Incident investigation safety performance

Effective incident investigation, reporting, and follow-up are necessary to achieve improvement in health, safety, and environmental performance. They provide the opportunity to learn from reported incidents and to use the information to take corrective action and prevent recurrence. 

Measurement of Safety Performance. Accident/Incident Investigation and Analysis... 

Discussions of achievements with safety professionals whose oiganiza-tions had top scores did not produce any surprises. Incident investigation for hazard identification and analysis gets done best where the organization s culture includes accountability for superior performance. Here is an aggregate Mst of the conoments made in discussions with safety professionals in those entities with the best incident investigation systems ... 

Later, while researching for Chapter 24, Measurement of Safety Performance, I observed that companies with superior OSHA rates also had lower workers compensation costs than did other companies. I then wanted to determine whether the quality of investigation of hazards-related incidents would also be superior. (For this second study, it must also be said that the methodology used would not stand the test of good science.)... 

However, the record is clear—incident investigations can be done effectively. In some companies, incident investigation is done well because the safety culture will not tolerate anything other than superior performance. In the studies I made of the quality of investigations, some companies scored an 8 out of a possible 10. (More than one safety director has accused me of being a hard marker.)... 

Without participating in the detail of accident investigation, it is very difficult to appreciate the role of human behaviour in accident causation and hence to recommend or implement the most effective responses. Similarly, sole reliance on numbers of accidents/incidents in the organization as a guide to safety performance can be misleading, if the behavioural component is not understood. They do not show whether individual managers/supervisors are effectively dealing with prevention or if further action is required to prevent future accidents and losses. 

Case 3. A chemical company with 1,200 employees has found numerous ways to include its employees in the site s safety and health program. For example, the Safety and Health Committee, which includes equal labor and management representatives, has responsibility for a variety of activities, such as monthly plant inspections, incident investigations, and examination of any unsafe conditions in the plant. Employees are also involved in process and operations review, safety inspection, and quality teams. Two hourly employees work fulltime at monitoring the safety and health performance of on-site contractors. 

Results Expected Employee input on safety and health matters volunteers for participation programs Inspections investigations being performed Inspections that ID all hazards investigations that uncover root causes fewer incidents and accidents... 

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