Page 5 - May 2022 Track N Times

SAFETY FOCUS

Writing Reports to Get Results

By Mitch Kruse, Manager Environmental Health and Safety

Importance of Incident Reporting
An incident report serves as a permanent record of an event that negatively impacted our employees or cus-
tomers. Be it property damage, environmental spill, employee injury, or a close call, all incident reports serve a
critical purpose in ensuring that the events of what happened are accurately documented. With accurate re-
porting, patterns of behaviors and events may be identified so that specific interventions, such as process im-
provement, medical follow-up, or employee training, are completed.

For an incident to be useful, it needs to be effectively written. The five sections below provide criteria that
should be considered when writing an incident report.
1. Factual and Objective

Effective reports are based on facts and remain objective. They avoid inclusion of personal biases,
do not draw their own conclusions/predictions, or place blame. Reports should cover the facts of
what happened and use specific, descriptive language to communicate what occurred to the reader.
Opinions should only be used in an incident report if they are clearly designated as an opinion such
as witness statements. An opinion is a belief, not a fact. See the example below.

Fact: The driver had a blood alcohol level that was twice the legal limit.

Opinion: The driver is an alcoholic.
2. Clear
All reports should be written in a way so that a person who was not involved in the incident can
clearly understand what happened and what is being done about it. If different people can read the
same report and come up with different interpretations, the report is not clear. Do not assume the
reader understands acronyms or lingo of the trade. Use specific language and detail to avoid vague
references. See the example below.

Vague: The balcony collapsed because it was overcrowded.
Clear: The wooden balcony collapsed because it was overloaded. Structural engineers confirmed
that it was designed to hold a maximum of eight people. Several witnesses said there were at least
fifteen people on the balcony when it collapsed.
3. Complete

Reports should be complete and contain all relevant details surrounding the incident. The
report should cover who, what, where, when, why, and how. A completed report will be a
group effort between front line employees reporting initial details and their leadership fol-
lowing up with further investigation. Using Loram’s What, So What, Now What leadership
mentality, a report should be able to fully describe what happened, its importance, and what
actions will be taken for containment, follow-up, and long-term prevention.
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Page 3 MAY 2022