Accident Recording and Reporting

Helen O'Brien writes:


1. Introduction

Incident/accident reporting is an important aspect of monitoring or measuring safety performance and allows an organisation, through investigations, to learn from mistakes and improve safety.

Accident reports made to the enforcing authority are used to compile national statistics on health and safety performance and to help identify trends in specific work sectors, such as construction, agriculture and service industries.

An accident report may also prompt an investigation by the enforcing authority. Enforcement officers have the power to investigate every incident notification that they receive. However, investigations are normally prioritised in terms of