COSS - Certified Occupational Safety Specialist Accident Investigation Principles Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the primary purpose of an accident investigation in an occupational safety and health context?
- To identify and correct root causes to prevent future incidents. (Correct answer)
- To assign blame to the employee responsible for the accident.
- To complete the necessary paperwork for insurance and regulatory bodies.
- To determine the financial cost of the workplace accident.
Correct answer: To identify and correct root causes to prevent future incidents.
The fundamental goal of an accident investigation is to be preventative. By identifying the underlying or root causes, an organization can implement corrective actions to stop similar incidents from happening again. This approach focuses on systemic issues rather than simply blaming individuals.
Question 2: An employee slips on a puddle of oil and is injured. A 'root cause analysis' would focus on which of the following?
- Why the employee was not looking where they were going.
- The cost of the employee's medical treatment and lost time.
- Why there was oil on the floor in the first place, such as a leaking machine or inadequate maintenance procedures. (Correct answer)
- The brand and type of cleaning solution used to mop up the spill.
Correct answer: Why there was oil on the floor in the first place, such as a leaking machine or inadequate maintenance procedures.
Root cause analysis aims to look beyond the immediate cause (the oil spill) to find the underlying systemic reasons for the incident. In this scenario, simply cleaning the spill or blaming the employee doesn't prevent recurrence. Investigating why the oil was there (e.g., equipment failure, lack of preventive maintenance) addresses the fundamental problem.
Question 3: Immediately following a workplace accident, after ensuring the injured are cared for, what is the most critical first step for an investigator arriving at the scene?
- Interviewing all available witnesses immediately.
- Writing the final investigation report.
- Cleaning up the area to resume normal operations quickly.
- Securing the scene to prevent disturbance of evidence. (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Securing the scene to prevent disturbance of evidence.
After providing medical care, the highest priority is to secure the accident scene. This preserves physical evidence, prevents tampering, and ensures that the investigation can be based on an unaltered environment. Interviewing witnesses and other steps follow after the scene is properly controlled.
Question 4: Which of the following is NOT a primary goal of an effective accident investigation?
- Identifying hazards and shortcomings in the safety program.
- Implementing corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
- Establishing fault to justify disciplinary action. (Correct answer)
- Understanding the sequence of events that led to the incident.
Correct answer: Establishing fault to justify disciplinary action.
Effective accident investigations should be a fact-finding, not fault-finding, process. The goal is to understand what happened and why, in order to improve safety systems. Focusing on blame can discourage reporting and hinder the discovery of true root causes.
Question 5: During an investigation into a fall from a scaffold, the safety specialist determines that the guardrail was not in place. The investigation report recommends reinstalling the guardrail. According to the hierarchy of controls, this recommendation is an example of what type of control?
- Administrative Control
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Substitution
- Engineering Control (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Engineering Control
Engineering controls are physical changes to the work environment that isolate people from hazards. A guardrail is a physical barrier engineered to prevent a fall, making it an engineering control. Administrative controls would be changes to work procedures, and PPE would be requiring a fall arrest system.
Question 6: A safety manager is developing an accident investigation program. The program should emphasize that, in addition to injuries, which other type of event should always be investigated?
- Voluntary safety suggestions from employees.
- Near misses, where an incident occurred but no injury or damage resulted. (Correct answer)
- Routine equipment maintenance and inspections.
- Scheduled employee breaks and lunch periods.
Correct answer: Near misses, where an incident occurred but no injury or damage resulted.
OSHA and safety best practices strongly encourage the investigation of near misses (or close calls). A near miss indicates a flaw in the system that could result in a serious injury under slightly different circumstances. Investigating them allows for corrective action before a harmful event occurs.
COSS - Certified Occupational Safety Specialist Accident Investigation Principles Questions and Answers
What is the primary purpose of an accident investigation in an occupational safety and health context?