Need Workers' Comp Help?
Call 831-459-2850

Other Risk & Insurance Help
Call 831-459-5154

Fax 831-459-3268
risk@ucsc.edu

University Business Services
UC Santa Cruz
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064-1077

© UC Santa Cruz

Incident Investigation Overview

Summary: Follow these guidelines whenever you investigate an incident resulting in an injury or a near miss.

Definitions

• incident (or accident): An undesired workplace event that causes personal injury or illness, property or equipment damage, environmental damage, or disruption of operations.
• contributing factor: A situation, condition, or practice that made the accident more likely to occur or that worsened the outcome.
• direct cause: The action or event that led directly to the incident.
• root cause: The major, underlying cause of an accident. If this cause were not present, the accident could not have occurred.

A good injury investigation has enormous value. Not only does it give the supervisor and the employee the information they need to prevent reoccurance of similar accidents; it also serves to increase safety awareness and practices throughout the department. To do a good investigation:

• challenge yourself to get to the root cause of the incident
• avoid assumptions
• avoid jumping to conclusions

Follow these logical steps:

1. Interview the employee right away and in private (unless immediate medical attention is necessary).
2. Take notes on a separate sheet of paper.
3. Record the facts - don't jump to immediate conclusions about causes.
4. Have the employee tell you everything s/he remembers about the incident
   • begin with the injury itself
   • go back through the events leading up to the incident
5. Ask for names of witnesses who may have witnessed the incident or relevant information.
6. Visit the site of the incident.
7. Look for unsafe conditions that may have caused or contributed to the incident.
8. Interview potential witnesses individually and privately and record their comments. Have them go back over what they saw, heard or otherwise noted.
9. Organize your findings into the probable sequence of events.
10. Now, you are ready to identify the root cause or causes and to decide if the incident resulted from an unsafe act, an unsafe condition, or both.
11. Finally, complete both pages of the Supervisor's Incident Investigation Report form.

Examples of Incident Causes - the good and the bad

Here are some examples of incident causes that are inadequate:

• "acts of God"
• employee wasn't paying attention

Examples of incident causes that reflect a deeper level of thinking

• procedure had not been established to secure objects that might become unstable in sudden gusts of wind
• wires from projector to wall were not taped down prior to presentation

[Top of Page]

Last revised: February 13, 2008 (am)