Safety Toolbox Talk - Incident Accident and Reporting of Near Misses

                         

 

It is important that accidents and near misses are reported. Accidents and near miss reporting enables proper first aid treatment to be administrated where injuries are sustained, reducing the risk of further infection or complication and assisting the recovery process. The reporting of accidents and near misses also helps to identify hazards that need to be rectified or controlled to prevent accidents from occurring in the future.

Definitions

There are a number of key words that are relevant to accidents and near misses.
Accident - are unplanned events that may or may not cause injury or property damage.
Near Miss – is an incident where change of circumstances or timing may have resulted in injury or property damage being sustained?
Hazard – is anything with the potential to cause harm to people or property.
Risk – is the chance or likelihood that a hazard will cause injury or damage.
Lost Time Injury – are those injuries that result in a full day or shift being lost.

Planning and Assessment of Risks

While it is important to report accidents and near misses it is also of equal importance to try to prevent accidents by planning each job for safety and adopting safe work practices.

Safe Work Practices

Injuries
All injuries no matter how insignificant they may at first appear, are to be reported to immediate Supervisors and are to be included in the Record of First Aid/Medical Treatments by the OH Nurse or First Aider.

Investigation
All investigations must aim to establish the sequence of events which actually took place and include a comparison with the sequence of events that should have taken place. Incident investigations are to pursue the cause and not the blame. This pursuit is to be limited to the gathering of facts, therefore opinions should not be sought from unqualified witnesses or from persons with no personal knowledge of the incident.
Under normal circumstances investigations are to be conducted by Supervisors and/or the Workplace Managers and an employee representative where applicable. The extent of an investigation is to be determined by the Workplace Manager.
All Incident Reporting and Investigation Forms are to be recorded in a register maintained at the workplace.
Near Misses
To report near misses your supervisor should be contacted, and will advise on what actions should be taken to prevent recurrences in the future.

Reporting of Faults/Hazards

It should be the aim of each and every one of us to prevent accidents from occurring in the workplace by identifying hazards, unsafe situations and work practices.