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What Are The Contents Of The Accident Incident Report Form?

Accident Incident form is an essential document of the organization's management system as its main purpose is to capture the data collected through an incident investigation and present it in a concise form so that others can easily understand what is written and what is the purpose of this document.

The great deal of information used in the incident report form depends on the two main factors;

1. The severity of the accident that has happened
2. Use of the investigation and the report

The investigation reports are used for criminal charges, as a case study, guidance as well as record. Report writing is not difficult but requires a set of skills and information. When writing a report, an investigator is required to take account of the necessary information. Following valuable information mentioned below should be part of an incident investigation report.

1. What has happened?

2. Details of events before incident

Provide details about the event(s) before occurring of the incident. It is a universal factor that there is more than one event behind an accident. Give brief details about all the events that were observed which ultimately lead to the accident.

3. Witnesses details and their statement

Name all those witnesses who were present at the site when the accident happened. As discussed above, the main purpose of an incident report is not to hold someone responsible for an accident, similarly, the purpose of a witness statement in an investigation is to collect information instead of blaming someone. They should be informed about the importance of their role in incident investigation.

If there is more than one witness, record their statement separately, better is to use a recorder to record their statement. Find out the key points from the witness statement.

4. Injury, Casualty, Property Loss Details

5. Causes Establishment

6. Conclusion & Recommendations

7. Pieces of Evidence

8. Signature of the Investigation Team Leader & Report Approving Person

What Are The Reasons And Benefits Of Carrying Out An Incident Investigation?

Incidents keep taking place at the workplace resulting in injuries, property loss, as well as deaths. These accidents also lead to financial losses as well as legal action against the employer for not protecting the employees.

Now it is the duty of the employer to ensure first all the hazards are prevented so the worker remains safe. If still any accident takes place, investigate it to ensure that the root cause is identified to prevent the reoccurrence.

There are some reasons behind the investigation while some benefits can be acquired as well. These are mentioned below;

1.2. Establishing Immediate Cause, Underlying, and Root Causes

The word accident or incident is not limited to the events that causing loss of property, life, or injury. It is necessary such kinds of accidents are prevented from reoccurring. For this purpose, it is necessary that the immediate, underlying, and root causes are identified and relevant corrective actions are taken to ensure these incidents don't occur again. 

There always will be an Intermediate Cause for an accident, followed by Underlying, and Root Cause. To establish all 3 causes behind an accident, a chain of events must be considered leading to the accident. The event occurs after a series of events, and each event is triggered by the previous one. Henrich's theory of dominos is a quite good example. 

Accidents deliver different kinds of harm, including financial loss, minor injury, major injury, death, etc, so all kinds of accidents must be reported and investigated with the intent to prevent recurrence instead of blaming someone. When investigating the incident, HSG 245 Accidents & Incidents Investigation of Health and Safety Executive, UK is an excellent guidance source.

2. Benefits of Carrying Out Investigation

2.1. Recurrence Prevention

2.2. Employee Satisfaction

Effective control measures, combined with adequate supervision, monitoring, and management control will ensure that work activities are safe. Consequently, health and safety investigations are an important tool in developing and refining the risk management system which protects the workforce. 
In other words, carrying out an investigation reflects the commitment of the management of the organization.

2.3. Developing Managerial Skills

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An Introduction to Reporting and Recording Loss Causing Events

Why it is necessary to report and record incidents such as injury, near miss, accident, product loss etc?

Accidents do occur in our routine life. There are a lot of factors behind the occurrence of these accidents. The accidents sometime lead to financial loss, product loss, or sometime victim gets injured or loses his life.

Not only this, some accidents keep occurring again and again due to non-reporting and investigation. The reporting is not done due to lack of knowledge and importance. It is necessary to report all kind of incident occurring to ensure they are recorded, investigated, and their reoccurrence is prevented. 

• Why Accidents & Incidents should be reported and investigated?

The primary aim is to ensure that the incident is investigated, corrective actions are taken and applied to prevent the reoccurrence and avoid the breach of law. If an accident or incident is not reported and investigated, it is considered an offence and culprit can be prosecuted.

Secondly, when a worker claims insurance or files a suit in the court for compensation, the incident investigation report is presented as a document to ensure that the employer is complying with the law and ensuring the safety and security of the workers. 

When an organizations claims for insurance, the insurance company requires the investigation report as an evidence before compensating the victim or organization.

• Reporting Requirements & Procedure

Convention C155, Article 11, Part C says, 

Protocol (P155) to the convention is actually aimed at the reporting requirements defines a number of terms;

a) The term Occupational Accident covers an occurrence arising out of, or in the course of, work which results in fatal or non-fatal injury.

b) The term "Occupational Disease" covers an disease contracted as a result of an exposure to risk factors arising from work activity.

c) The term "Dangerous Occurrence" covers a readily identifiable event as defined under national laws and with potential to cause an injury or disease to person at work or to the public.

d) The term "Commuting Accident" an accident resulting in death or personal injury occurring on the direct way between the place of work and;

1. the worker's residence;
2. the dinning area
3.  the place where a worker usually gets his/her remuneration

• Basic Requirements of P155

The basic requirements of the Protocol 155 are listed below;

• Employer name
• Person name injured in accident
• Workplace circumstances e.g., accident, dangerous occurrence, disease, violence etc. 

Inform employees about the recording & notification system

Maintain Record and use them in future for investigation, hazard identification, training, inspection etc.

Notifiable diseases should at least include the prescribed diseases listed under ILO Convention C121. 

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 What Are Incident Techniques?

Incident investigation is a mandatory requirement of any management system as well as national legislation also demands that all kinds of incidents occurring at the workplace must be investigated. The main important problem here is that the incident investigation is complex and experience is required to perform the investigation process.

The main important reason behind carrying out an investigation is to learn the root cause of the accident and contributing factors instead of blaming someone. The main goal is to ensure that the incident doesn't occur again in the future and everyone is safe. 

Now the investigation can be performed using multiple techniques to learn the root causes. Few of these techniques are mentioned below;

1. Fault Tree Analysis
2. Event Tree Analysis
3. BowTie Analysis Method
4. Swiss Cheese Model
5. Root Cause Analysis

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