Accident & Incident Investigation
Accident & Incident Investigation
Investigating your accidents and reported cases of occupational ill health will help you uncover and correct any breaches in health and safety legal compliance you may have been unaware of.
Step 1
Inspect the accident / incident location and record relevant evidence
Step 2
Review the site health and safety documentation in relation to the accident/incident
Step 3
Taking witness statements
Step 4
Interview injured parties
Step 5
Prepare a full report identifying the root causes of the accident/incident and any recommendations required.
The HSE states that your legal reasons for investigating include:
To ensure you are operating your organisation within the law.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Regulation 5, requires employers to plan, organise, control, monitor and review their health and safety arrangements. Health and safety investigations form an essential part of this process.
Following the Wolf Report on civil action, you are expected to make full disclosure of the circumstances of an accident to the injured parties considering legal action. The fear of litigation may make you think it is better not to investigate, but you can’t make things better if you don’t know what went wrong! The fact that you thoroughly investigated an accident and took remedial action to prevent further accidents would demonstrate to a court that your company has a positive attitude to health and safety. Your investigation findings will also provide essential information for your insurers in the event of a claim.
At Safety Forward we can provide a reactive monitoring and workplace accident and incident investigation service. The information gathered from our investigation could be helpful in protecting your business should you have intervention from a compensation claim or the enforcement authorities.
The advantages to an accident carried out by an external party is that it will offer an non-bias objective view and bring a fresh perspective to problem solving.
Where accidents have resulted in injuries, illness, property damage or near misses, we identify root causes and make recommendations.
Following our investigation, the report will highlight the cause of an accident and identify any failings of the health and safety management system. Accident investigation reports may be used to defend legal action against your organisation as they show that you are actively trying to reduce the possibility of re-occurrences.
Our highly experienced investigators have a wide range of knowledge in the safety industry.
The root causes of accidents and incidents
Information and insights gained from an investigation
- An understanding of how and why things went wrong.
- An understanding of the ways people can be exposed to substances or conditions that may affect their health.
- A true snapshot of what really happens and how work is really done. (Workers may find short cuts to make their work easier or quicker and may ignore rules. You need to be aware of this.)
- Identifying deficiencies in your risk control management, which will enable you to improve your management of risk in the future and to learn lessons which will be applicable to other parts of your organisation.
Benefits arising from an investigation
- The prevention of further similar adverse events. If there is a serious accident, the regulatory authorities will take a firm line if you have ignored previous warnings
- The prevention of business losses due to disruption, stoppage, lost orders and the costs of criminal and civil legal actions.
- An improvement in employee morale and attitude towards health and safety. Employees will be more cooperative in implementing new safety precautions if they were involved in the decision and they can see that problems are dealt with.
- The development of managerial skills which can be readily applied to other areas of the organisation.
Health & Safety Consultancy Services
We provide a wide and varied range of services including:
