Business

Human Resources: Accident Investigations

Accident investigation must be a thorough and involved process. A proper and effective investigation of any accident will lead to the ultimate source of an accident. This means that the solution to a number of issues will present itself.

The main player in an accident, whether it is mechanical or human, must be discovered in order to prevent future accidents. Resolving an issue only part-way up a chain of events means that the issue really is not solved, merely patched up for a while. This means an investigation was not seen through to the end and could result in accidents down the road.

The Art of Solving Backwards
Think of a detective trying to solve a case. Detectives know how to utilize the process of root cause analysis for accident investigation. Imagine a detective who sees a murder and proclaims, It was caused by a knife to the heart!

This detective would not be employed for very long, because the real cause has obviously been overlooked. The detective stopped the process of backtracking to the real source of the problem and came up with no real explanation in regards to what really caused the murder. Sure, a knife to the heart was the most visible cause of death, but the root of the problem was something else. The person wielding the knife is closer to the root of the issue and if left unacknowledged, then many more cases of knives to the heart might occur.