ABSTRACT
The safety culture of an organization plays an important role in incident reporting and incident investigation. While having a strong culture of safety does not preclude an organization from having incidents, its emphasis on a proactive approach to identifying and mitigating safety concerns can reduce the risk of a serious incident. Safety culture has long been a focus in industries where the consequences of failure are severe, such as the chemical industry, the nuclear industry, aviation, and health care. In 2003, ConocoPhillips Marine conducted a study that demonstrated a significant difference between near misses and serious injuries, which is seen in the safety pyramid. Many incident investigations stop at the contributing cause, the unsafe behavior or condition, without identifying the underlying causes. It is the identification and correction of the underlying causes that can lead to the most impactful and long-lasting changes.
