Investigations help prevent future injury

If today is typical, nearly 4,000 serious workplace accidents or close calls will be reported across the United States, and companies are paying closer attention to how they investigate those accident scenes.

The reasons that northern Nevada companies are joining the trend toward more formalized investigations are two-fold, says a specialist in industrial safety.

First, managers realize that one of the best ways to prevent future injuries is careful documentation of accidents, says Scott Alquist, coordinator of industrial safety programs at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Equally important, he says, is rising awareness that formal, well-considered programs to investigate workplace accidents meet regulatory requirements.

Alquist will be joined by safety professionals to present a one-day seminar on accident investigation at TMCC on March 24.

The safety specialist says the best plans to investigate workplace accidents begin with procedures to secure the site.

This protects evidence that may be important in determining the cause of an accident, reduces the immediate hazard to bystanders and investigators and reduces the chaos that inevitably follows an accident.

Once the accident scene is secure, Alquist says companies with well-considered plans lay out how they will investigate an accident.

Photos are a common tool, but Alquist notes that photography must reflect the special requirements of accident investigation.

He suggests, for instance, that at least six to 10 photos be taken from different heights and different angles.

Sometimes, a factor contributing to an accident that isn't seen from one height can be seen from another.

More difficult are interviews conducted with witnesses.

Their versions almost always will conflict, Alquist says, and only a trained interviewer can sort out the differing tales.

"There are so many little subtle nuances that can be raised if people don't know what to look for," he says.

"If you've never done it, you don't know."

Only then, Alquist says, are company officials ready to undertake analysis of the accident's root causes an analysis that covers everything from equipment to training and procedures.

While large companies usually have trained groups of employees to investigate workplace accidents, Alquist says small businesses often have more at risk.

Small companies, he says, have fewer resources to overcome the damage of a poorly investigated accident damage ranging from a fine levied by regulators to the crippling effects of bad publicity.

And because well-considered accident investigations are a cornerstone of good workplace safety programs, they ultimately may result in lower costs for workers compensation and other insurance.

"Accident investigation is nothing more than information sharing to prevent a recurrence," Alquist says.

(To register in the TMCC class on accident investigation, call the school's Industrial Safety and Regulatory Compliance Center, 829-9000.

The cost is $120 a person.)