The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urge employers (owners and  operators) to conduct a root cause analysis following an incident or  near miss at a facility. A root cause is a factor that caused a  nonconformance and should be permanently eliminated through process  improvement. Root cause analysis is a collective term that describes a  wide range of approaches, tools, and techniques used to uncover causes  of problems.

Instructions:

Consider an accident involving injuries in which you are familiar:  perhaps something that happened in your personal life, something at  work, or something you heard, viewed, or read about in the news. In a  3 page paper, analyze and discuss the following concepts as they  pertain to work safety and root cause analysis:

https://www.osha.gov/dts/vtools/construction/crane_powerline_fnl_eng_web_transcript.html

1. What was the nature of the work or activity taking place?
2. Describe the environment surrounding the activity
3. What planning was involved prior to the activity taking place?
4. How could the activity have been better planned in terms of keeping people safe?
5. What mitigation strategies will be implemented in activities similar to this one that might prevent the results of this event?