What type accidents should be investigated

If you do not, they will think the employee is lying, and will be thouroughly investigated. Most likely, if you do not report it immediately, you will not be compensated. If the accident was investigated by law enforcement there should be a record of the report on file.

It may cost you a small administrative fee. No later than the 10th day after the date of the crach. When a law enforcement officer hasn't investigated the crash. The liability, or fault-factor in an accident has nothing to do with whether or not a driver was licensed. The liability in an accident at an uncontrolled intersection can be shared. Register an accident report. That depends on the nature of the accident, types of insurance coverage you possess, and whether or not you are at fault.

Log in. Transportation Accidents. See Answer. Best Answer. All accident should be investigated. Study guides. Q: What types of accident should be investigated?

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Where can one get help by accident investigations? You may want to take photographs before anything is moved, both of the general area and specific items. A later study of the pictures may reveal conditions or observations that were missed initially. Sketches of the scene based on measurements taken may also help in later analysis and will clarify any written reports. Broken equipment, debris, and samples of materials involved may be removed for further analysis by appropriate experts.

Even if photographs are taken, written notes about the location of these items at the scene should be prepared. Although there may be occasions when you are unable to do so, every effort should be made to interview witnesses. In some situations witnesses may be your primary source of information because you may be called upon to investigate an incident without being able to examine the scene immediately after the event. Because witnesses may be under severe emotional stress or afraid to be completely open for fear of recrimination, interviewing witnesses is probably the hardest task facing an investigator.

Witnesses should be kept apart and interviewed as soon as possible after the incident. If witnesses have an opportunity to discuss the event among themselves, individual perceptions may be lost in the normal process of accepting a consensus view where doubt exists about the facts. Witnesses should be interviewed alone, rather than in a group. You may decide to interview a witness at the scene where it is easier to establish the positions of each person involved and to obtain a description of the events.

On the other hand, it may be preferable to carry out interviews in a quiet office where there will be fewer distractions.

The decision may depend in part on the nature of the incident and the mental state of the witnesses.

The purpose of the interview is to establish an understanding with the witness and to obtain his or her own words describing the event:. Ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered by simply "yes" or "no". The actual questions you ask the witness will naturally vary with each incident, but there are some general questions that should be asked each time:.

Asking questions is a straightforward approach to establishing what happened. But, care must be taken to assess the accuracy of any statements made in the interviews. Another technique sometimes used to determine the sequence of events is to re-enact or replay them as they happened. Care must be taken so that further injury or damage does not occur.

A witness usually the injured worker is asked to reenact in slow motion the actions that happened before the incident. Data can be found in documents such as technical data sheets, health and safety committee minutes, inspection reports, company policies, maintenance reports, past incident reports, safe-work procedures, and training reports.

Any relevant information should be studied to see what might have happened, and what changes might be recommended to prevent recurrence of similar incidents. At this stage of the investigation most of the facts about what happened and how it happened should be known. This data gathering has taken considerable effort to accomplish but it represents only the first half of the objective.

Now comes the key question - why did it happen? Keep an open mind to all possibilities and look for all pertinent facts. There may still be gaps in your understanding of the sequence of events that resulted in the incident. You may need to re-interview some witnesses or look for other data to fill these gaps in your knowledge. This is not extra work: it is a draft for part of the final report. Each conclusion should be checked to see if:. The most important final step is to come up with a set of well-considered recommendations designed to prevent recurrences of similar incidents.

Recommendations should:. For example, you have determined that a blind corner contributed to an incident. Rather than just recommending "eliminate blind corners" it would be better to suggest:. Never make recommendations about disciplining a person or persons who may have been at fault.

This action would not only be counter to the real purpose of the investigation, but it would jeopardize the chances for a free flow of information in future investigations. In the unlikely event that you have not been able to determine the causes of an incident with complete certainty, you probably still have uncovered weaknesses within the process, or management system.

It is appropriate that recommendations be made to correct these deficiencies. The prepared draft of the sequence of events can now be used to describe what happened. Remember that readers of your report do not have the intimate knowledge of the incident that you have so include all relevant details, including photographs and diagrams.

If doubt exists about any particular part of the event, say so. The reasons for your conclusions should be stated and followed by your recommendations. Do not include extra material that is not required for a full understanding of the incident and its causes such as photographs that are not relevant and parts of the investigation that led you nowhere. The measure of a good report is quality, not quantity.

Always communicate your findings and recommendations with workers, supervisors and management. Present your information 'in context' so everyone understands how the incident occurred and the actions needed to put in place to prevent it from happening again. Some organizations may use pre-determined forms or checklists. However, use these documents with caution as they may be limiting in some cases.

Always provide all of the information needed to help others understand the causes of the event, and why the recommendations are important. A difficulty that has bothered many investigators is the idea that one does not want to lay blame.

However, when a thorough worksite investigation reveals that some person or persons among management, supervisor, and the workers were apparently at fault, then this fact should be pointed out. The intention here is to remedy the situation, not to discipline an individual. Failing to point out human failings that contributed to an incident will not only downgrade the quality of the investigation, it will also allow future incidents to happen from similar causes because they have not been addressed.

However never make recommendations about disciplining anyone who may be at fault. Any disciplinary steps should be done within the normal personnel procedures. Management is responsible for acting on the recommendations in the investigation report.

The health and safety committee or representative, if present, can monitor the progress of these actions. Add a badge to your website or intranet so your workers can quickly find answers to their health and safety questions.

Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information, CCOHS does not guarantee, warrant, represent or undertake that the information provided is correct, accurate or current.

CCOHS is not liable for any loss, claim, or demand arising directly or indirectly from any use or reliance upon the information. OSH Answers Fact Sheets Easy-to-read, question-and-answer fact sheets covering a wide range of workplace health and safety topics, from hazards to diseases to ergonomics to workplace promotion. Search all fact sheets: Search. Type a word, a phrase, or ask a question.

Reasons to investigate a workplace incident include: most importantly, to find out the cause of incidents and to prevent similar incidents in the future to fulfill any legal requirements to determine the cost of an incident to determine compliance with applicable regulations e.

Most importantly, these steps can be used to investigate any situation e. Ideally, an investigation would be conducted by someone or a group of people who are: experienced in incident causation models, experienced in investigative techniques, knowledgeable of any legal or organizational requirements, knowledgeable in occupational health and safety fundamentals, knowledgeable in the work processes, procedures, persons, and industrial relations environment for that particular situation, able to use interview and other person-to-person techniques effectively such as mediation or conflict resolution , knowledgeable of requirements for documents, records, and data collection; and able to analyze the data gathered to determine findings and reach recommendations.

Members of the team can include: employees with knowledge of the work supervisor of the area or work safety officer health and safety committee union representative, if applicable employees with experience in investigations "outside" experts representative from local government or police Note: In some cases, other authorities may have jurisdiction, such as if a serious injury or fatality occurred. For example, an "investigation" which concludes that an incident was due to worker carelessness, and goes no further, fails to find answers to several important questions such as: Was the worker distracted?

If yes, why was the worker distracted? Was a safe work procedure being followed? If not, why not? When a shortcoming is identified, it is important to ask why it existed and why it was not previously addressed. These examples illustrate that it is essential to discover and correct all the factors contributing to an incident, which nearly always involve equipment, procedural, training, and other safety and health program deficiencie.

Addressing underlying or root causes is necessary to truly understand why an incident occurred, to develop truly effective corrective actions, and to minimize or eliminate serious consequences from similar future incidents. To assist employers and workers in conducting effective incident investigations, and to develop corrective action plans, the following resources can help:. Safety and Health Topics Incident Investigation. Incident Investigation.

Overview OSHA strongly encourages employers to investigate all incidents in which a worker was hurt, as well as close calls sometimes called "near misses" , in which a worker might have been hurt if the circumstances had been slightly different.

Investigating a Worksite Incident Investigating a worksite incident- a fatality, injury, illness, or close call- provides employers and workers the opportunity to identify hazards in their operations and shortcomings in their safety and health programs. For example: If a procedure or safety rule was not followed, why was the procedure or rule not followed?