2 pages due by 24 hours

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Course Learning Outcomes for Unit I

Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Identify key benefits of conducting accident investigations.

2. Describe the accident investigation process.
2.1 Explain the differences in accident categories.

Reading Assignment

Chapter 1:
What is an Accident?

Chapter 2:
An Accident Happens: What Do You Do? How Long Do You Do It?

Access the resource below, and read pp. 1-5:

Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2015). Incident [accident] investigations: A guide for
employers. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/dte/IncInvGuide4Empl_Dec2015

In order to access the resource below, you must first log into the myWaldorf Student Portal and access the
Business Source Complete database within the Waldorf Online Library. To reduce the amount of results you
receive, it is recommended to search for the article by title and author.

Boraiko, C., Beardsley, T., & Wright, E. (2008). Accident investigations. Professional Safety, 53(9), 26-29.

Unit Lesson

The goal of any safety and health program is to prevent injuries, illnesses, and property damage. When one
of these unwanted events happens, it is no surprise that it may be seen as a failure of the safety program, the
safety manager, or the organization itself. After all, accidents are preventable, right? Think about that for a
moment—do you believe that all accidents are preventable? Was there a time in your life where you tripped
over your own feet for no apparent reason and stumbled or fell? What could you have done to prevent this
from happening? Could you even foresee it happening? Is the solution to pay attention to where/how you are
walking? How would you do that? The reality is that you probably shrugged your shoulders and said, “Well,
that was a dumb thing to do,” and, most likely, you moved on without making any changes to the way you
walked. The reality is that something caused you to stumble and fall; you just cannot identify it (or you do not
want to take the time to identify it).

While it is likely true that all accidents are preventable, finding and correcting the causes is not easy. Some
might even say that accidents are inevitable. We know that we cannot reduce risk to zero, so there is always
a probability, however small, that an accident will happen.

Before we continue, perhaps we should look deeper into what we mean by an accident. A simple definition of
accident would be an unplanned series of events that result in injury, illness, or property damage (Oakley,
2012). Note that the definition does not indicate how serious the injury, illness, or property damage would be
but, rather, includes everything from minor bumps and bruises to fatalities. It includes one dollar’s worth of
property damage to millions of dollars’ worth of damage. The key to the definition is the word “unplanned.” We
could also use the words unexpected, undesired, or unwanted. Some organizations use terms like mishap or

UNIT I STUDY GUIDE

Introduction to Accident Investigation

https://www.osha.gov/dte/IncInvGuide4Empl_Dec2015

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UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

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incident rather than accident, citing that the word accident implies that nothing can be done to correct the
problem—hence the saying, “it was just an accident.” Different terms are sometimes used to differentiate
injuries from property damage or to discern serious injuries from minor injuries. For consistency in this course,
we will be using the term “accident” for all of these unwanted events, regardless of severity.

Every accident provides an opportunity to identify conditions, processes, or practices that, if corrected, would
aid our overall accident prevention efforts. A well-designed accident investigation process ensures that
causes are identified without bias or blame, and effective measures to eliminate or control the causes are
identified and implemented.

Most safety practitioners divide accidents into categories based on severity. A typical list in order of
decreasing severity might resemble the following (Oakley, 2012):

 fatality or major property damage,

 major injury,

 minor injury, and

 near miss.

Accidents of lower severity are often considered precursors to accidents of greater severity, so there is a
prevention benefit to investigating all accidents. The severity can be used to determine the depth of the
investigation and who will conduct it. You probably would not want to expend the same resources
investigating a near miss as you would a fatality, but you also would not want to completely ignore the near
miss.

The effectiveness of any accident investigation depends on the knowledge and experience of the investigator.
Workplace accidents are, statistically speaking, a rare event, considering the millions of man hours worked
every year. Many safety professionals will never have the opportunity (or misfortune) to investigate a fatality.
This is a good thing, of course, but it creates a dilemma—how does one acquire the necessary knowledge
and experience? Certainly, this course will help, but it does not provide a cookbook or checklist solution.

Each accident scenario is different and can be approached from many different angles. An organization’s
safety culture, or lack of safety culture, may also affect how accidents are investigated. For some
organizations, a team approach to investigation may work best, especially for serious accidents. Supervisors
are often tasked with conducting investigations of accidents that happen within their work crews, but this
approach has some drawbacks. If accidents are rare events at the organizational level, they are even rarer at
the worksite level, so supervisors will get fewer opportunities to improve their skills. In addition, causal factors
may lead back to the supervisor, so there could be a significant bias in how the investigation is conducted.

Accident investigation is a reactive process that happens only after an adverse event, but that does not mean
the process cannot be planned in advance. Having a pre-accident plan that defines roles and responsibilities
in the accident investigation process will reduce the time needed to conduct the investigation and increase the
overall effectiveness. The plan should include the following:

 what accidents are to be investigated,

 who is responsible for the investigations,

 first responder actions,

 lead investigator actions,

 team member actions,

 accident analysis methods,

 documentation and reporting requirements, and

 timeline for the process.

Each individual with responsibilities in the accident investigation process should have a copy of the plan. The
first action to take when notified of an accident should be to refer to the plan. The U.S. Department of the
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has an excellent example of a pre-accident plan at the following link:
BLM Pre-Accident Plan.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CD0QFjAEahUKEwje9MWoweXHAhUTNYgKHV6FD00&url=http://www.ntc.blm.gov/krc/uploads/330/Pre-accident%20plan &usg=AFQjCNGxgieXo0lY4NVenC6NQDdbf3Np9Q&sig2=ql0gJIxK-8Kh

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UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

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In the next unit, we will examine various theories of accident causation that can be used in the investigation
process. In subsequent units, will we outline the investigation process and use some real-world scenarios to
which the theories can be applied.

Reference

Oakley, J. S. (2012). Accident investigation techniques: Basic theories, analytical methods, and applications
(2nd ed.). Des Plaines, IL: American Society of Safety Engineers.

Suggested Reading

Access the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries at the link below, and download the
PowerPoint presentation on Accident Investigation Basics. This presentation will provide more information on
what an accident is, why they should be investigated, and how they should be investigated.

Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. (2009). Accident investigation basics. Retrieved from
http://www.lni.wa.gov/SAFETY/TRAININGPREVENTION/ONLINE/courseinfo.asp?P_ID=145

Reading this article will provide more insight into how accident investigations can be used as part of an overall
accident prevention program.

In order to access the resource below, you must first log into the myWaldorf Student Portal and access the
Business Source Complete database within the Waldorf Online Library. To reduce the amount of results you
receive, it is recommended to search for the article by title and author.

Cook, N. (2013). Accident investigation. Rospa Occupational Safety & Health Journal, 43(11), 13-18.

The United Kingdom’s Health and Safety Executive workbook on accident investigation is a good resource to
learn more about how investigations are handled outside of the United States:

Health and Safety Executive. (2004). Investigating accidents and incidents. Retrieved from
http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hsg245

Learning Activities (Non-Graded)

After you complete your reading assignment from the course textbook, answer the review questions on pages
8 and 16. Answer the questions as completely as you can, using concepts and other information learned in
Chapters 1 and 2 of the textbook. Think about what you learned that might apply to your organization and
how it might help you make your organization more safety conscious.

The purpose of this activity is to help you study and learn the concepts taught in this unit. This is a non-
graded activity, so you will not submit it. If you experience difficulty in mastering any of the concepts, contact
your instructor for additional information and guidance.