Weekly Toolbox Talk: War on Falls – How to Report an Accident

How long you work for us is based on how you safely perform your job and meet the production expectations of your supervisor.

Every Front Line Supervisor is responsible for timely reporting of all work-related injuries, accidents and fall exposures. To properly carry out his duties, today we are reviewing with all employees, the responsibilities of supervisors and employees to report accidents.

The first and primary responsibility for accident reporting falls to the employee. If you are involved in any type of accident, you are expected to report the facts to your immediate supervisor.

This means reporting all fall exposures: this means if you witness an accident: this means if you are involved in an accident in any way, you will report the facts. This means you report the facts to your supervisor regardless of any injuries.

Employee’s that fail to report an accident, or have knowledge of an accident and fail to report the incident will be disciplined by the Safety Manager. If you are the partner to an employee that fails to report an accident or fall exposure, you are required to make your supervisor aware of the facts.

When informed that an accident has occurred that requires medical attention, your supervisor will do the following:

Injuries requiring notification of EMS: The supervisor will secure the scene for immediate investigation after the injured employee has been taken care off. The supervisor will accompany the injured worker to the nearest hospital.

Injuries requiring medical attention that are not life threatening allow your supervisor time to decide the best method of transportation to a designated medical provider. These options include the supervisor delegating transportation duties to either other supervisor on the job or to a safety advisor for the initial doctor visit, or the supervisor himself will provide personal transportation.

Once a determination is made on medical treatment, the supervisor will gather the necessary information to complete an initial accident report. This report will be in the hand of the Safety Manager the next business day following the injury. The supervisor will then initiate a more thorough investigation of the incident, which may include witness statements, photographs, diagrams, and securing faulty equipment for return to the branch office.

The supervisor will complete a Supervisor’s Accident Investigation Report and file this with his branch within 24 hours of the accident. This report will focus on the unsafe acts, the unsafe conditions, and will record a fundamental cause for the accident. The investigation is considered incomplete until these questions are answered. The investigation is considered incomplete until a Fall Investigation is conducted in the event of a fall from elevation.

Following this accident investigation, your supervisor will call a meeting to review and inform employees about the accident. The purpose of this meeting is to prevent any future injuries by sharing the information the company has learned from investigating the accident.

The proper chain of command for reporting accidents or fall exposure is to notify your immediate supervisor of any accident regardless of injuries IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE INCIDENT.

ONLY BY IMMEDIATELY REPORTING ACCIDENTS WILL YOU BE HELPING TO PROTECT YOUR FELLOW EMPLOYEES. WHEN IN DOUBT, REPORT IT TO YOUR FOREMAN. IF YOUR FOREMAN DOES NOT RESPOND OR ADDRESS ANY SAFETY ISSUE OR FALL EXPOSURE, YOU ARE TO NOTIFY YOUR SAFETY MANAGER.