What to do when disaster strikes

Protecting workers in the workplace is critically important for both employer and employee. When disaster strikes, and a serious or fatal accident occurs, there are certain steps that should take place in order to properly manage the situation.

Companies should always have a policy that requires employees to immediately report all injuries to appropriate management. While most accidents involve minor injury, often an extremely serious injury can be avoided by identifying the hazardous situation after it causes a minor injury to occur.

Supervisors should be appropriately trained on what they need to do once they receive a report of an accident. That should include investigation of even minor injuries to see if the incident could have been avoided completely.

Here are the recommended steps for appropriate response when disaster strikes a construction site or another on-the-job injury occurs.

1. Necessary medical attention should be administered for victims of construction accidents when needed.

2. If the accident involves an on-the-job injury and the employer carries Worker's Compensation, the Worker's Compensation commission should be notified of the injury.

3. OSHA’s basic requirement for notification within eight hours after the death of an employee or within 24 hours for in-patient hospitalization should be followed.

4. The site of the accident should be secured and all evidence should be safe guarded when the accident involves a fatality or serious injury.

5. An investigation should be conducted by appropriate personnel for the employer. This would include in appropriate cases, witness statements, documenting the scene with photographs, noting all individuals involved and all witnesses. Additionally, evidence such as equipment involved in a serious accident should be secured, preserved and taken out of service.

6. The company should determine the cause of the accident and whether or not they feel the incident could have been prevented. Areas for consideration include:

• An evaluation of equipment involved, including maintenance and safety features.
• Were appropriate safety procedures followed?
• Was the injured worker properly trained?
• Were third parties involved that contributed to the incident?
• What could have been done to prevent the accident from occurring in the first place and how can it be ensured it does not occur again.

7. The company should analyze the conclusions of the investigation with an eye toward preventing similar instances from occurring in the future. Some considerations would include:

• Was training sufficient or is additional training needed?
• Could the equipment utilized been safer?
• Are there appropriate safety rules in place?

Undoubtedly, a construction accident can prove extremely costly for companies in the form of one or more of the following: increased workers’ compensation or insurance premiums, loss of productive time, and the costs/expenses of claims. Making sure that everything possible is done to avoiding a disaster in the first place is just good business sense.

Guest blog post provided by Baumgartner Law Firm from Houston, TX.  https://baumgartnerlawyers.com/