The influence of accident manuals on the effectiveness of accident investigations – An analysis of accident management documents of Ghanaian mines

Abstract Accident investigations are mostly driven by policies and procedures laid down in an organisation’s incident management document. Such document determines the objective, scope, direction and focus of the investigation, and therefore influence the effectiveness of the investigation. This research sought to examine accident management documents and determine their effects on the effectiveness of investigation in Ghanaian mines. Twelve documents were collected from five large-scale Ghanaian mines and analysed using an integration of inductive and deductive approaches. The documents were analysed based on three major evaluation criteria, namely, the system of investigation, investigation process/activities and characteristics of the method investigation. Results showed that, when investigating an incident, all the mines focused on identifying the problem, with limited focus on proposing and implementing solutions. Additionally, there was narrow focus on evaluating the performance of risk controls during investigation. Two out of the five mines mandated the investigation of all events, whereas the other three only investigate injurious events. An evaluation of the investigation methods revealed that, the simple and complex linear causation models had underpinned all five investigation methods, with none of the methods being influence by the recent complex interaction causation model. The analysis of the documents resulted in the identification of several opportunities to strengthen investigations processes and improve the safety of the mines, and these have been discussed.