Legal aspects of the commissions report

The in-depth accident report by the commission often reveals circumstances that are sensitive from a personal, legal or public-relations point of view. Examples of such circumstances are (Hale et al., 1997)  

It is usually the client that decides on the status and distribution of the report. The client may decide to restrict the distribution of parts of the report or the full report. 

Where the accident is under police investigation, the police have the right to request full access to the company s internal report. Knowledge of this fact will affect the commission s work and may hamper openness and trust. A careful balance must be kept between the need for openness, to take full advantage of the accident experience, and the involved persons legitimate right of self-protection when they face the risk of legal action. 

The widespread use of information technology allows for new means of distribution and follow-up of investigation reports. It is now possible to distribute reports conveniently and promptly to all concerned parties via electronic mail. It is also possible to store the reports in a shared database, where different persons can access the documents and comment on and edit 

Accident reports may easily be distributed to a large number of people as e-mails. This distribution will add to the general information load within the organisation and may create problems of overload and inexpedient reactions. The problem may occur in large companies and in companies with an efficient reporting of near accidents. It is important to establish routines for the distribution of accident and near-accident reports inside the companies, based on the criticality of the events and the receiver s actual needs. 

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