b'YOUR TOOLKIT FOR BUILDING EXCELLENCEACCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS PART TWOThis article follows up the more general comments regarding accident investigations that were shared in Part One: How should you proceed with the investigation itself? As I stated in the first article on this topic, all accidents should be investigated.BY Gary AumanNFBA Legal CounselI t is important to determine the cause ofthat they can move on to getting any accident/incident from the perspectivethe real job done. Many are also ofpreventingafutureoccurrence.Itisunwilling to put any resources also important, in the case of a personal injuryinto the accident investigation. accident, to develop a clear picture of whatSome state that their accident investigation is occurred in a way that can be used in the eventnot intended to find fault. If an incident has that litigation arises out of the incident/accident.occurred that resulted in an injury, someone To this end, I feel that all supervisors shouldor something was at fault, it may have been have basic training in accident investigation,caused by a mistake or misconduct on the sufficient to permit them to perform a basicpart of the injured worker.It may have been investigation and to identify when they will needa lack of effective training, a faulty guard or to call in additional assistance. The investigationan ineffective piece of PPE.Sometimes fault of serious incidents, such as those resulting inwill lie with more than one party or thing. In hospitalizations or fatalities, will likely require theexample, in the case of a PPE failure; if the PPE involvement of upper management.We shouldwas properly inspected by the user before each recognize that some very minor incidents mayuse, then failure of the PPE should not have result in no injury or a very minor injury, whichoccurred. Let us not approach this topic from are treated with first aid and do not even risean idealistic perspective and recognize that it is to the level of an OSHA recordable. Of course,important to find the reasonthe faultfor if a site supervisor is not aware of the incident,the accident. The bottom line in any accident he/she cannot investigate it. But, if the incidentinvestigation is to determine the cause of the is of sufficient magnitude to come to the siteaccident so that steps/safeguards can be put in supervisors attention, he/she should determineplace so a similar incident does not occur again. the cause so that steps can be taken to preventWe are dealing with accidents that vary from a reoccurrence. the extreme of minor injuries that do not even As I review the applications filed in Safetymeet OSHA recording criteria, to injuries that Recognition Award programs for my differentare recordable on an OSHA 300 log, to serious tradeassociationclients,Iamfrequentlyinjuries that are reportable to OSHA. Even if surprised to see how cavalierly many employersan incident is very minor and not recordable, treat the accident investigation process. It isif the employee reports it, the site supervisor viewed as a necessary cost of doing businessshould conduct an investigation to determine and something that they need to get past, sothe cause and assess whether additional training continued on page: 26 FRAME BUILDER - NOV2022 / 25'