The Accident Investigation Process

Accident investigation is defined as a factual examination of the circumstances surrounding an accident for the purpose of knowing the cause and determine remedial measures in order to prevent a recurrence. Therefore, its purpose is to obtain information on the cause or causes of the accident and develop corrective and preventive measures to prevent similar accident from recurring.

In an event that an accident did occur, investigation should be conducted as soon as possible, preferably right after the accident. Delays, even those only a few hours can permit information or items of importance to be removed. The investigation maybe made at the time of preparing the first report of injury or, if necessary, it can be made later. Accidents that need to be investigated are the ones which resulted to fatal injury, permanent or temporary disability and major or minor property damage. Also, a near-miss incident should also be investigated. An incident is an undesired event which, under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people, damage to property or loss to process. All accidents are potentially serious.  All are important regardless of the degree of seriousness of the resulting injury, since the “injury-result of any set of accident-producing circumstances is impossible to detect.

The best person who should conduct an accident investigation should be the front line supervisor or the immediate superior. This is because he has a personal interest to protect, knows most about people and conditions in his work area, he knows best on how to get information and will take the corrective and preventive action anyway.

In conducting an accident investigation, the procedure should cover:

1. What and when accidents are to be reported and investigated.

2. Who is to be notified under various circumstances.

3. Who has decision making authority regarding work interruption and resource utilization.

4. Instructions for accident investigation report preparation and processing.

During an actual accident investigation, there are six (6) basic questions that should be addressed by the investigator.

1. How did the accident happen?
2. Who was injured?
3. When did it happen?
4. Where did it happen?
5. What were the materials, machines, equipment or conditions involved?
6. Why did it occur?

Principles to be observed during an accident investigation:

1. Use common sense – Stick to the facts, weight their values, and reach justified conclusions.
2. Investigate each clue – an apparent reasonable conclusion will often be changed by exploring factors which may appear unimportant.
3. Check for unsafe conditions and unsafe acts – Both are usually present in the great majority of accidents.
4. Make recommendations – No investigation is complete unless corrective action is suggested.
5. Investigate all accidents – Chance is often the sole difference between a minor accident and a serious one.  Results cannot be predicted.
6. Prepare a report – Written reports are helpful tools for study and analysis.

The accident scene should be preserved as much as possible after the accident occur. In managing the accident scene, the supervisor should observe three top priorities: First, care and treatment of the injured. Supervisors can increase their ability to respond to medical emergencies by training in first aids and conducting drills under normal and abnormal conditions. Second is the elimination or control of remaining hazards. If a hazardous material or toxic materials exist, notify the necessary personnel such as the HazMat team and provide Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE’s) to potentially exposed worker. And lastly, isolate the site in order to protect people from further injury and preserve evidence and valuable clues.

A common malpractice in manufacturing industries is that some accident and incident that is not being reported or escalated. For workers, common reasons would be the fear of disciplinary actions, is concerned about his record or reputation, fear of medical treatment or dislike of medical personnel, a desire to keep personal record clean and the most important of all is his poor understanding of the importance of accident reporting.