Incident Investigation witness interviews

A witness may have several motives for purposely modifying statements. Witnesses have information that the incident investigation team needs in order to imderstand the incident and determine the causes. They may choose not to tell the incident investigation team all of the relevant information they have. Sometimes witnesses will purposely modify their testimony or withhold information during interviews. AVhat are some of their motives for doing this Usually they are the same as those for not reporting near misses. The most significant of these influences is fear of punishment. 

In most cases, it is imreasonable to tell witnesses that the information provided during an interview will remain confidential. The team should make reasonable efforts to protect the identity of each witness and the information provided by each witness. For example, in reports, the names of witnesses should not be used. However, the report will have to show the sequence of occurrences and the identity of witnesses may be apparent to personnel at the facility. The notes from each witness should not be shown or released to anyone outside the incident investigation team. 

Eliminate other distractions from the room if possible. Do not allow the witness to see any documents, such as causal factor charts, fault trees, showing the incident investigation team analysis of the occurrence. This may he appropriate for later interviews when only specific information is needed or a specific time gap is being filled in. 

Leading incident investigations Interviewing witnesses to incidents Preserving evidence from incident investigations Conducting root cause analyses Evaluating the results of root cause analyses... 

Employers must develop in-house capability to investigate incidents that occur in their facilities. A team should be assembled by the employer and trained in the techniques of investigation, including how to conduct interviews of witnesses, assemble needed documentation, and write reports. A multidisciplinary team is better able to gather the facts of the event and to analyze them and develop plausible scenarios as to what happened and why. Team members should be selected on the basis of their training, knowledge, and ability to contribute to a team effort to fully investigate the incident. 

After interviewing all witnesses, the team should analyze each statement. In some cases, the team may wish to re-interview one or more witnesses to confirm or verify key points. While there may be inconsistencies in statements, investigators should assemble the available testimony into a logical order. Analyze this information along with data from the incident site. 

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