ABSTRACT
An accident is the result of failure in the management system. It could result in injury to employees, damage to property, or harm to the environment or a combination of consequences. An investigation after an accident offers management an opportunity to fix the problems that caused the accident.
Since this is an opportunity to prevent accidents, the importance of thorough accident investigations cannot be overemphasized. Although a reactive, after the event exercise, the accident investigation should produce action plans to implement improvements to prevent future undesired events.
The quality of accident investigation reports is a leading indicator of safety performance since each step of the investigation process can be evaluated, scored, and ranked. The objective, therefore, would be to score 100% on each investigation report. Once an accident investigation is completed and signed off, it should be submitted to the departmental manager for evaluation. Using a checklist, the manager allocates a score according to a scorecard to each portion of the accident investigation form. This is a key safety performance indicator and can be measured on a monthly basis.
