Quality of the supervisors first report

The routine investigation into accidents and near accidents is usually carried out by the first-line supervisor and safety representative, or in case of near accidents, by the persons directly involved. In Chapter 12, we discussed problems with the quality of the supervisors accident reports. The documentation in the reports focuses on the late phase of the sequence of events. There is often an arbitrary and incomplete documentation of deviations in the early phase of the sequence of events and of causal factors. This documentation thus suffers from problems of reliability and coverage. 

A number of factors affect the quality of accident and near-accident investigations in a negative direction (Kjellen et al, 1986). The following factors are to a varying extent present, especially in smaller and mediumsized companies  

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