An effective means to investigate a workplace accident
The workplace sometimes may not be avoidable due to natural circumstances that may cause them, it is therefore critical to conduct an accident investigation to determine the root cause of the events that led to the accident or injury.
The point of the investigation should never be to assign faults to employees but rather to uncover the factors that led to an accident so that you can take corrective action to prevent it from happening again.
This article will discuss effective means by which an organization can investigate a workplace accident
1. Provide first aid treatment and care.
While it’s important to file a report down once an accident occurs, the first most important way to investigate a workplace accident is by caring for the accident victim through the use of a first aid box. This will help to stabilize the injured person and also prevent much more injury that may cause some highly dangerous issues to the person.
2. Investigate the accident as soon as possible.
Investigating the accident allows you to know the root cause of the accident, observe the conditions as they were at the time of the accident, prevent the disturbance of evidence, and allows you to identify witnesses. You will need to gather physical evidence, take photographs, and interview witnesses to understand the chain of events that led to the accident. The investigation also enables you to have a documented form of what caused the accident and how to prevent future occurrence.
3. Have a written report of the findings.
While having photographs of the events that led to the accident or also the witnesses is also very important, it is also very important to have a specific written down report (step-to-step report of how it happened, and things that could have been done to prevent it and also what can be done in the future to prevent such a situation).
4. Implement corrective measures and follow-up.
A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. And while the investigation of what caused the accident may be going on, it is very important to have in mind that immediate corrective measures are put into place. While the corrective measures are placed into consideration, follow-up should be done to ensure those corrective measures are properly written down and clearly stated for future use.
5. Make an adjustment.
After the whole accident situation is put under control, it is very important that a safety professional go through every written down report to make better adjustable measures and also ensure those measures are properly corrected in case there was a mistake during the whole situation.
An accident at the workplace is not something that should cause overwhelming feelings if the situations are followed up properly. The essence of the investigation is to ensure that the situation is followed up and fixed properly for future sake.
