Investigations are NOT to place blame. An accident is any unplanned event that results in personal injury or in property damage. When the personal injury requires little or no treatment, it is minor. Similarly, property damage may be minor or serious. Investigate all accidents regardless of the extent of injury or damage.
Accidents are part of a broad group of events that adversely affect the completion of a task.
These events are incidents. For simplicity, the procedures discussed in later sections refer only to accidents. They are, however, also applicable to incidents. This discussion introduces the reader to basic accident investigation procedures and describes accident analysis techniques. An accident may have 10 or more events that can be causes.