• Your investigation policy and procedures are reviewed annually.
• Management is aware of what accidents are reportable to government.
• All employees know how and what type of incident/accident to report.
• Employees know who is responsible to manage the accident scene.
• Key employees are trained in accident investigation, analysis and interviewing.
• Procedures exist to preserve the accident scene and protect evidence.
• Complete investigation kits are available.
• Report forms document direct, indirect and root causes.
• Corrective actions from previous investigations have been implemented.
• Management reviews all accident reports and provides feedback.

I’ve become a big fan of tape recording interviews for two reasons. One, there is always, and I repeat always something that I miss in the interview. When I listen to the recordings or have them transcribed little nuggets of information jump off the page. Secondly, a tape recorder provides you with feedback on your interviewing performance. When you hear yourself cutting people off with your next question or when the interviewee asks you to repeat the question because he didn’t understand it, you recognize the need to develop better interview skills.

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Recently I was involved in a major investigation and arrived on site three days after the incident. The initial investigation team had taken dozens of photographs and turned them over to me. When I asked them to walk me through the story the photos told they were unable to easily do so.

They had taken many photos of some aspects of the accident scene and few or none of other aspects. They felt that if they took enough pictures they would capture what was important.

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To view photolog and other investigation forms. .