One of a Safety Officer or OHS representative’s responsibilities is to respond to incidents, which can include injuries and workplace accidents. Responding to an incident means following very strict procedure. Here is an incident checklist to give you an idea of what a typical incident response will entail:

R E S P O N D T O T H E I N C I D E N TFirst thing you need to do is make sure the parties involved are all safe and that they’ve received any necessary medical attention.

I D E N T I F Y t h e S O U R C E O F T h e I N C I D E N TIdentify the source, or cause, of the incident, and make sure that it is resolved so as to avoid more incidents.

R E P O RT T H E I N C I D E N TYou should immediately notify emergency servicesif necessary, and notify the employer or manager about the incident.

D O C U M E N T T H E B AS I C FA C T SFill in a form that includes basic facts such as:• Date and time of the incident• Nature of the incident• Location of the incident• Name of parties involved• Name of responding offer

W R I T E A F U L L I N C I D E N T D E S C R I P T I O NYou should write up a detailed and complete description of the incident, including:• The circumstances that surrounded the incident• The sequence of events leading up to the incident• What instructions were being carried out at the time• What the consequences of the events were

O H SI N C I D E N T C H E C K L I S T

O H SI N C I D E N T C H E C K L I S T

O R G A N I S E A TA C T I CA L M E E T I N GOrganise a meeting with relevant parties to discuss prevention of incident reoccurrence. Determine:• Whether such an incident has occurred previously• Why the the incident occured in the first place• What level of competency those involved had, and whether there were deficiencies in their training• What steps can be taken to prevent reoccurrence

E N S U R E t h a t a p r e v e n t i o n P L A N i s i m p l e m e n t e dMake sure a prevention plan is put in place, and that the incident doesn’t occur again.

S T U DY a n O H S C o u rs e v i a d i s ta n c e l e a r n i n g

S T U DY a n O H S C o u rs e v i a d i s ta n c e l e a r n i n g

Oxbridge Academy offers a range of excellent OHS courses for South African students to study from home via distance learning.

T o f i n d o u t m o r e , v i s i t :

www.oxbridgeacademy.co.za/find-a-course/safety-occupational-health-and-safety-management

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