Accident Investigation Course

Goals and objectives

Learning opportunities arising from the incident will be effectively captured, and the proper root causes will be efficiently identified to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Furthermore, to succeed in achieving a high degree of behavioural awareness within the participants in order to develop proper investigation abilities. It will also provide practical advice and tools for the systematic investigation of human factors in marine casualties and incidents and allow the development of effective preventive action.

Course description

The participants will learn these useful tools in a fast-paced environment that includes realistic exercises, games, role play, interactive discussions, and the use of advanced learning tools (discovery learning), all of which will ensure a rapid transfer of knowledge into skills. The course is a significant step forward in terms of improving human and equipment performance. The teaching is reinforced by active participation in several case studies and other learning tasks.

The training program will provide the participants with further knowledge within safety in order to enable them to make a proper, effective and human factors-based investigation of accidents, incidents and near misses.

The course will also teach the participants how to execute proper documentation of all areas of an investigation – and further how to follow up on corrective measures. The participants will also learn how to write useful accident reports incorporating data about the human element.

Gains

The participants will learn how to find the causes leading to the undesired event by using a combination of the most reliable methods for conducting investigations without the negative finger-pointing, blame and unconscious prejudices that hinder effective investigations. The typical problems created by using a hindsight approach will be avoided by adopting a more realistic and practical view: "within the tunnel".

The main purpose of investigating an accident or incident is to prevent a similar event from occurring again and further to identify underlying human and technical aspects. Therefore, the course highlights the proper investigative procedures including the human factors aspects.

After the course the participants will be able to:

• Use the most advanced techniques in accident investigation with focus on human factors
• Identify underlying causes and explanatory factors 
• Make practical recommendations for corrective actions which will prevent similar events in the future 
• Use practical tips to write revealing reports
• Use practical and effective interviewing techniques