www.wsps.ca 27
Incident Investigations
Sometimes an incident is a "close call" — if
circumstances had been slightly different,
someone could have been seriously injured. It
is important to investigate these "close calls"
to prevent something more serious from
happening in the future.
Sometimes an incident does result in an
injury. In this case, the first thing to do is to
make sure that the injured person receives
prompt medical attention. Every jurisdiction
will have a process for reporting injuries
to the workers' compensation authority.
Make sure to familiarize yourself with these
procedures.
If an injury is serious enough to be deemed
"critical", then it must also be reported to the
Ministry of Labour and a formal investigation
must be undertaken. The results of the
investigation must be submitted to the
Ministry of Labour within 48 hours.
in ontario, an injury is considered critical
under these circumstances:
Fatal or life threatening
Causes unconsciousness
Significant blood loss
Loss of limb
Major fracture of a limb
Burns to a major part of the body
Loss of sight in one or both eyes
One of your responsibilities when a critical
injury or fatality occurs at the workplace is
to "secure the scene". This means that it is
important to leave the scene undisturbed
until the Ministry of Labour or police take
charge of the scene.
A worker health & safety representative
or worker member of the Joint Health &
Safety Committee must be involved in the
investigation of a critical injury.
It's important that everyone knows what to
do in the event of an incident — whether it
results in an injury or not.
Step 4: Health & Safety in Action
