Incident / accident investigations
Incident / accident investigations
The purpose of an accident investigation is to verify the cause of the accident, eliminate future hazards, reduce insurance claims and determine what further measures can be put in place. Employees claiming injury may be subject to scrutiny as to whether they were properly trained and supervised, and whether they were following safety procedures.
Incident and accident investigation procedure
Workplace Law has a systematic approach to undertaking accident investigations, which involves the following procedures.
Examining the environment
When an accident happens, whether it's in an office building or externally, e.g. on the street, environmental conditions often play a role – for example, hazardous gases, dusts or fumes; weather conditions such as sun glare, rain or ice; and custodial problems such as a spill on the floor. If any equipment such as workplace machinery was involved in the accident it is often the case that the design, lack of maintenance, or failure of equipment was the cause of the accident.
Interviewing the victim
Accident investigators should not try to blame a person for an accident but uncover the factors that contributed to the accident. When interviewing the accident victim, we will ask him/her, in a timely and sensitive manner, about his/her work training and physical ability to perform their job. All these factors can contribute to an accident.
Interviewing witnesses
Eyewitnesses should be interviewed as soon as possible so the events are still fresh in their minds, and alone, as opposed to in a group. A witness may also see something days before the accident, such as management ignoring a report of malfunctioning equipment.
Interviewing management
If the accident happened at work, management personnel should also be interviewed. Breakdowns in management systems often contribute to workplace accidents, either directly or indirectly.
Collecting physical evidence
This includes photographing the accident location before anything has been touched or moved and taking pictures of any spills, rusted machinery, damaged property and contributing weather conditions.
Why choose Workplace Law?
Workplace Law provides a high quality, personal service at very competitive rates. We provide a high emphasis on the training and approach of our consultants, which gives you the reassurance of a thorough, competent and reliable service:
- Our health and safety consultants are highly qualified professionals who are qualified to the level of Technical Safety Practitioner, as a minimum.
- All of our health and safety professionals have a health and safety managerial background and therefore recognise the importance of developing a risk assessment with specific and pragmatic solutions.
- We are able to respond quickly and in a professional and sensitive manner.
Benefits
- We can help you verify the causes of accidents and so develop a positive health and safety culture, which can lead to a reduction in accidents and ill health, as well as a reduction in related costs and insurance claims.
- Reducing accidents will also bring about improvements in overall efficiency, quality and productivity, meaning that you can meet customer demands and maintain credibility.
- Due to the knowledge and experience of our professionals, as well as performing incident and accident investigations we can also assist in the event of any litigation claims, saving you time and money.
Case studies
"In 2009 Chaps Ltd recognised that it needed to improve its health and safety systems. We changed our Health and Safety consultants to Workplace Law in order to give us a fresh approach towards our management of health and safety and to gain specialist construction advice.
"By using their expertise and experience Simon and Maria have guided us into developing a health and safety system that has achieved CHAS accreditation and given our customers and principle contractor’s confidence in our management of health and safety. They have always been available to offer advice when needed and to provide independent site inspections and audits which are often required by our customers.
"Both Simon and Maria continue to support Chaps Ltd and have become an important, integral part of our Health and Safety Management System."
Suzanne Jackson, HR Director, Emprise:
“Workplace Law has made a difference to the quality of the service we can provide to our staff. And because of the customised service from Workplace Law, the costs have come down.
“We’re now into the second year and we’re pleased with the level of service which is always turned around quickly with any queries being answered straight away.”
Martyn Ball, Head of HR at Akkeron Hotels:
“It’s not just telephone advice that we’ve come to rely on, Workplace Law consultants are also happy to attend our meetings in person and Jayn Bond has regular catch ups with us to discuss any HR related issues. Working with people you can trust is important to me and I value the personal relationship that we have developed with the team at Workplace Law.”
“The accreditation enhances our client services, evidences the robustness of our processes and demonstrates the passion and professionalism of our staff on every level.
“The exceptional support and input from the team at Workplace Law and in particular Simon Toseland, has ensured that the highest safety standards have been implemented and these are to be continually assessed and tested externally."
