Accident Causation Report Paper Writing Assignment (Essay Sample)

Accident Causation Report
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Question 1: Identify the Purpose Behind the Accident Investigation
One thing about accidents is the fact that there is no way that a person can be stopped from being injured or even equipment that makes up a plant being damaged. There is no chance of stopping the loss of productivity that may have occurred. However, it is possible to come up some of the factors that may have caused the accident. Through the identification of the hazards or the risks that may be associated with the dangers, they can be used to derive the robust strategies that can be used to prevent them be it similar cases of the accidents or even the similar workplaces (Katsakiori et al., 2009).
The rate at which production in the company can be determined by the lost time injuries that may be recorded in a place of work. Costs are likely to be reduced if what is derived from investigations can be used to reduce injuries which in turn reduce the costs that may be incurred to over for insurance. Some other aspects are also affected for example the hospital operating expenses or even the legal fees which may be associated with situations the injuries result in permanent disabilities. Investigations also aid in directing the worker’s compensations claims especially when they don’t take into account indirect expenses or even uninsured costs associated with the accident.
The other reason why investigations are of the essence is that it aids in keeping check the employers to ensure that they do take into account the legal duties where they are to make sure that they are obligated with caring obligation. For any other employee, those close to him or she have the right to expect those they are associated with to return from their places of work while in the same state of health that they may have been before they left for work. There have always been legal frameworks that do guide employers in ensuring that they do provide working environments which are standard and recommended or that ensure that the stations where individuals work are up to the expectation that is required by the law.
Question 2: List Who is responsible for Accident Investigation Within a Company and Why they are Responsible.
Once establishing that an investigation is suitable, there is need to determine who is in a position to conduct the research. Accident investigations can be carried out by both internal and external investigators (Harms-Ringdahl, 2004). One major point to note is that workplaces do not have control over external investigations unless for scenarios that they may have been commissioned on their behalf.
In cases where accidents may have occurred, whether an individual has sustained injuries or not, it is the role of the employer to ensure that investigations are conducted so as to create workplaces which are free from hazards. Basing on this reason, it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that an investigation is conducted within the working place so as to establish the hazards that might have caused the accidents. For cases where the cause has been determined, they can be used by the employer to completely get rid of the dangers especially when it is the ultimate cause of the accident.
It is, therefore, important that the workplace should have a competent investigator with adequate training who can be delegated with the duty of ensuring that the workplace is in a position to meet the standards required. It is the responsibility of the internal investigators to look into all the accidents that may have occurred with the help of safety officers. They are therefore tasked with coming up with reports that may be eventually used to come up with statements regarding the accident or the incident that may have occurred.
The reports will then be put together accompanied by the enterprise accident and even the incident statistics which will then be subject to review by the safety committee where additional comments might be made which will then be employed so as to come up with robust preventative strategies.
Question 3: Define Risk and Why this Concept is Critical to Accident Investigation. Choose Two Accident Causation Theories. Compare and Contrast the Cause of the Accident Based on the two different Theories.
Risk can be defined as the association of the probability of the occurrence, the consequences that are likely to result from specific hazardous events and the frequency in which they are likely to occur. Risk analysis is of the essence in every accident investigation since it is a way where all the available information regarding a hazardous event can be used systematically to point out the hazards that are likely to occur (Harms-Ringdahl, 2004). They are also essential for every investigation since they are in a position to give estimations about the possible risks individuals, population, property or the environment face at any particular time in cases where accidents may occur.
Heinrich Domino’s Theory
According to the arguments raised by Heinrich, is a process where a personal injury only occurs as a result of a particular accident. The accident that may have caused harm to the individual could be. As a result, either personal or even mechanical hazards that may be associated with the machines one was working on. He goes on ahead to say that mechanical hazards only exist whenever there is a fault which can be related to particular individuals. They could have resulted from their carelessness or even poorly designed working environments. It could also be related to equipment which may not have been maintained to the required standards. The faults that are initiated by persons could be as a result of inheri...