Factoring the Human into Safety Translating Research into Practice: The Development and Evaluation of a Human Factors Accident and Near Miss Reporting Form for the Offshore Industry

Aimed to develop an incident reporting form which would be used to gather human factors data from individuals involved in incidents on offshore installations, collect data using this form, and evaluate the form using this data. An accident reporting system was developed,, based on previously developed models of accident causation (e.g. Reason, 1990; Wickens, 1992) with a potential to deliver greater accuracy of human factors incident data. The incident reporting form (Witness statement form II) was tested using ten offshore case studies to assess its effectiveness in obtaining greater numbers and more specific human factors causes. Overall, the examination of these case studies showed that the form has helped to extract additional information than the company's original report. Although some of this information may not be directly relevant to the investigation, it sheds light on possible hazardous situations.