Last reviewed: October 2026
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This free workplace accident investigation checklist is for managers, supervisors and health and safety leads who must find out why an accident, near miss or dangerous occurrence happened and stop it happening again. One run is one event, from first response to closed actions. It starts at the scene with first aid and making the area safe, then preserves the evidence: photos, equipment, CCTV and documents. Management is told, the level of investigation is set and a reportability check runs with UK (RIDDOR 2013), US (OSHA 29 CFR Part 1904) or other branches. Statements from witnesses and the injured person follow, then an analysis of immediate, underlying and root causes in the way HSE’s HSG245 sets out. The actions get owners and dates, the risk assessment is reviewed, the manager approves the report and action plan, the lessons are shared and every action is closed and checked.
An accident investigation looks at the work, not at a person’s conduct. HSE’s guide HSG245 says the aim is to find out not only how the event happened but what allowed it to happen, and warns that blaming someone before the investigation starts makes people defensive and uncooperative. Its four steps are gathering the information, analysing it, identifying risk control measures, and the action plan and its implementation. This checklist follows them, with the first response and the reporting deadlines in front.
Three neighbouring jobs are often confused with it. A complaint about someone’s behaviour, such as bullying or misconduct, needs the Workplace Investigation Checklist, which feeds a grievance or disciplinary decision. The US injury log and its annual summary belong in the OSHA Recordkeeping Checklist, and the claim itself in the Workers’ Compensation Claim Checklist. Clinical patient-safety incidents in a hospital or clinic follow the Healthcare Incident Reporting Process Checklist.
Asks: what happened, what caused it at each level, and what must change?
When: straight after an accident, near miss or dangerous occurrence; the depth depends on how bad it could have been.
Output: a report, reports to the regulator where the law requires them, an approved action plan and a reviewed risk assessment.
Asks: what are the facts behind a complaint or concern about someone’s conduct?
When: after a grievance, a disciplinary concern or a whistleblowing report.
Output: a findings report for whoever decides the outcome.
Asks: is the case recordable, and what does the insurer need?
When: within days of the injury, and at year end for the OSHA annual summary.
Output: log entries, forms and a claim. They record the case but do not explain its causes.
Eight phases follow one accident, near miss or dangerous occurrence from the scene to closed actions. The rules and the kind of event chosen in Phase 1 add the matching first aid, statement, reporting and return-to-work tasks. The manager approves the report and action plan before the lessons are shared and the investigation is closed.
Help the injured person and make the area safe before anything else. Then record the event: the date and time it happened is the clock every due date counts from, and the answers about the rules and the kind of event add the matching tasks.
Capture the evidence before it is moved, repaired, deleted or forgotten. Collect it now and decide later what matters.
Decide how deep to investigate and whether the event must be reported before the investigation is finished: the deadlines do not wait for it. The rules chosen in Phase 1 show the matching tasks.
Talk to people as soon as they are able, one at a time and in their own words. The aim is to find out what happened and why, not who to blame.
Work from the facts to the causes. An investigation that ends at “human error” or “carelessness” has not gone deep enough: look for what allowed the event to happen.
Choose controls that deal with the root causes as well as the immediate ones, and give every action an owner and a date. Measures that remove the risk come before those that rely on people.
The manager’s approval is the gate: nothing after it can be completed until the report and action plan have a decision. Then share what was learned with the people involved and beyond.
Keep the investigation open until every action is done and checked. If the injured person’s condition changes, the reports and records may need to change too.
Report first, investigate second: neither country lets the deadline wait for the investigation. The table sets the rules side by side as they appear in RIDDOR 2013 and OSHA’s 29 CFR Part 1904. Use it to set your own procedure; it is not legal advice.
| Topic | UK (RIDDOR 2013) | United States (29 CFR Part 1904) |
|---|---|---|
| Who reports | The responsible person: the employer for an injury to an employee; whoever controls the premises for a person not at work, a self-employed person or another dangerous occurrence (reg. 3) | The employer, for its employees (1904.39). A company with 10 or fewer employees all last year need not keep records unless told to in writing, but must still report (1904.1) |
| Deaths | Anyone who dies as a result of a work-related accident: notify without delay and report within 10 days (reg. 6(1), Sch. 1). An employee who dies within a year of a reportable injury: notify the death without delay (reg. 6(3)) | An employee’s death from a work-related incident within 30 days of it: report within 8 hours (1904.39(a)(1), (b)(6)) |
| Most serious injuries | Specified injuries to workers, such as fractures other than to fingers, thumbs and toes, amputations, serious burns and loss of consciousness from a head injury: notify without delay and report within 10 days (reg. 4(1), Sch. 1) | In-patient hospitalisation, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours of the incident: report within 24 hours (1904.39(a)(2), (b)(6)) |
| Time off work | A worker unable to do their normal work for more than seven consecutive days, not counting the day of the accident: report within 15 days (reg. 4(2)). More than three days: record only (reg. 12(1)(c)) | Days away, restricted work or job transfer make a case recordable; days are counted from the day after the injury (1904.7) |
| People not at work | Injured and taken from the scene to hospital for treatment, or a specified injury on hospital premises (reg. 5) | Not covered: 1904.39 is about employees |
| Near misses | Dangerous occurrences listed in Schedule 2, such as the collapse of lifting equipment or of a scaffold over 5 metres high, are reportable even if nobody is hurt (reg. 7) | Part 1904 records injuries and illnesses, so a near miss with no injury is not recorded (1904.4) |
| How to report | Online with HSE’s forms; only fatal accidents and specified injuries to workers can be phoned in, on 0345 300 9923 (HSE) | The nearest Area Office by phone or in person, 1-800-321-6742, or online at osha.gov; not by voicemail, fax or email (1904.39(a)(3), (b)(1)) |
| Records | Every reportable event and every over-three-day injury, with the details in Schedule 1, kept for at least three years at the workplace or usual place of business (reg. 12) | Forms 300 and 301 within 7 calendar days of learning of a recordable case, kept for five years after the end of the year they cover (1904.29, 1904.33) |
Exemptions. RIDDOR does not cover most injuries from a vehicle moving on a public road, or injuries from medical treatment by a doctor or dentist (reg. 14). OSHA does not need a report for a motor vehicle accident on a public street or highway outside a construction work zone, or for an event on public transport, but the case is still recorded (1904.39(b)(3)-(4)).
Occupational diseases. RIDDOR also covers certain diagnosed diseases and exposures (regs. 8 and 9), and OSHA records work-related illnesses. They are usually diagnosed over time rather than caused by one event, so they sit outside this checklist.
Answer which rules apply and what happened in the first task, and conditional tasks add the RIDDOR or OSHA reporting steps, the first aid and statement tasks, and the return-to-work task only when they apply.
Every due date counts from the date and time of the event, so the 8-hour and 24-hour OSHA reports, the RIDDOR report and the 7-day log entry fall due in the right order, each assigned to the person who owns it. Photos, statements and the report are uploaded to the task from a phone browser.
The manager’s approval step holds the rest of the checklist until the report and action plan have a decision. Open investigations show as open checklists on the Reports Grid, and every answer, photo and decision is kept with who did it and when.
CheckFlow does not decide whether an event is reportable or what caused it. That belongs to the responsible person, the investigation team and, where needed, a competent health and safety adviser. It makes sure the evidence is gathered, the reports go in on time and every action has an owner until it is closed. Compliance checklist software shows how processes like this one run across sites.
Review the assessment the event exposed with the Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist, break the job into steps with the Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) Checklist, and use the Root Cause Analysis (8D) Checklist when a team needs to prove a cause nobody can see yet. Plan the injured worker’s return with the Return-to-Work Checklist.
Health & Safety Risk Assessment Checklist
Warehouse Safety Inspection Checklist
Root Cause Analysis (8D) Checklist
OSHA Recordkeeping Checklist
Workers’ Compensation Claim Checklist
Describe the process in a sentence and the AI checklist generator drafts the phases and tasks for you.
HSE’s guide HSG245 sets out four steps: gather the information, analyse it, identify risk control measures, and agree and carry out an action plan. Before those come the emergency response, preserving the scene and deciding whether the event must be reported. A good investigation looks for the immediate, underlying and root causes, gives every action an owner and a date, feeds into a review of the risk assessment and shares the findings with everyone who needs to know.
Yes. HSG245 says the level of investigation should depend on the worst consequence the event could have had and how likely it is to happen again, not only on the harm done this time. A near miss can have the same causes as a serious accident, and luck often decides which one happens. In the UK some near misses are also dangerous occurrences that must be reported under RIDDOR, such as the collapse of lifting equipment.
RIDDOR 2013 requires the responsible person to report work-related deaths, specified injuries to workers such as most fractures, amputations and serious burns, injuries that stop a worker doing their normal work for more than seven consecutive days, injuries to people not at work who are taken from the scene to hospital, and the dangerous occurrences listed in Schedule 2. Certain diagnosed occupational diseases are reportable too. HSE says reportability does not depend on anyone being to blame.
For a death, a specified injury, a person not at work taken to hospital or a dangerous occurrence, the responsible person must notify the enforcing authority by the quickest practicable means without delay, and send a report within 10 days. An over-seven-day injury must be reported within 15 days of the accident. HSE takes reports online, and only fatal accidents and specified injuries to workers can be phoned in, on 0345 300 9923.
Under 29 CFR 1904.39, an employer must report a work-related fatality within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalisation, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours. A death is reportable if it happens within 30 days of the incident, and the others if they happen within 24 hours of it. Report to the nearest Area Office, on 1-800-321-6742 or online at osha.gov. Separately, a recordable case goes on Forms 300 and 301 within 7 calendar days.
HSG245 defines the immediate cause as the most obvious reason an event happens, such as a missing guard or a slip. Underlying causes are the less obvious system or organisational reasons behind it, such as pre-start checks not being carried out. Root causes are the management, planning or organisational failings from which the others grow, such as training needs never being identified. Dealing only with the immediate cause gives a short-term fix.
In the UK, RIDDOR requires a record of every reportable event and every injury that keeps a worker off normal work for more than three days, kept for at least three years from the date of the entry, at the workplace or the usual place of business. In the US, the OSHA 300 Log, the annual summary and the 301 forms are kept for five years after the end of the calendar year they cover. Keep the investigation file alongside them.
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