Who should investigate an accident at work and what is the procedure?

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Accidents in the workplace are not uncommon. In fact, they are the biggest causes of missed work days. Different working environments pose varied risks to workers and it is the responsibility of a company to minimise them. Accidents in the workplace can cause illnesses, injuries, or even deaths. Statistics indicate that about 250 employees die each year from accidents in the workplace. These accidents don’t only affect the employees but the company as a whole. When a worker suffers injuries, an entity can be held liable. Employers must do everything necessary to ensure that the risks are minimal and safety measures are in place.

Who Should Investigate?
When an accident occurs in a work environment, thorough investigations should be carried out and it shouldn’t matter if the accident is a minor one. It is best to leave the investigation to a professional. As a victim who wants to make a claim, it helps to hire an expert in workplace accident claims to handle the investigations. The team you hire must have appropriate experience. They should understand the health standards that a particular employer has to provide for employees.

The company must also show involvement during the investigation. All the people responsible for the safety of employees should be ready to help with the investigations so as to reach the right findings. Investigators will need a lot of information from the company and other employees, so there must be an element of cooperation.

The Investigation Procedure
Investigating a workplace accident incorporates a lot of things. The first part of the investigation process is gathering the evidence. Both the teams from the victim and company should collect all information relating to an incident, which may include verbal accounts from witnesses, written instructions, working guides, and processes. Then comes the analyses of this information. To learn why an accident happened in the first place, all possibilities must be considered analytically. It is best to avoid assumptions that there was negligence or failure to follow the rules on one part. After the analyses comes risk control measures. After knowing where the problem lies, an employer and employees can come up with ways to prevent a repeat. An investigation procedure should also include the implementation of risk control measures in accordance with the legal requirements.

Why Investigate?
An investigation reveals the root of an accident. An employer may have done their best to implement safety measures but something may still go wrong. Through evaluating the circumstances of an accident, it will be easier to tell what that was. It can shed light on elements of safety that a company may have missed.

Understanding what went wrong is useful in avoiding future accidents for both employers and workers. Sometimes risk controls are not error-proof and it helps to find out about possible deficiencies. Investigations will also show if employees got proper warnings about certain risks at the workplace. In some instances, accidents occur because employees don’t take heed of warnings or don’t follow the right procedure when conducting their duties, and an investigation will indicate if that is the case.

By carrying out an evaluation of the safety standards of a workplace, an enterprise can find out if they are abiding by regulations. Companies and organisations have to meet safety standards set out by the government. Failure to adhere to the rules opens up an employer to lawsuits and other legal action in case of an accident. Having a professional conduct an examination of all the relevant elements will tell if all legal requirements have been met. Litigation can cost a company not only money but its reputation as well. It is why it helps to know how to protect an entity legally. Investigators can come up with information that can help an employee or employer depending on the situation.