I have been looking for a good format for an accident investigation form, to be honest there are so many different formats "I can't see the forest for the trees" can any one let me take a look at what they considered to be a good format so I can assess what we need, thank you.

The thought is a good one you would think the amount of knowledge combined within this site perfection on a lot of levels could be achieved , but I work in the demolition industry and I think an accident form for my industry would contain/need a lot more information than say for someone who worked in an office therefore a generic form would not be suitable-comments please

Ideally, the formal should be based on you actual process/procedure. There is Health & Safety Executive guidance on accident investigations that has some formats. "Investigating accidents and incidents-A workbook for employers, unions, safety representatives and safety professionals" http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg245.pdf

My main customer has developed an investigation form, used for accidents, incidents and near misses. Start with the usual day, time, location, names of IP and witnesses, and Accident Book No. Then 'Detailed Description of Accident / Incident / Fire': Include injuries & any first aid or hospital treatment required, property damage, materials spilt, and any remedial actions to recover from / clean up incident. (written statements if obtained are on separate sheets) Root Cause – Identify (or try to) root cause of incident, taking into account what was going on, equipment, training, behaviour etc. also a note about lost time (in hours/days) or any RIDDOR the same form is then also used to record the later outcomes: Corrective & Preventative Actions – Actions taken to prevent recurrence with responsibilities (who will do what) and later still: Results of corrective & preventive actions (description of actions taken) and even later: Effectiveness of corrective & preventative actions (Have the actions addressed root cause? Have they worked? Has a similar situation happened?) So the investigation continues into the corrective action stage. enter a closure date

Taking up Ray's point that accidents and incidents have different degrees of severity, yes that is true but I would still encourage a 'one form for all'. This takes away a decision (which form) from a supervisor. There are such things as accidents which will not need much of a study of root cause or effective corrective actions, and notes on the form can explain if such a decision was taken. I suppose there is no such thing as a trivial accident but there are accidents I've investigated where there seemed no point pursuing a long investigation. e.g. what would others have done when talking to a chap who had hit himself on the forehead with a hammer, almost knocked himself out? He said he was flattening a stubborn piece of sheet metal, a very small piece on his work bench, and basically lost his temper and swung the hammer up into his face, thankfully wearing safety glasses but no forehead protection! Nice bruise for days to everyone's amusement. The consequences could have been serious if he had knocked himself out and fallen on to the workshop floor, but our investigation put 'Brief chat about taking care with tools' in the Corrective Action, and in the 'effectiveness' section 3 months later I've written 'No recurrence of this incident' :o)

Latchy, Please also remember to include an accident incident form procedure & Guide So many organizations I have worked for have a basic template which most is not relevant and other organizations have electronic forms for Incident, accident, near miss, environmental In my experience I have had to use my own templates including witness statement forms with Who, Why, where, when, I always ask what would you do differently MrH&S