All you need to know about our health and safety course in accident incident investigation

As one of the most important factors of health and safety, the presence of accident investigation skills within the workplace are critical. Unfortunately, accidents do happen, especially in high-risk work environments like construction sites and factory spaces. In order to properly settle matters and ensure that all has been done to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future, health and safety courses in accident incident investigation are available from us at EMCARE. In just a few minutes of reading, find out all you need to know about our health and safety course in accident incident investigation.

What exactly is the health and safety course in accident incident investigation?

Our top-quality and exhaustive health and safety course in accident incident investigation serves to equip participants with the important accident incident investigation tools and methods that must be employed in and after an emergency situation or accident. They will also learn how to implement various control measures in the work environment in order to prevent accidents and incidents. Within this course, case studies are the primary tool of learning, which help the measures and tools learned find applicability.

The course is short and succinct, with a duration of 1 day. All participants will receive a health and safety course certificate in accident incident investigation which is valid for 2 years. Participants can expect the health and safety course in accident incident investigation to consist of the following categories of content, among many more:

• Introduction to health and safety
• The constitution
• Department of labour legislation
• Conducting an accident incident investigation
• The iceberg theory

In order to understand more about our health and safety training course in accident incident investigation, we will unpack the above categories so that participants and employers know what to expect from this valuable course.

1. Introduction to health and safety

Participants will first become familiar with the meaning of health and safety in the workplace, also known as occupational health and safety, as well as how it is enforced. Occupational health and safety focuses on the maintenance and promotion of the mental, social and physical well-being of employees in the workplace. Promoting positive wellbeing and protection from work hazards and risks is the responsibility of employers who are assisted by health and safety officers who take part in health and safety courses such as the accident incident investigation course.

On the topic of accident incident investigation in the world of health and safety in the workplace, there is emphasis placed on risk assessments. In order to ensure the safety of fellow employees, employers and visitors alike, those trained in health and safety should know how to perform a functional health and safety risk assessment, which consists of the following 5 steps:

1. Identifying all factors in the workplace that could cause harm to a person (hazards)
2. Identifying who specifically is at risk of being harmed and how exactly they may be harmed (risk)
3. Employing control measures in order to reduce risks
4. Reviewing the risk assessments as soon as any changes are made
5. Recording of findings

A health and safety risk assessment is not a once-off process, but rather a continuous observation that must regularly be updated to account for any changes in order to keep its relevance. Employees are also encouraged to be involved in health and safety risk assessments as their input is often unique and invaluable. These documents are highly important and are a big part of maintaining health and safety in the workplace, which is why the topic is included in our health and safety training course in accident incident investigation.

The assessment serves as a powerful means of communication between employees, safety officers and employers wherein hazards and risks are exposed to prevent accidents or incidents from occurring. This helps employees understand why the seemingly tiresome preventative measures are so important.

Care taken with regards to stress and mental health are becoming more much more prevalent in health and safety in the workplace, which is why they deserve a mention. Employers and their safety officers are just as responsible for the mental health of their employees while in the workplace as their physical well-being. It is becoming more acceptable and commonplace for employees to request time-off due to mental health concerns and burnout, and those who have participated in a health and safety course may know a thing or two about recognising the tell-tale signs.

2. The Constitution

A fascinating segment of our health and safety course in accident incident investigation is the study of The Constitution. Due to the nature of this health and safety course, it makes sense that there is a focus on the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS) in the constitution. The act aims to provide for the health and safety of people in the workplace with particular attention paid to those working with plant and heavy machinery.

Further, those connected to the employees are also protected should an accident or emergency arise as a result of a hazard in the workplace or in connection to work duties. Many describe the OHS Act as a pro-active attempt by the government to mitigate the risks of work related illnesses and accidents.

3. Department of Labour Legislation

Like the Occupational Health and Safety segment of the Constitution, the Department of Labour Legislation is of the utmost importance when it comes to health and safety in the workplace. Primarily, it is the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases that is the most relevant in our health and safety course for accident incident investigation.

• Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act
  This act ensures that employees injured while on the workplace or while on duty can claim monetary compensation. Families and dependants of the employee can also claim from the fund if the employee is the main income-generator of the household and lost their job as a result of relevant injury or illness. It is the employer that pays contributions to the fund.
  

4. Conducting an accident incident investigation

As you may imagine, a large focus of our health and safety course in accident incident investigation is the conducting of an accident incident investigation. The term accident is agreed by many to refer to an unplanned event that interrupts the workday and often includes injury to a person or damage of property. Some people make a distinction between the term accident and incident, arguing that incident refers to an occurrence that did not cause injury or damage but certainly had the potential to.

Regardless, both accidents and incidents ought to be investigated in order to mitigate risks of future issues. Participants of this health and safety course will come to know that accidents and incidents alike need to be investigated for the following reasons:

• To find out the root cause of incidents and accidents in order to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future
• To fulfil legal requirements
• To find out the cost of an accident or incident
• To ensure that the company has complied with relevant regulations
• To work through employee compensation claims

Those who undertake the accident incident investigation should have relevant training, such as that provided by us at EMCARE in this health and safety course, for example. For more serious accidents or incidents, it is advised that a team of qualified personnel be put together in order to get to the bottom of things more quickly and thoroughly.

One factor that cannot be stressed enough in accident incident investigation is that of root causes. Very seldom is there ever an accident or incident that is the result of a single cause. For example, picture an accident that occurred because a piece of shrapnel flew into the eye of an employee who forgot, purposefully or not, to don their protective goggles that morning. A careless accident incident investigator may write up the accident as being caused only by the employee's carelessness.

However, there is more to the situation. The question of why there was no supervision of the proper safety precautions being taken must also be asked. This could be a result of neglect on the behalf of an employer or supervisor as well as the employee in question. There is often much more to an incident or accident than a single story Ð which is why thorough investigation is so important to prevent future occurrences.

There are roughly 6 steps to accident incident investigation about which participants will learn, which go as follows:

1. Immediate action: This refers to the duties pertaining to making an area safe again after an accident or incident as well as notifying relevant parties.
2. Planning the investigation: All good investigations must be planned in order to be thorough and effective.
3. Data collection: Efforts must be made to collect information about the incident, such as speaking to witnesses, checking camera footage or picking up samples from around the accident site.
   
   

4. Data analysis: This step includes the analysis of the information found during step 3.
5. Corrective actions: This leg of the journey involves applying corrective safety methods to prevent a similar occurrence from happening in the future.
6. Reporting: Finally, the contents and results of the investigation must be recorded and communicated to relevant parties.

5. The Iceberg Theory

In lieu of an accident or incident at work, it is a rather common occurrence for employers to focus all their efforts on discovering the direct cause and consequently reacting as to resume normal operations. Many businesses are so determined to move on rapidly that they forgo digging further to find the root causes of accidents and incidents as well as the true cost impact of the event. This is a mistake, as many people wrongly assume that workplace incidents and accidents are recoverable through insurance and end up losing money as a result of this misconception.

Ill-health and accident costs can be described as an iceberg, with costs that are recoverable being visible to the eye but those that are uncoverable are hidden beneath the waterline Ð and are often much greater. Experts argue that hidden costs of accidents can amount to around 10 times greater than insured costs. Some uninsured costs can include:

• Sick pay
• Lost time
• Repairs to equipment and plant
• Investigation time
• Loss of contracts as a result of reputation deterioration
• Legal costs
• Prosecution fines
• Production delays

In many cases, the above costs come out of the company's profit. In addition, it is widely argued that as accident losses increase, so too does a company's insurance premiums. Therefore it can be said that both directly and indirectly, accidents can reduce profitability.

Taking part in EMCARE's health and safety course in accident incident investigation

Now that you know a bit more about the above health and safety course, please do not hesitate to contact us at EMCARE for more information!