How to file an accident report for accidents at your manufacturing plant

If there has been an accident at your manufacturing plant, you need to make sure that an accident report is filled out immediately. Because of the way that human memory works, it is imperative that the report is filled out as quickly as possible after the accident. Not only should the person involved in the accident fill out an accident report but all people who witnessed the accident and were involved with the accident should also fill one out.

Accident reports serve three main purposes, first they serve as documentation, second they serve to recreate the incident, and third they serve to educate management and staff about how to avoid further accidents. When filing accident reports, think about these purposes.

Documentation-the accident report will be used as official documentation if a work related injury is sustained. Some accidents may result in the loss of life or limb of a worker. These accidents will be accompanied by plenty of documentation and it is likely that the emergency personnel on the scene will conduct interviews and fill out their own reports. With the very serious injuries, the accident report from the manufacturing company will not be the most important report filed. Ironically, it is the less serious accidents where the accident report from your plant might be the most important piece of documentation in a court case. If you have an employee slip and fall and then start having back problems a year later, it will be important to have the accident report from the incident. Make sure that the forms are filled in their entirety and that the people filling out the forms use professional language. It is likely that you will end up seeing some of these reports in court. You want to present your company as professional and competent. The content of the accident report will help you with that presentation.

Re-creation-if you are trying to get a handle on what happened in an accident; the accident report is your best resource. Talking to people after the fact you will find that stories change and information is "misremembered". If you want to preserve the most accurate version of what happened at the time of an accident, turn to the accident report. In recreating the event, it is important to have several perspectives of every accident. This will help you piece together the circumstances at a later time.

Education-for you, the best thing that can come out of an accident or an accident report is a change in policy or process that will protect your employees from a similar accident happening again. You should have a section on the accident report that asks for feedback from the victims about what could have been done to prevent the accident. Sometimes you might find that safety equipment was available and maybe even mandatory but wasn't being used. If this is the case, you should see that the mandatory equipment becomes functionally mandatory. There are also accidents that are the result of poor decisions, lack of resources, and improper use of equipment. Whatever the cause of the accident, review the report carefully and try to use the report to discover what sorts of things, done differently, could have prevented the accident. Try to determine if you should institute a policy or procedure to avoid future accidents.

Make sure that all employees are trained on filling out accident reports. Make it a punishable offense to be involved in an accident and not fill out the report. It is very important, if you ever go to court as a result of an accident, that your paperwork is filled out completely and immediately.

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Tags: accident_report incident_ report documentation legal_document re-creation_of_accident policies procedures management accidents injuries witnesses