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INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
PROCEDURE

INCIDENT INVESTIGATION, REPORTING & MANAGEMENT

PROCEDURE

1. Purpose
The purpose of this procedure is to define how MATLAILAS CONSTRUCTION shall
investigate, manage, analyse and report incidents to:

 determine underlying SHE Management System deficiencies and other factors that might
be causing or contributing to the occurrences of incidents,
 identify the need for corrective action,
 identify opportunities for preventive action,
 identify opportunities for continual improvement and
 communicate the results of the investigations

Note: Incidents do occur when:

 hazards escape detection during preventive measures, such as a job or process risk
assessments,
 hazards are not obvious, or
 as the result of combinations of circumstances that were difficult to foresee.
A thorough Incident investigation may identify previously overlooked physical,
environmental, administrative, or process hazards, the need for new or more extensive safety
training, or unsafe work practices. The primary focus of any Incident investigation shall be
the determination of the facts surrounding the incident and the lessons that can be learned
to prevent future similar occurrences

2. Scope
The procedure covers MATLAILAS CONSTRUCTION.

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Note: All Incidents shall be investigated. The depth and complexity of the investigation shall
vary with the circumstances and seriousness of the Incident. The Construction Manager or
other individual responsible for operations involved in an Incident shall ensure that an
investigation is conducted and that appropriate, corrective actions are taken

3. Definitions & Abbreviations

Acceptable risk: risk that has been reduced to a level that can be tolerated by the
MATLAILAS CONSTRUCTION having regard to legal and other requirements.

Corrective action: action taken to eliminate/reduce the risk to an acceptable level

(corrective action is taken to prevent recurrence)

Preventive action: is taken to prevent occurrence

Hazard: source of exposure to danger

An incident: is defined as an event that results in:

Near miss: is an incident where no injury, ill-health, or fatality occurs but could have
happened

4. Investigation team
The investigation team may include:
• The injured/affected people (if physically capable)
• Construction Manager
• SHE Representative
• SHE Officer
• People with specialist knowledge and experience
• Representative of the SHE Committee
• Incident Investigator

5. ROLES RESPONSIBILITY

Assistant to CEO

Responsible for:
• ensuring Incidents involving the MATLAILAS CONSTRUCTION workers are investigated
timeously
• Informing CEO if the injury is likely to be a fatality or broken/lost limb or lost time injury.

Line Management (CR8.1)

Responsible for:
• ensuring Incidents involving their site operations or workers are investigated timeously
• ensuring corrective actions are taken timeously

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Safety Officer
Responsible for:

• reporting all injuries or environmental incidents

• Providing support and assistance to minimize the damage and initiate recovery from
the incident.
• keeping records of incident investigations
• communicating incidents and learning to all relevant managers
• investigating serious incidents promptly and thoroughly
• incident investigation training when requested.

Supervision

Responsible for:

• Making immediate arrangements to provide first aid to injured persons or assisting in

provision of treatment.
Informing Construction Manager about the incident as soon as possible.
• Informing the SHE Officer about the SHE incident as soon as the incident is reported
• taking immediate action to isolate area for investigation, minimize damage and
initiate recovery from the incident on instruction from the Safety Officer
/Construction Manager before plant/equipment can be restart
• generating investigation report
• Participating in incident investigations.
Investigating incidents promptly and thoroughly.
• taking corrective actions as suggested by the investigation report

Incident Investigator(s)

Responsible for:

Investigating incidents promptly and thoroughly.

Issuing incident investigation reports.
• Providing training in investigation methods and techniques when requested.

Injured Person

Responsible for:

 reporting the incident as soon as possible before the shift ends

 cooperating with line management and others during investigations

SHE Representatives

Responsible for:
 participating in the investigation
 communicating incident information to fellow employees especially the proposed
actions

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SHE Committee

Responsible for reviewing incidents reports

First Aiders

Responsible for attending to the injured persons

Employees

Responsible for:

 cooperating with Construction Managers and others during investigations

 reporting all injuries and incidents as they occur (immediately, before the injured
leaving site, to their Construction Manager)

6. Procedure
 Do not move the person unless there is danger to life
 Switch off any electricity or mechanical equipment involved if safe to do so.
 Call the first aider or dial 082 911 or 10177, state your name, the problem and the
location of the emergency.
 Depending on the seriousness of the injury receptionist will call the ambulance and
ensure access for the ambulance
 Report all accidents to your supervisor/foreman and complete the employee accident
report form.
 Employees should also report any accident while travelling on work.
 If you are unable to complete the form the person to whom you report the accident
must do so and send the report to the SHE Officer within 24hours.
 Ask for help if you cannot understand any part of the form.
 The priority whenever an incident occurs shall be to deal with the emergency and
ensuring that any injuries or illnesses receive prompt first aid or medical attention.
(First aider, emergency response team in that order should be contacted for help)
 The initial/preliminary incident investigation shall begin immediately thereafter.
 This ensures that witnesses don’t influence one another by talking about the incident.
It also minimizes the likelihood of losing important evidence.

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 Tampering with the accident scene is not acceptable unless it is done to protect the
safety of other employees

Types of Incidents: Incidents fall into two categories, serious and non-serious
 Non-serious incidents do not cause lost workdays.
 Examples of these include Near Misses, First Aid, Medical Treatment Beyond First Aid,
Restricted Work Cases
 Serious Incidents include both those which did involve lost workdays and those
which might have implications that result in lost work days later. Examples,
Permanent Disabilities and Fatalities

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Which Incidents/accidents should be investigated: (all incidents and accidents should be

investigated). After an incident, supervisor shall contact their respective Construction
Manager, SHE Representative and Safety Officer and inform them about incident.

Who shall investigate: Supervisors shall note initial details of the incident and contact
Construction Manager, and SHE Representative, and schedule an interview with the injured
employee. Regardless of the type of investigation, the supervisor shall be involved for the
following reasons:

Supervisors have a responsibility to provide their workers with a safe and healthful
workplace;

Supervisors know the workers and their work better than anyone else and are in the best
position to gather the facts and find a practical solution to the cause of problem;

Supervisors involvement can help promote better relations with workers by demonstrating
concern for their safety and attention to Incident prevention (VFL).

Investigation Approach: As with most other tasks, skill in conducting effective Incident
investigations improves with experience.

 A good basic approach shall be to find out what caused the Incident and what shall be
done to prevent or minimize the chances of a similar Incident occurring.
 Some suggestions that may help Supervisors to get the facts and reach a conclusion
include:
 Maintain objectivity throughout the investigation. The purpose of incident investigation
is to find the cause of the Incident, not to assign blame.
 Check the incident scene and circumstances thoroughly before anything is changed.
 Discuss the incident with the injured person (once stabilised), but only after first aid or
medical treatment has been given. Also, talk to anyone who witnessed the incident and
those familiar with conditions immediately before and after it occurred.
 Be thorough. Small details may point to the real cause.
 Reconstruct the events that resulted in the Incident, considering all possible causes.
Determine unsafe conditions or actions that separately or in combination were
contributing factors.

What to do with the Results: Supervisors shall act to control or eliminate the conditions
that caused the incident once these have been conclusively identified. Safety Officer can aid
in determining the level of action that may be necessary, such as the following:

 When equipment changes or safeguards are necessary, Supervisors shall discuss specific
recommendations with Construction Manager;

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 When an operation can be changed to eliminate the hazard, Supervisors shall make the
change if it is within their authority, or seek the necessary approval from Construction
Manager;
 If unsafe acts by workers are involved, ensure that the worker is properly trained and that
training is followed. All others involved in similar operations shall be trained as well.

Description: Include a detailed description of when and how the incident occurred.

 Description (machinery / parts etc.) Include information on any machinery or parts

involved where applicable
 Sketches/ Photographs/ Other Documents: Include sketches and photographs.
 Other documents should be included in this section or reference made to the relevant
documents in the detailed investigation report.
 Examples of ‘Other Documents’ include training records, standard operating procedures,
method statements, risk assessments, permits to work, certificates of inspection/ test,
reference to previous Incident investigation reports, training records etc.
 Witness Statements: Include signed statements from all witnesses or reference
statements in the detailed investigation report.

Analysis (Contact / Event Checklist, Immediate Causes and Contributory Causes): These
sections are designed to prompt the investigators to consider possible causes of the
incident.

 Each category should be considered systematically and ticked where applicable.

Contact and Event: Detail the contact(s) and event(s) which occurred at the time of the
incident using the categories identified in the checklists.

Immediate Causes: Detail the substandard acts and conditions at the time of the incident
using the categories identified in the checklists.

Contributory Causes: Detail the personal and job factors at the time of the incident using
the categories identified in the checklists.

Cause Analysis: Provide additional specific detail regarding the Immediate and Root
Causes identified. The Root Causes (underlying systems failures) can be determined
considering the Contributory Causes i.e. the personal and job factors

Action Plan: Includes details of actions required to prevent a re-occurrence, the person
responsible and target plus completion dates. The ‘date completed’ section need not be
populated. Actions to prevent a re-occurrence will include a review of relevant risk
assessments to highlight any deficiencies, for example, to determine if a risk assessment is
inadequate or not in place.

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NO SERIOUS INJURY OR DAMAGE INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE SERIOUS INJURY/DEATH/SERIOUS

DAMAGE
Less serious injury Ref. More serious Injury Ref. Serious injury/ Ref.
(First Aid case) (Injured is referred for medical death/damage
treatment) (Loss of a limb/unconsciousness)
Victim to reports to the OHSA 14e Victim to reports to the OHSA 14e *Follow the same procedure as
supervisor COIDA 38(1) supervisor COIDA for more serious injury
38(1)
Apply first aid if required GSR 3(3) Apply first aid if required GSR 3(3) Fatal Accident Ref.
COIDA 71(1) COIDA
71(1)
Complete dressing register Complete part A of the WCL GAR 6 Report without delay to the OHSA 24
2 form- report of an incident COIDA 39 Provincial Inspector COIDA
38(1)
victim reports daily to first Transport Victim to the COIDA 72 Report to SAPS
aid station hospital (Copy of the WCL 2
must accompany the
injured). Doctor must fill in
part B.
Investigate incident & act Should it be foreseen that OHSA 24 Report to FEM/ Compensation
on controls the injured will be unfit for COIDA 39 Commissioner COIDA 39
duty for 14 days or longer,
immediately report to the
provincial inspector
Complete Annexure 1 and GAR 6 Do not disturb the scene of the OHSA
send to the Divisional accident 24(2)
Inspector
Less serious damage Ref. Do not disturb the scene of GAR 24(2) Notify the next of kin
the accident
Was human life in danger? Investigate the GAR 8(2) Arrange for removal of body

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If yes, report to the
Provincial Inspector
Do not disturb scene of the
accident
Take steps to prevent
recurrence
Report to insurer
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circumstances and enter the COIDA 72
conclusions and
recommendations in
annexure 1
OHSA 24 Safety Committee must GAR 8(3) Follow procedure for more
consider and investigate serious injury from reporting to
conclusions and the Provincial Inspector
recommendations on the
next meeting. Record to be
signed by the chairman of
the committee.
Send remaining part of the COIDA 39
Compensation Commissioner
report through. If FEM policy
holder, complete FEM report
and send through
Enter in accident register GAR 8(10)
and keep annexure 2 in file
for minimum of 3 years
More serious damage
*Follow the same procedure
as for less serious property
damage