RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

May 17, 2005
ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVIEW NEEDED

RoSPA will launch a new initiative tomorrow (Wednesday) to persuade employers to review the adequacy of their arrangements for investigating accidents and incidents. Before accidents happen, bosses need to think about policies and procedures, competencies of investigators, methods to be used and supporting resources.

About 120 safety professionals attending the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents National Safety and Health at Work Congress in Birmingham will be told that far too many companies are still ill-prepared to meet the challenges that accidents present.

Roger Bibbings, RoSPA Occupational Safety Adviser said: “Tragic as they nearly always are, accidents also represent unique opportunities for organisational safety change. Research suggests however that, even where they believe they are investigating adequately, many organisations in reality are failing to extract full value from their investigations because they have failed to think through all the essential elements required.”

Around 250 workers and 100 members of the public are killed in occupational accidents in the UK each year. There are about 160,000 reportable injuries and another one million people hurt in accidents at work.

“Robust and systematic accident investigation has a key role to play in improving health and safety management to reduce those figures,” he said. “It is essential that employers and employees see the investigation process as a learning experience so that things can be improved in the years to come.”

The congress will hear that RoSPA is partnering with the Noordwijk Risk Initiative Foundation to explore exactly what is needed for the effective investigation of accidents and incidents. The project will be known as “Defining Operational Readiness to Investigate” (DORI). The partners have produced a document to provide a focus for debate and comment. It is hoped people with experience in managing the investigative resources of organisations will contribute.

“We want to work with higher performing organisations to develop DORI so that others can be helped to improve their accident investigation processes,” Roger Bibbings added.

Dr John Kingston, chairman of NRIF and an internationally acknowledged expert in accident investigation, will outline the project’s aims to congress delegates at 1.30pm on Wednesday, May 18. The event - Raising Standards, Embedding Excellence – is being held at the NEC Hilton Birmingham Metropole, May 17-19. It is sponsored by EDF Energy. The DORI paper can be found at www.nri.eu.com