Accident investigation is a systematic process adopted to unravel the mystery behind every accident that occur on site. This mystery will never be unravel if the right questions are not asked. Without a good investigation, there cannot be a good incident report.
In this blog post we will highlight “5 Important Questions to Ask during Accident Investigation”.
Important questions to ask during accident investigation
- What Happened: This question will give you a general view of the accident that occurred and most times it may point directly to the immediate cause of the accident.
- When did it happen: This will tell you the time the accident occurred. This information is very important because it may be used to monitor trends.
- Where did it happen: This will point to the location of the accident. The location may be a major contributing factor to the accident occurrence making it a very important piece of information.
- How did it happen: By asking how, you are trying to understand the series of events which resulted to the accident. This will aid a better understanding of the accident.
- Why did it happen: Why did the accident happen is the last question asked in accident investigation. The why help in unraveling the root cause of the accident. It is here that we talk about the 5 why’s of root cause analysis. It is believed that continuous asking of WHY will be gradually opening up more failures until the root cause is determined.
From the above, we can call this the 3WHW of accident investigation.
Asking this series of questions is all you need to get all the necessary information during accident investigation.
Remember, accident investigation is a fact-finding process, not a fault-finding process and the aim of accident investigation is mainly to prevent re-occurrence. Without the necessary information, the process will be futile as the root will not be determined and prevention will be impossible.
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