Health & Safety Management Lecturing Resource

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LECTURE NOTES:

ACCIDENT AND INCIDENT

INVESTIGATION

Objectives of this Section

 To define the reasons for investigating accident and incidents.

 To outline the process for effectively investigating accidents and

incidents.

 To facilitate an effective investigation.

1.0 Introduction
Accident investigation is an important part of any safety management system. Without a
detailed and through investigation, management has no true knowledge of the reasons why
accidents occur and how to prevent their reoccurrence. The primary purpose of accident
investigations is to improve health and safety performance by:

 Exploring the reasons for the event and identifying both the immediate and underlying
causes;

 Identifying remedies to improve the health and safety management system by improving
risk control, preventing a recurrence and reducing financial losses.

What to Investigate

All accidents whether major or minor are caused. Serious accidents have the same root
causes as minor accidents and so do incidents with a potential for serious loss. It is these
root causes that bring about the accident, the severity is often a matter of chance. Accident
studies have shown that there is a consistently greater number of less serious accidents
than serious accidents and in the same way a greater number of incidents then accidents.
The results of such studies have been represented as triangles. Many accident ratio studies
have been undertaken and the one shown below is based on studies carried out by the
Health & Safety Executive1.

1
Major injury
Or illness

7
Minor injuries or illnesses

189
Non Injury Accidents/Illnesses

In all cases the ‘non injury’ incidents had the potential to become events with more serious
consequences. Such ratios clearly demonstrate that safety effort should be aimed at all
accidents including unsafe practices at the bottom of the pyramid, rather then just targeting
1
HSE (1997) Successful Health & Safety Management, HS(G)65, HSE Books.
Lecture Notes: Topic 6 2
Accident & Incident Investigation
the serious accidents at the top. In theory such practices will cause reductions from the base
of the pyramid upwards. Peterson 2(1978) in defining the principles of safety management
says that “an unsafe act, an unsafe condition, an accident are symptoms of something
wrong within the management’s system.” All events represent a degree of failure in control
and are potential learning experiences. It therefore follows that all accidents should be
investigated to some extent.

This extent should be determined by the loss potential, rather then just the immediate effect.

2
Peterson D. (1978) Techniques of Safety Management, 2nd Edition, McGraw Hill, New York.

Lecture Notes: Topic 6 3

Accident & Incident Investigation
2.0 Stages in an Accident/Incident Investigation
The stages in an accident/incident investigation are shown in the following diagram.

Deal with immediate

risks.

Select the level of

investigation.

Investigate the event.

Record and analyse the

results.

Review the process.

Dealing with Immediate Risks

When accidents and incidents occur immediate action may be necessary to:

 Make the situation safe and prevent further injury; and

 Help, treat and if necessary rescue injured persons.

An effective response can only be made if it has been planned for in advance. Although the
timing of accidents and incidents is unpredictable it is usually possible to foresee the majority
of events and prepare emergency plans to deal with them when they occur.

Lecture Notes: Topic 6 4

Accident & Incident Investigation
Selecting the level of investigation

As stated earlier all accidents and incidents need investigating to some extent. The greatest
effort should be put into:

 Those involving severe injuries, ill-health or loss; and

 Those which could have caused much greater harm or damage.

These types of accidents and incidents demand more careful investigation and management
time. The effort in investigating these accidents needs to be proportionate to the actual or
potential risk. This can usually be achieved by:

 Looking more closely at the underlying causes of significant events; and

 Assigning the responsibility for the investigation of more significant events to more senior
managers.

Investigating the Event

The purpose of investigations is to establish:

 The way things were and how they came to be;

 What happened – the sequence of events that led to the outcome;

 Why things happened as they did analysing both the immediate and underlying causes;

 What needs to be done to avoid a repetition and how this can be achieved.

A great deal of information is available after every accident. Establishing what is relevant and
what is not, can be time consuming, and some facts will be of greater importance then
others. The investigators problem is to determine and concentrate on the most important. A
few sources should give the investigator all he needs to know. These are shown below
(HSE, 1997):

Lecture Notes: Topic 6 5

Accident & Incident Investigation

Observation
Information from physical
sources including:
 Premises and place of
work
 Access & egress
 Plant & substances in use
 Location & relationship of
physical particles
 Any post event checks,
sampling or
reconstruction
Lecture Notes: Topic 6
Accident & Incident Investigation
Documents
Information from:
 Written instructions;
Procedures, risk
assessments, policies
 Records of earlier
inspections, tests,
examinations and
surveys.
 Checking reliability, accuracy
 Identifying conflicts and resolving differences
 Identifying gaps in evidence
Interviews
Information from:
 Those involved and
their line
management;
 Witnesses;
 Those observed or
involved prior to the
event e.g. inspection
& maintenance staff.
6
Interviews

Interviewing the person(s) involved and witnesses to the accident is of prime importance.
Ideally it should take place in familiar surroundings so as not to make the person
uncomfortable.

Ferry (1988) 3states that it is impossible to provide interviewing technique guidelines that can
be used in all situations, but there are some broad guidelines that can be used with care.

 The style of interviewing is important. It should be re-stated time after time that the
purpose of the investigate is not to blame but to prevent reoccurrence.

 A more co-operative attitude will come if management can promote this positive culture
by demonstrating the need to determine cause rather than to blame or punish.

 The persons should give an account of what happened in their terms rather than the
investigators.

 Interviews should be separate to stop people from influencing each other.

 Questions when asked should not be intimidating as the investigator will be seen as
aggressive and reflecting a blame culture.

Observation

The accident site should be inspected as soon as possible after the accident. After looking at
the site as a whole, particular attention should/must be given to individual factors/items such
as:

 Positions of people;

 Personnel protective equipment (PPE);

 Tools and equipment, plant or substances in use;

 Orderliness/Tidiness;

Documents

Documentation to be looked at includes:

3
Ferry T. (1988) Modern Accident Investigation and Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, Canada.

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Accident & Incident Investigation
 Written instructions, procedures and risk assessments which should have been in
operation and followed. The validity of these documents may need to be checked by
interview. The main points to look for are:

 Is it adequate/satisfactory?

 Was it followed on this occasion?

 Were people trained/competent to follow it?

 Records of inspections, tests, examination and surveys undertaken before the event.
These provide information on how and why the circumstances leading to the event
arose. The knowledge, skill and competence of those carrying out the tasks in the
records may have to be assessed.

Determining Causes

It is important that all the information and facts which surround the accident are collected
before thinking about causes. As soon as the investigator starts thinking about causes, the
‘fact finding’ stops, the cause has been found and anything else is incidental. This is known
as the ‘Stop Rule’.

Immediate causes are obvious and easy to find. They are brought about by unsafe acts and
conditions and are the ACTIVE FAILURES as described earlier in the course. Unsafe acts
show poor safety attitudes and indicate a lack of proper training. If the investigator
determines that an unsafe act was a contributing factor, then the reason for this must be
found. In the same way if an unsafe condition was found to be an obvious cause then its
source must be determined and corrected.

These unsafe acts and conditions are brought about by the so called ‘root causes’. These
are the LATENT FAILURES as described earlier in the course and are brought about by
failures in organisation and the management’s safety system.

Determine what changes are needed

The purpose of the investigation is to prevent a re-occurrence. To do this some practical

measures must be recommended and carried out that will demonstrate that management

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Accident & Incident Investigation
are committed to this. The investigation should determine what control measures were
absent, inadequate or not implemented and so some form of remedial action should be
implemented to correct this. Generally, remedial actions should follow the hierarchy of risk
control shown below (HSE, 1997).

 Eliminate Risks by substituting the dangerous by the inherently less

dangerous .

 Combat risks at source by engineering controls and giving collective

proactive measures priority;

 Minimise risk by designing suitable systems of working;

 Use PPE as a last resort

Recording & Analysing the Results

The findings of every investigation need to be recorded in a similar and systematic manner.
This is so that the report can be read by the appropriate people who are responsible for
reviewing and implementing necessary changes and to provide a basis for communication.
The report also provides a historical record of the accident that will be useful in the future. A
description of the accident, analysis of the causes and recommended preventative protective
measures should be listed. This report or form should be completed as soon after the
accident as possible.

Information on the accident and remedial actions should be passed to all supervisors who
should ensure that employees under them who may or may not encounter similar accidents
are knowledgeable in the events. The appropriate preventative measures may also have to
be implemented by such supervisors. Information can also be transferred in a number of
other ways which are effective, such as through bulletin boards, meetings, inspections and in
particular through safety audits.

Investigation reports and accident statistics should be analysed from time to time to identify
common causes, features and trends that may not be apparent from looking at events in
isolation.

Reviewing the Process

Reviewing the accident/incident investigation process should consider:

 The results of investigations and analysis; and

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Accident & Incident Investigation
 The operation of the investigation system (in terms of quality and effectiveness).

Line managers should follow through and action the findings of investigations and analysis.
Follow up systems should be established where necessary to keep progress under control.

The investigation system should be examined from time to time to check that it consistently
delivers information in accordance with the stated objectives and standards. This usually
requires:

 Checking samples of investigation forms to verify the standard of investigation and the
judgements made about causation and prioritisation of remedial actions.

 Checking the numbers of incidents, near misses, injury and ill-health events;

 Checking that all events are being reported.

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Accident & Incident Investigation