Accident Investigation and Reporting
Accident Investigation and Reporting
Reporting
Col V N Supanekar
Definitions
• The term "accident" is defined in the HSE publication Successful health and safety
management (HS(G)65) as: "any undesired circumstances which give rise to ill health or
injury; damage to property, plant, products or the environment; production losses, or
increased liabilities“.
• The same publication suggests that the related term "incident" includes undesired
circumstances and near misses with the potential to cause accidents. The key term
here being "potential", it is particularly important to investigate incidents which had the
potential to cause severe harm even if the actual harm caused was trivial.
• In addition, the terms "injury-accident" and "non-injury accident" need to be clearly
understood. An injury-accident involves personal injury and may also involve property
damage. A non-injury accident involves property damage but no personal injury.
• The term "reportable accident" includes those which lead to death, specified injuries,
specified illnesses or incapacity for normal work for more than three days. Reportable
accidents must be reported to enforcement authorities under the Reporting of Injuries,
Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. Where a fatality occurs, the police
must also be informed.
Proactive and Reactive strategy
Proactive
• Proactive (sometimes termed Active) monitoring provides
feedback on safety performance within an organisation
before an accident, case of ill-health or an incident. It involves
measuring compliance with the performance standards that
have been set and achievement of the specific objectives laid
down. The primary purpose of Proactive monitoring is to
measure success and to reinforce positive achievements in
order to nurture a positive safety culture. It is not intended
as a means of identifying and punishing failure. Proactive
strategies are built upon Proactive monitoring techniques.
Reactive
• Reactive monitoring measures accidents, cases of ill-
health and incidents. The idea being to identify the
causes of these failures and to take remedial action
which will prevent them occurring again. Whereas
information is easier to obtain from serious
accidents, it is less easy to obtain from incidents
(near misses or "near hits" which could have led to
an accident but, fortunately, did not in this particular
case)
1 Serious Disabling Injury
10 Minor injuries
30
Incident with no visible injury or damage
600
Preventative Opportunities
• Utilising "near miss" information, in order to take action to prevent
a serious accident occurring, is still part of a Reactive strategy. Even
though an accident has not occurred, an incident has and you are
reacting towards it. By taking action to reduce the base of the
accident triangle, you are aiming to prevent serious accidents at the
peak of the triangle occurring. Hence the incidents at the base of
the accident triangle are often referred to as “preventative
opportunities”. This ratio between near misses and accidents often
becomes obvious during accident investigations. While interviewing
witnesses to an accident, it becomes apparent that similar events
have frequently happened before. Only, in the past, fortune has
smiled upon the participant and prevented a serious injury from
occurring.
Integrated Approach
Investigate
Review
Integrated Monitoring
• Monitoring health and safety arrangements provides
information for putting things right and, in the longer
term, for reviewing policy and for organising and
planning risk control.
• The monitoring arrangements check that the
management system is working and that the risk control
measures are both effective and being maintained.
• The monitoring arrangements also ensure that you learn
from any incidents, accidents or cases of occupational ill
health.
Proactive monitoring aims to ensure that
• Unsafe Acts
Causes • Unsafe
Conditions
Unsafe Unsafe
Acts Conditions
Accidents
Injury
Mandatory Reporting of events at the place
of work
• Death of any person within 1 year as a result of an accident.
• A major injury to someone at work.
• Any injury, resulting from an accident, that requires
immediate hospital treatment.
• Any specified dangerous occurrence resulting in injury or not.
• Any accident at work which results in the person being unable
to carry out normal duties for more than three consecutive
days.
• A specified disease, diagnosed by a doctor, suffered by a
person who’s work involves specified activities that are known
to be linked to the disease.
Employer Duties
• Employers have five main duties to consider in
connection with accidents. These are in relation to the
following:
o Emergency procedures
o Statutory recording and reporting.
o Safety representative entitlements.
o Safety monitoring and identifying the occurrence of
accidents and incidents.
o Safety review and learning from accidents and
incidents.
• Measure Performance process
• Identify weaknesses in Management Reviewing the
system
results
• Standard classification to benchmark Analysing the
against national standard Recording &
• Considering the direct and underlying Information Scene
causes Gathering of People
• Action to prevent recurrence Document
of Investigation
• Assess most significant causes taking into
account potential severity
Selecting the level
• First Aid immediate risks
• Make area safe Dealing with
• Initiate Emergency procedures INVESTIGATION
INCIDENT
Systems
• Valuable data to prevent accident ACCIDENT &
• Encourages reporting of accidents
& Investigation
Effective Accident