Accident Investigation: Turning Incidents into Opportunities for Improvement

Author, Sam Clayton, Vice President, Construction Group, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

During my recent podcast episode, I discussed how near misses can represent missed opportunities for general engineering contractors to prevent future workplace injuries.

Continuing that theme, I would like to expand on the importance of having a formal accident investigation program in place and how it can help contractors and employees identify and implement corrective actions that reduce the likelihood of similar incidents occurring in the future.

An accident investigation is a systematic process used to examine a workplace injury or incident to determine how and why it occurred. These investigations are often conducted by foremen or supervisors and should focus on identifying and correcting root causes rather than assigning fault or placing blame.

The goal is simple: learn from the incident and prevent it from happening again.

Key Steps in the Investigation Process

A successful accident investigation typically includes four key steps:

1. Secure the scene to ensure the area is safe and preserve any evidence.

2. Gather information by interviewing witnesses, reviewing documentation, and collecting facts.

3. Analyze the root causes to determine the underlying factors that contributed to the incident.

4. Implement corrective actions to address deficiencies and reduce future risk.

Benefits of an Accident Investigation

A formal accident investigation program provides several important benefits:

1. Improves Employee Morale. When employees see that management is committed to understanding incidents and improving workplace safety, it helps build trust and demonstrates that employee well-being is a priority.

2. Identifies Training Opportunities. Investigations often reveal gaps in knowledge, procedures, or communication. These findings can help organizations deliver targeted training where it's needed most.

3. Prevents Recurrence. By identifying and addressing root causes, contractors can implement meaningful corrective actions that help prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

Training Matters

Because workplace accidents and injuries are relatively infrequent, it is important to ensure your foremen and supervisors receive proper accident investigation training before an incident occurs.

Rancho Mesa has developed the RM365 Advantage Safety Star™ Program, which includes dedicated instruction on accident investigation techniques and best practices. I highly recommend enrolling your foremen and supervisors so they understand both the importance of a formal investigation program and how to effectively conduct investigations when incidents occur.

Leveraging Technology

Through Rancho Mesa's SafetyOne™ Platform, clients can create corrective action plans, assign responsibilities, track completion, and deliver the appropriate training to affected employees. This helps ensure that corrective actions are documented, completed, and continuously monitored.

While every contractor's goal is to achieve zero incidents, accidents can still happen. Organizations that have a formal accident investigation program in place and can demonstrate that they have identified root causes and implemented effective corrective actions are in a much stronger position to prevent future losses and minimize potential workers' compensation cost increases.

To learn more about the RM365 Advantage Safety Star Program or how the SafetyOne Platform can support your company's accident investigation efforts, contact me at sclayton@ranchomesa.com.

Understanding Your Claims: What Do You Have To Lose?

Author, Daniel Frazee, Executive Vice President, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Claims happen. They come in all shapes and sizes, from all types of parties, and can cost your company in many different ways. An important aspect of managing the costs of risk start with gaining a clear understanding of your claims. Our clients are always looking to improve their bottom line. This article focuses on just one piece of the pie chart; workers compensation claims. Understanding the nuances of these cases can create measurable plans in the future to reduce frequency and severity of claims and ultimately lower your costs.

DIG UP THE ROOTS

Perhaps the most common problem solving method for identifying causes of problems or faults is referred to as a “Root Cause Analysis.” As someone who likely manages many facets of your business, developing systems that analyze failures of a process makes complete sense. Once a claim occurs, initiate an Accident Investigation that is meant to uncover all of the small details that ultimately led to the injury or incident. In many cases, a Best Practices approach involves this same process for “near miss” incidents. That is, perform the same process despite the fact than injury did not actually result from the incident. This allows your company to refine the approach, improve the analysis, and develop training modules addressing the failure(s).

MORE QUESTIONS LEAD TO ANSWERS...

When claims occur, proactive business owners build a list of specific questions that deliver uncensored facts. Those facts build a story and allow your team a clear view of what really happened. Some examples of questions that can be used by your team are listed below:

• How long had this injured worker been employed with us before the claim occurred?

• Was the employee following protocol when the injury occurred?

• Did the claim occur at the beginning or end of the day?

• How quickly did our team provide assistance and get him or her the care they needed?

• How quickly was the claim reported to our insurance company?

• Have we had incidents like this in the past?

ROLE PLAYING EXAMPLES

While role playing actual incidents and scenarios is not factual, it helps your team walk down a path to understand “what if” scenarios and forces discussion on how to address issues.

Example: Employee ‘A’ was injured when he fell from a ladder and fractured his leg. He had been employed for only two months. The injury that occurred was caused by a lack of proper training as the ladder was not properly secured. This claim occurred in the early morning and the area surrounding the ladder was wet. The team reacted quickly and was able to transfer the injured worker to an emergency room in less than an hour. The claim was reported 3 days from the incident. There have been two other similar “near misses” with ladders that did not result in injury.

Understanding your claims is a vital step in preventing future incidents. An investigation of an incident or near miss can uncover the root cause, explain the circumstances surrounding the incident, and help to identify scenarios and prevention plans. To learn more about understanding your claims, register for the Accident Investigation and Analysis training in Rancho Mesa’s Risk Management Center.