August 2009
Accident Investigation

OK, you had an accident. Now what are you going to do about it? Are you just addressing that accident
putting a band aid on it and moving on only to have it happen again at a later date? Or, will you investigate it more thoroughly looking for the underlying causes and putting steps in place the eliminate the causes so that the chances of it happening at a later date are reduced. Even better, are you going through the workplace looking for accident potentials and eliminating those before they even cause the accident?

An effective safety and health program depends on the credibility of management's involvement in the
program, inclusion of employees in safety and health decisions, rigorous worksite analysis to identify hazards and potential hazards, including those which could result from a change in worksite conditions or practices, stringent prevention and control measures, and thorough training. It addresses hazards whether or not they are regulated by government standards.

The OSHA website has excellent links to help you with accident investigation.

The OSHA Small Business Handbook gives a great overview and helpful suggestions regarding the entire
safety program.

OSHA Publication 3071, (2002) explains what a job hazard analysis is and offers guidelines to help
employers conduct their own step-by-step analysis.

OSHA eTool. There are four crucial questions you should be asking when it comes to safety and health
programs. The detailed answers are found in the four modules of this eTool.

Here is a link to a PowerPoint program (20 slides) summarizing voluntary safety and health program
management guidelines.

OSHA's "$safety Pays" program is an interactive expert system to assist employers in estimating the
costs of occupational injuries and illnesses and the impact on a company's profitability. This system uses
a company's profit margin, the AVERAGE costs of an injury or illness, and an indirect cost multiplier to
project the amount of sales a company would need to generate in order to cover those costs. Businesses
can use this information to predict the direct and indirect impact of injuries and illnesses and the
estimated sales needed to compensate for these losses. The “$safety Pays” program will: