Lesson 8: Incident Reporting and Investigation

Glossary

When an incident or near-miss occurs and a worker gets hurt on the job, it's important to learn from the incident and correct the causes that led to the worker injury in order to reduce the chance of the incident re-occurring.
Everyone in the business has a part in investigating incidents:

  • the workers need to report the incidents to their supervisors
  • the owner, employer or supervisor needs to investigate the incident immediately
  • one employer and one worker should act as representatives and participate in the investigation
  • after the investigation is complete, an investigation report must be prepared.
  • to determine the cause(s) of the incident
  • to identify any unsafe conditions, acts, or procedures that contributed to the incident
  • to find out why those unsafe conditions existed
  • to find ways to prevent the incident from happening again
  • WHO was involved or injured
  • WHERE the incident happened
  • WHEN the incident occurred
  • WHY the unsafe act was taken or condition was in place
  • HOW a similar incident could be prevented

Click here to view a sample Incident Reporting and Investigation Form.