Accident investigation and analysis

Abstract

Many organisations and companies take extensive proactive measures to identify, evaluate and reduce occupational risks. However, despite these efforts things still go wrong and unintended events occur. After a major incident or accident, conducting an accident investigation is generally the next step. A thorough accident or incident investigation may uncover a wealth of knowledge about safety management practices in the organisation. Previously overlooked weaknesses of safety management or safety culture may be uncovered, as well as underestimated risks, unknown risks or insufficient control over known risks. Government agencies may or may not be involved in the investigation and analysis of events. In many countries inspectorates, accident research boards, or criminal prosecutors may investigate some or all of the serious occupational incidents that occur. In this article we focus only on incident investigation conducted (internally) by companies themselves. This article contains an overview of steps in incident investigation and some methods for analysis