Incident Investigation

Incident Investigation course is designed to focus on techniques for gathering complete, accurate and objective accident data used to arrive at true root causes and determine corrective action. To further examine and analyze data as a means of preventing injuries, property damage and financial losses.

The goal of this course is to provide a thorough understanding on how to conduct an effective incident investigation. Participants will collaborate in small investigative teams to analyze incident case studies. They will use the learning from the course and apply critical thinking skills to conduct an incident investigation during the course.

There are several definitions for accidents. In the context of accident investigation, here we will use the definition that an accident is an unplanned, unwanted, but controllable event which disrupts the work process and inflicts injuries.

An accident investigation may have different purposes:

• Identify and describe the true course of events (what, where, when)
• Identify the direct and root causes / contributing factors of the accident (why)
• Identify risk reducing measures to prevent future, comparable accidents (learning)
• Investigate and evaluate the basis for potential criminal prosecution (blame)
• Evaluate the question of guilt in order to assess the liability for compensation (pay)

In an accident investigation, one tires to obtain answers to the following questions: what happened, why it happened, and how could this have been prevented?

An accident investigation should adopt a systematic approach to identify the factors leading to the accident, and in addition, it should examine what improvements are needed in the work environment and in organisational procedures as well as clarifying the responsibilities of each participant. The use of a systematic approach confers reliability on the investigation and making it possible to describe in a comprehensive manner the course of accident and all factors influencing the accident. In brief, one needs to have rules of conduct for an investigation: who should participate and how to implement the investigation in practise.

After every incident and accident, we should decide what kind of safety measures, guiding, training and information will be needed in the workplace to prevent the same kind of incidents and who should deal with this information in the first place.