present. These normally exist within the categories of materials, workload, people, tools, equipment, environment, facilities, and stations. Behaviors may include failure to comply with safety protocol, failure to train and supervise, failure to report hazards, unsafe behaviors, stress, and failure to follow steps completely. Root causes can be placed into categories of design weakness and implementation weakness. After the investigation, it is important to review the report to determine where changes can be made to prevent similar accidents in the same area.
