Conducting an Accident Investigation
Course 102
Safety Certified Supervisor Series

MODULE 5: DETERMINING SURFACE AND ROOT CAUSES

The surface causes of accidents

The surfaces causes of accidents are those specific hazardous conditions and unsafe employee/manager behaviors that have directly caused or contributed in some way to the accident.

Hazardous conditions:

• are basically things or objects that cause injury or illness
• may also be thought to be defects in a process
• may exist at any level of the organization

Hazardous conditions may exist in any of the following categories:

• Materials
• Machinery
• Equipment
• Tools
• Chemicals
• Environment
• Workstations
• Facilities
• People
• Workload

It's important to know that most hazardous conditions in the workplace are the result of specific unsafe behaviors that produced them.