Reasons & Benefits Of Investigating Accidents & Incidents

Every day, accidents and incidents happen in workplaces all over the world. While some of these events may seem minor, others can have catastrophic consequences. In order to ensure the safety of employees and prevent future accidents from happening, it is important to investigate every incident that takes place. This article will discuss the reasons and benefits of investigating accidents and incidents in the workplace.

Why We Investigate Accidents/Incidents?

There are many reasons why accidents and incidents are investigated. Some of these reasons include ensuring the safety of workers, protecting the environment, and preserving company property. Some reasons to investigate the accidents and incidents are as follows:

To ensure the safety of workers: One of the most important reasons for investigating accidents and incidents is to ensure the safety of workers. By understanding the cause of an accident or incident, steps can be taken to prevent it from happening again in the future. This helps to create a safer work environment for everyone involved.
Investigating accidents and incidents also allows companies to identify potential hazards in the workplace. By identifying these hazards, companies can take steps to mitigate or eliminate them completely. This helps to create a safer work environment for everyone involved.
To protect the environment: Another important reason for investigating accidents and incidents is to protect the environment. In many cases, accidents and incidents can result in environmental damage. By understanding the cause of an accident or incident, steps can be taken to prevent it from happening again in the future. This helps to protect our natural resources and minimize environmental damage.
To preserve company property: Accidents and incidents can often result in damage to company property. By investigating these events, companies can identify ways to prevent or minimize this type of damage in the future. This helps to protect the investments that companies have made in their property and equipment.
To avoid liability: In some cases, companies may be held liable for damages that occur as a result of an accident or incident. By investigating these events, companies can identify ways to prevent or minimize their liability in the future. This helps to protect the financial interests of the company.
To improve company morale: In many cases, employees can become disgruntled after an accident or incident occurs. By investigating these events, companies can identify ways to prevent or minimize employee dissatisfaction. This helps to create a positive work environment and improve company morale.
To improve company image: In some cases, accidents and incidents can damage a company’s reputation. By investigating these events, companies can identify ways to prevent or minimize negative publicity. This helps to protect the image of the company and maintain customer confidence.
To meet insurance requirements: In some cases, insurance companies may require that accidents and incidents be investigated. By investigating these events, companies can ensure that they are meeting the requirements of their insurance policy. This helps to protect the financial interests of the company.
To meet government regulations: In some cases, government regulations may require that accidents and incidents be investigated. By investigating these events, companies can ensure that they are meeting the requirements of these regulations. This helps to protect the financial interests of the company.
For legal purposes: In some cases, accidents and incidents may have legal implications. By investigating these events, companies can ensure that they are meeting the requirements of the law. This helps to protect the financial interests of the company.

Accidents and incidents can often be prevented by investigating their causes. By understanding the reasons why these events occur, companies can take steps to avoid them in the future. This helps to create a safer work environment for everyone involved and preserve the investments that companies have made in their property and equipment.

The Logic and Understanding

Incident/accident investigation based on the logic that:

All the incidents/accidents have causes or reasons – To eliminate the cause and the future incidents or such events;
By investigating the accidents or the incidents, we can discover the direct and indirect causes of an incident/accident
Taking the corrective action indicated by the causation to eliminate future incidents or accidents.

The purpose of the investigation is not intended to be a tool for apportioning the blame. There are often intense sensations associated with the injury or with the significant losses.

It’s all too easy to look for someone to blame without considering the reasons or the causes why the person performed appropriately.

Often the shortcuts to the working procedures or the methods that may have contributed to the accident give no personal advantage to the person injured. The shortcut may have been taken out of loyalty to the organization or the ignorance of a safer method.

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Valuable information and understanding can be gained from carrying out accident/incident investigations.

These include:

An understanding of how and why the problems occurred which caused the accident/incident;
An understanding of the ways people are exposed to the substances or to the situations which can cause them harm;
A snapshot of what happens really, for example why people take shortcuts or ignore safety rules at work;
Identifying deficiencies in the control of risks in the organization.

Legal reasons

The legal reasons for carrying out the investigation are:

To assure that the organization is operating or performing in compliance with the statutory requirements;
That it forms the essential part of the MHSW Regulation 5 requirements to plan, organize, monitor, control, and review health and safety arrangements;
To comply with the Woolf Report on the civil action which changed the way cases are run. The Full disclosure of the circumstances of an accident/incident has to be made to the injured or harmed parties considering the legal action.
The fact that a thorough investigation was carried out and the remedial action taken would demonstrate to the court that the company has a positive attitude to health and safety. The investigation will also provide essential information for the insurers in the event of an employer’s liability or another claim.

The Benefits

There are many benefits of investigating accidents or incidents.

These include:

The prevention of similar events happening again. Where the outcomes or the consequences are severe injuries the enforcing authorities are likely to take a tough stance if the previous warnings have been ignored;
The prevention of the business losses because of disruption immediately after the event, loss of production, the loss
of business through the lowering of reputation or the inability to deliver and the costs of the criminal and legal actions;
The improvement in workers’ morale and the general attitudes to health and safety mainly if they have been involved in the investigations;
To improve the management skills to improve the health and safety performance everywhere in the organization.

What do managers need to do?

The Managers need:

To communicate the type of the accident and the incident that needs to be reported;
To provide the system for reporting and recording;
To check that proper reports are being made;
To make the appropriate records of the accidents and the incidents;
To investigate all the incidents and accidents reported;
To analyze the events routinely to check for the trends in performance and the prevalence of types of incident or injury;
To monitor the system to make sure that it is working satisfactorily.

Reasons & Benefits Of Investigating Accidents & Incidents