Conducting an Accident Investigation
Course 102
Safety Certified Supervisor Series

MODULE 7: WRITING THE REPORT

The Accident Report Form

• Section I. Background
• Section II. Description of the accident
• Section III. Findings
• Section IV. Recommendations
• Section V. Summary
• Section VI. Review and Follow-Up Actions
• Section VII. Attachment

Section III. Findings

The findings section describes the hazardous conditions, unsafe behaviors and system weaknesses your investigation has uncovered. Each description of surface and root cause will also include justification for the finding. The justification will explain how you came to your conclusion.

Some report forms used today "force" the investigator to list only surface causes for accidents. Consequently, the investigator believes the job is done without ferreting out the root causes. Other forms offer very little space to write findings. The form does not "report" the root causes uncovered associated with each surface cause. It is not the object of this section to find fault or place blame. Just state the facts: The hazardous conditions, unsafe procedures, inadequate or missing policies, training, accountability, etc. Be sure to write complete descriptive sentences. Not short cryptic phrases.

The following pages will give some examples of the different kind of finding statements.

• Sample primary surface cause finding statements
• Sample secondary surface cause finding statements
• Sample safety program implementation root cause finding statements
• Sample safety program design root cause finding statements