Incident Reporting System
Download Incident Reporting Form (294.21 KB) (115.00 KB)
Basic principles:
Effective incident prevention relies to a great extent on a good understanding of on site hazards which allow a proper risk assessment to be made and effective preventative measures to be put in place. Although some hazards are obvious, other incidents may appear to be isolated “one off” occurrences that could be attributed to bad luck. However if it can be shown that such incidents are typical of a certain system, greater attention can be paid to the particular characteristics of the system that might contribute to the risk.
Many specialist foundation contractors are small companies. For these it can be difficult to obtain a real appreciation of the frequency of incidents associated with particular work places or systems. If they rely only on their own data it may take years before they have sufficient information to be able to analyse trends or to understand the possible risk factors. Since each piece of data represents an injured person, it is important that every opportunity is taken to learn from other companies.
The European Federation of Foundation Contractors (EFFC) has developed an incident reporting tool which enables them to collect incident report forms from foundation companies which then enables them to analyse the information in a systematic and timely manner. They have used this system since 1995 and it is now in operation in 13 European countries. During this period they have had over 3,500 incidents reported. This information provides their members with an extensive and reliable database from which reasonable conclusions can be reached on the causes of accidents, and from which target oriented measures can be deduced to minimise risks and reduce the ongoing accident rate and severity.
Members of the Australian Federation have been using an Incident Reporting System for several years, but this has fallen into disuse primarily because of the need to enter an amount of written details relating to the accidents, and the fact that all companies are required to submit other types of reports anyway under Occupational, Health and Safety regulations in their state. There has been a reluctance to duplicate efforts to report on accidents.
The Australian Initiative:
At the last General Meeting of members it was agreed to introduce a much simplified reporting system based on the European model. The attached report form can be completed by simply ticking the appropriate box on the form without the need to write any details other than routine items such as Age; Date; Location (by state); and time of accident. It is intended to supply the EFFC a summary of our data on a quarterly or annual basis, and to use them as a “benchmark” for our industry – the first time we will have such a useful benchmark. Members will of course be given feed back on a regular basis.
Each member company should appoint a responsible member of staff to be responsible for compiling and submitting an Incident Report Form on a monthly basis to a central location. In the first instance the report can be submitted electronically by email to Christie Munro on admin@pilingfederation.com.au. It would be appreciated if the member can advise the name of the responsible person appointed to do this and their contact details.
It is considered important that a routine be established to make these submissions even though it is hoped that most, if not all, such submissions are blank – “nothing to report”. A regular submission period enables us to determine how many members are providing information to assist the database.
It is appreciated that by using email, it is not possible to maintain anonymity – we undertake not to release company details of any reports submitted unless written approval has been received from the member involved.