Vanessa Escamilla, professor of the Official University Master's Degree in Management of Occupational Risk Prevention, Excellence, the Environment and Corporate Responsibility at Bureau Veritas University Center, talks to us in this post about the investigation of occupational accidents in companies.
The investigation of work accidents in any type of company is a commitment that must be assumed by the employer and is included in article 16.3 of the Law on the Prevention of Occupational Risks . In this article, the employer's obligation to "investigate the events that have caused harm to the health of workers, in order to detect the causes of these events" is mentioned. It is important that, in order to comply with this legal requirement, the employer knows which accidents must be investigated, who must investigate them and how they must be investigated.
In order to comply with the Law on the Prevention of viber data Occupational Risks, it would be sufficient to carry out an investigation of those accidents that have caused an injury to the worker. However , if the objective of the employer is not only to comply with the legislation but to improve prevention in the company, it is advisable to carry out an investigation of all the accidents that have occurred , including those that have not caused injuries to the worker, and which are called white accidents or incidents.
The main objective of accident investigation is to deduce all the causes that have generated them through knowledge of the events that occurred . Knowledge of the causes that have generated an accident will allow the company to design and implement corrective measures in order to eliminate these causes , to prevent the accident from happening again and to take advantage of the experience acquired to improve prevention in the company. It should be noted that most accidents are not explained by the existence of a single cause, but by the existence of several causes that are usually related . Therefore, for accident investigation it is necessary to delve into the causal analysis, identifying all the causes that intervened in its materialization and analyzing their interrelation.
It is important to bear in mind that accident analysis is not an end but a means, that is, knowledge of the causes that have generated an accident will only be useful for carrying out prevention actions . Therefore, if after collecting all the information on the events that occurred and identifying the causes that have generated a certain accident no action is taken, one of the main objectives of accident investigation will not be met.
When taking action on the causes that have generated the accident, we must know that actions on those events close to the injury are normally simple and quickly implemented, although the measures are punctual and only useful for that accident. However , if action is taken on basic causes, which may be common to several accidents, all those accidents where this cause occurs can be avoided . For a correct action that considers all these aspects, it is important to establish an action plan that contemplates short, medium and long term measures.