Serious Accident Investigation Response

If your organization has experienced a serious or fatal workplace accident you need to act now! Each state and province will have specific reporting and investigation requirements. Follow this link for Alberta requirements.

Here’s some sound advice for any serious workplace incident.

Take immediate steps to preserve accident scene evidence. This is important from an investigative point of view and tampering or moving evidence at a serious accident scene is an offense. You are permitted to move evidence to rescue people or to make the area safe, beyond that, hands off!

Consider some or all of these as means of protecting evidence:

• Shut down work processes.
• Remove nearby workers.
• Keep people away.
• Flag the area with caution tape.
• Take photos and sketch the scene if evidence will be degraded by weather action.
• Cover the site with tarps or plywood.
• Post guards and record the names of all those entering.

In addition, you need to take steps to protect your organization from the possibility of charges under your respective Occupational Health & Safety Act and you should immediately contact your legal counsel for advice.

Serious workplace accident investigations can be stressful, disruptive, and a challenge for any organization. Properly carried out, a good accident investigation can dispel rumours, set the record straight, and reinforce management's good intentions.

Why engage an external workplace accident investigator?

In the case of a fatal or serious workplace accident:

• When engaged through your firm's legal counsel all findings become privileged client/lawyer communications and not subject to disclosure in court.
• An external accident investigation may offer a higher level of credibility to the Courts should an employer be charged.
• It may be asking too much in terms of employee morale and relations to have peers conduct any serious or fatal accident investigation.
• Accident investigator expertise within the company may not exist or be readily available.

In other less serious situations:

• External investigators have the potential to produce objective findings, as they are not subject to internal influences.
• Demonstrates to employees, government and the public, management's good intentions in identifying the true causes of the accident.
• Reduces demands on management and employees production time.
• Provides a cost effective service as it operates with a broad experience base in gathering and analyzing accident information.