Dalippe Lalloo is a solicitor with Lalloo Solicitors in Dublin and publisher of injured.ie, where he writes practical information about Irish workplace accidents, road traffic collisions and personal injury law.
Email: info@injured.ie
Telephone: 01 664 1800
Website: injured.ie
When a workplace accident occurs, HR may have to coordinate medical care, safety measures, reporting, evidence preservation and communications at once. The first 24 hours are not the time to decide liability or assign blame. The priorities are to protect people, control any continuing risk, preserve reliable information and begin a fair investigation.
Put people and immediate safety first
Medical assistance comes before paperwork. Activate the organisation’s emergency procedures, provide first aid and contact the emergency services where necessary. Under sections 8 and 11 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, employers must have adequate emergency procedures and must not require employees to resume work while a serious and imminent danger remains.
Nominate one person to coordinate the response and keep a chronology of key decisions. A fatal accident must be notified to the Health and Safety Authority by the quickest practicable means as soon as possible. The HSA also advises employers to contact its Contact Centre following a serious workplace injury.
Protect the scene and time-sensitive evidence
Safety and rescue always take priority. The scene may need to be changed to assist an injured person or remove an immediate danger. Apart from necessary steps, avoid moving equipment, resetting machinery, cleaning the area or repairing a vehicle before the basic facts have been recorded.
A special statutory rule applies after a reportable fatal accident. The place where it occurred must not be disturbed, and nothing there may be tampered with, until it has been inspected by an HSA inspector or three clear days have passed after reporting. Limited exceptions include action necessary to protect safety or health, action taken with an inspector’s consent and compliance with another statutory provision.
Where safe, photograph the wider area and close-up details. Record the position and condition of equipment, guards, flooring, lighting, warning signs and personal protective equipment. Log any change made to the scene, who authorised it and why.
Record facts, not conclusions
Create an initial record covering the date, time and location; the task being performed; the people present; the equipment or substances involved; relevant conditions; and what happened immediately before and after the event.
Speak to witnesses separately as soon as reasonably practicable. Use open questions and distinguish what each person directly saw, heard or did from what they learned later. Allow the witness to check and confirm their account.
Avoid labels such as “employee error”, “unsafe behaviour” or “equipment failure” before the investigation has established the facts. Apply the same caution to emails, messages and management updates.
Preserve records lawfully
Relevant information can disappear through routine deletion. Consider preserving:
• CCTV, dashcam and body-worn footage;
• access-control, alarm and location records;
• photographs, messages and incident notifications;
• rosters, work allocations and training records;
• risk assessments, the safety statement and work instructions;
• inspection, maintenance and repair records; and
• permits, contractor documents and equipment logs.
Preserve original digital files where possible and record when and by whom a copy was made. CCTV containing identifiable people is personal data, so access should be limited, security maintained and retention confined to what is necessary for a lawful purpose. A Data Protection Commission case study also indicates that footage relevant to a valid access request should be preserved while that request is being addressed.
Check whether an HSA report is required
An internal accident form and a statutory HSA report are different. Under Part 14 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007 to 2016, reportable events include:
- an employee, including an agency worker, being prevented by a workplace accident from performing normal work for more than three consecutive days;
- a non-employee being injured by a workplace accident or work activity and, because of the nature or severity of the injury, being taken from the scene to a hospital or medical facility for treatment;
- a death resulting from a work-related accident, including a death occurring within one year; and
- a dangerous occurrence listed in the Regulations, even if nobody is injured.
For an employee, exclude the accident day but include weekends and non-working days. “More than three consecutive days” means at least four. An employee who returns but remains unable to perform normal duties, including on light duties, may still meet the threshold.
A non-fatal accident or dangerous occurrence must be reported as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than ten working days after the event. A fatality must be notified as soon as possible by the quickest practicable means, followed by the formal report within five working days of the death. Records of reportable accidents and dangerous occurrences must be kept for ten years.
Because an injury may develop, diary an early review rather than deciding on day one that no report will be required.
Begin a competent investigation and corrective action
Appoint someone competent to investigate the incident. The investigation should consider immediate, underlying and organisational causes, rather than focusing only on the final act in the chain.
Do not wait for the final report before controlling an obvious risk. Put proportionate temporary controls in place immediately.
An accident may give reason to believe that the relevant risk assessment or safety statement is no longer valid. If so, sections 19 and 20 of the 2005 Act require the relevant document to be reviewed and amended as appropriate, with necessary improvements implemented.
A safety representative may inspect the workplace immediately after an accident and investigate accidents and dangerous occurrences, provided they do not interfere with the scene or obstruct a statutory obligation.
Communicate carefully and support the employee
Give the injured employee one point of contact and explain what information is needed, what the immediate process will be and when they can expect an update. Contact should be supportive, not interrogative.
Share medical and incident information only on a need-to-know basis. Managers may need to know that an employee is absent or restricted from duties; they will not usually need detailed medical information. Remind staff not to post photographs, accusations or commentary about the accident online.
The first-24-hours checklist
Before the end of the first day, HR should confirm that:
• the injured person has received appropriate care;
• any continuing danger has been controlled;
• the scene and relevant equipment have been protected where possible;
• a factual chronology and witness details have been recorded;
• time-sensitive digital records are protected from deletion;
• HSA reporting requirements have been checked and diarised;
• the employee has a named contact;
• responsibility for the investigation is clear; and
• immediate corrective measures have an owner and completion date.
A calm, organised response protects people first. It also gives the organisation the best opportunity to establish what happened, meet its obligations and prevent a similar accident.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Correct as at 6 August 2026. This article provides general information and is not a substitute for advice on a specific situation.
Sources:
- Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, section 8
Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, sections 19, 20 and 25
S.I. No. 370/2016, Part 14: reporting, scene preservation and record retention
Health and Safety Authority: Accident and Dangerous Occurrence Reporting
Health and Safety Authority: Reporting and Investigating Accidents and Incidents