Accident Reporting and Emergency Procedures
Knowing what to do in the first five minutes, and what must be reported afterwards, is examined in detail. This domain covers immediate response, internal recording, statutory reporting to the Health and Safety Authority, and the emergency arrangements every site must have.
Immediate response
Make the area safe without putting yourself at risk, do not move a casualty unless they are in danger, give first aid within your training, and call 112 or 999. Give the exact location, the Eircode, the access route, the number of casualties and any hazards such as live electricity or escaping gas.
Internal reporting
Tell your supervisor immediately, record the event in the accident book, and report near misses and dangerous occurrences as well as injuries - they are warnings of the next real accident.
Statutory reporting to the HSA
Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Reporting of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences) Regulations 2016 you must notify the HSA of fatalities, specified dangerous occurrences (scaffold or crane collapse, excavation collapse, contact with overhead lines) and accidents where the injured person cannot perform their normal work for more than three consecutive days, excluding the day of the accident. Notify as soon as practicable by the quickest means available, and preserve the scene.
Emergency arrangements
Know the assembly point, the first aiders, the fire drill procedure and extinguisher types (CO2 for electrical, foam for flammable liquids). Emergency numbers must be displayed.
Worked example
A worker falls from a ladder on Tuesday and fractures a wrist. Preserve the scene, give first aid, call 112, inform the supervisor and enter it in the accident book. The HSA notification is required if he cannot do his normal work for more than three consecutive days beyond Tuesday. The ladder and area stay untouched until they have been recorded and investigated.
Traps
Reporting only lost-time injuries; treating near misses as unimportant; tidying the scene before it is recorded; delaying notification to the end of the shift.