Keeping a record is vital for every individual, family, and business. Families keep records of important events like birth dates, achievements and ceremonies, celebrations, memorial purposes, and many other reasons.
Keeping accurate and thorough records of events, including accidents and injuries, is essential, especially when they happen on the job. One of the most important reasons you must keep a record on the job is to comply with the law. Furthermore, thorough and accurate reporting and record-keeping create a system with valuable information and details on accident patterns and how you can prevent them.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) urges and requires every employer to keep records of all injuries and illnesses, as far as they are recordable. All accidents must be recorded if they meet with any of the following.
- If it involves an employee.
- If it happens on the job or is work-related.
- If it is a new case, and the employee has not suffered a recorded similar accident that affects the same part of the body.
- If the employee has suffered a similar accident but has fully recovered.
- If the accident results in absent work days, restricted work, job transfer, medical treatment first aid can’t treat, unconsciousness and death.
- If the accident is significantly work-related and is diagnosed by a licensed physician or medical professional.
- If the accident results from a cut from a sharp object that has previously injured another employee that is infected.
- If it involves hearing loss.
- If it involves exposure to tuberculosis and similar infections.
- If it requires that the employee be medically removed per OSHA’s medical surveillance.
OSHA-regulated organizations must have the OSHA Form 300 and the OSHA Form 300A; these are the OSHA log and annual summary for occupational accidents, respectively. These organizations must also have the OSHA Form 301, the subsidiary record of each recordable accident.
Furthermore, these records must constantly be updated and be submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on demand.
Why You Should Report Accidents
Firstly, when you report workplace accidents, you are compliant with the law. Also, when you have in-depth and up-to-date record keeping, you create a system that helps prevent future accidents.
For instance, when these records are studied, one can identify areas where accidents frequently occur and their common causes. And with this, one can devise safety and preventive measures.
More so, investigating and filling accidents focuses more on what occurred and enables your safety management team to examine what could have been done to avoid such accidents. Recording accidents aim to identify and record critical facts and circumstances around the accident the instant it occurred. The critical facts recorded usually encompass the following:
- The affected or injured part of the body.
- Cause and source of the accident.
- The type of accident and how the victim was injured.
- Dangerous circumstances or conditions at the scene of the accident.
- Unsafe or negligent act that led to the accident.
These items are crucial to the supervisors and safety committees and enable your organization to access the progress of your accident prevention scheme. Furthermore, the report clarifies what should be done if additional training is required.
Shrier Law Group
For more information and counsel on personal injury cases, contact our award-winning law firm, Schrier Law Group, and schedule a free consultation today!
