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Turn
Accidents into Prevention Opportunities
BY STEVE EDWARDS, EXECUTIVE VP, SHAREHOLDER,
BUSINESS & GOVERNMENT INSURANCE AGENCY |
It is said that failure
to learn from our mistakes dooms us to repeat them.
This adage could not be truer in the prevention of
workers’ compensation claims. An injury to one of our
employees is an opportunity to learn how we can
prevent these incidents from happening; taking
corrective action after a minor injury may easily head
off a more serious (and more expensive) injury later.
Despite this, many towns look at accident reporting as
strictly an informational exercise; passing the
appropriate information on to the insurance carrier or
third party administrator so that the claim can be
“processed”.
A fundamental component of any accident prevention
program is the investigation of the injury by a
representative of management. Each accident, no matter
how minor, is an opportunity to learn how to prevent
future accidents.
An accident is simply an unplanned event that
interrupts operations and results in loss of time,
property damage, or bodily injury. Accidents are
usually the result of conditions or actions that
supervisors and employees are often in the best
position to control. They usually arise from one of
four areas:
• Equipment: Buildings, tools, carts, machinery,
vehicles, etc.
• Material: Solvents, cleaning agents and anything
else that might be used as part of the service or job.
• People: Includes those persons that operate
equipment, move materials, and interact with the
public.
• Environment: Temperature, ventilation, noise,
insects, or other factors that affect the surrounding
work area.
What accidents should include the fact-finding
process?
Many accidents involve little or no property
damage/physical injury. This type of accident is
called a “near miss” accident. It’s been found that a
“near miss” may often precede an accident that results
in physical injuries and/or property damage. For this
reason, all significant “near misses” and accidents
which result in employee injury should have the
fact-finding implemented. There are valuable lessons
to be learned from the review of “near misses”, and
about the prevention of a more serious accident.
Accident Causes
It’s important to define the two types of accident
causes which must be considered:
• Basic causes - The basic causes can be thought of as
the symptoms of the accident. These are the unsafe
act(s) and/or unsafe condition(s). Example: operating
a grinder without wearing safety glasses, or oil on
the floor.
• Root causes - The root causes are the reasons why
the unsafe act(s) or condition(s) existed. Example:
Lack of instruction on why safety glasses should be
worn while grinding, or why oil was leaking on the
floor. These causes place the focus where it belongs -
on management. By strengthening the management system,
accident symptoms or basic causes will be prevented
which will break the accident chain. This area of the
fact-finding process deserves a great deal of thought
and consideration.
An important first step is looking at the document
that is used when an accident occurs. Does it call for
a supervisor to get involved and determine some type
of corrective action? If not, you should ask your
carrier or claims administrator for sample of forms
that will steer supervision to a more detailed
investigation.
General Guidelines for Fact Finding
• Begin the investigation as soon as possible; provide
first aid or seek medical assistance; eliminate
immediate hazards.
• Note the time of arrival and condition of the
weather (if relevant to the event).
• Take names and addresses of all witnesses and
immediate verbal statements.
• Listen! Avoid preconceived theories. These are the
investigator’s deadliest enemy because they will cloud
his/her reasoning, deaden his/her perception, obscure
the facts, and distort the individual’s judgment.
• Never alter the position of, or even touch, any
object before it is sketched, photographed, or
properly described in the report.
• Note the time of accident and/or injury (hour, day,
month, and year).
• Note the specific place where the accident occurred,
in detail.
• Note the name of the injured person(s) involved,
including occupation and department.
• State how the action took place (chronological order
is most helpful here).
• The Who, What, When, Why, Where and How formula is
most helpful to follow each time a different person is
introduced in the action.
• A subsequent interview of the witnesses should be
conducted at this time.
Interviewing
Getting information from co-workers who may have
observed the accident is critical to understanding how
the incident occurred.
Some important considerations when interviewing:
• Conduct interviews as soon as practical
• Discuss the purpose of the investigation; assure
co-workers that the intent of the interview is not to
deprive anyone of benefits, but to learn how accidents
can be prevented (fact-finding, not fault-finding).
• Ask one question at a time
• Avoid leading questions or the implying an answer
(ex., “why did you fail to...”, “obviously you...”)
• Keep questions as simple as possible
• Don’t ridicule stupidity, poor judgment, etc. Do the
best you can to allow the person being interviewed to
“save face”.
• Allow the individual to present his/her version in
its entirety without interruption, if possible - keep
your thoughts to yourself.
• The interviewer should restate his/her understanding
of the accident back to the individual.
• End the interview on a positive note; thank the
employee for their assistance with the assurance that
they are helping to prevent future accidents
The interview should be conducted at the accident
site, if possible, unless it interferes with privacy
or is causing a distraction to co-workers.
Corrective Actions
Failure to identify corrective actions more specific
than “told employee to be more careful” is a common
failing among supervisor reports. The supervisor,
along with the immediate staff, should be able to
suggest specific actions, procedures, or policy
changes that can prevent similar incidents in the
future. Examples of corrective actions are:
• Institute formal training program.
• Give personal coaching or re-instruction
• Improve employee screening program
• Temporarily or permanently reassign person(s)
• Institute a job hazard analysis program
• Order or revise job analyses on specific tasks
• Institute or improve self-inspection program
• Institute pre-use checkout of equipment
• Establish or devise indoctrination for new or
transferred employees
Training supervisors in accident investigation and
establishing expectations that all accidents will be
thoroughly investigated will greatly enhance your
safety efforts. Your support of the process is
critical to its success; if your current process does
not promote accident prevention, contact your carrier
or risk control resource; most have programs available
that will instruct supervision in their role in this
critical segment of accident prevention. |
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