Investigate the Geelong hand knife injury and recommend controls

What is going on

On 7 September a signage operator at the Geelong studio cut their left index finger while trimming corflute with a hand knife and needed three stitches. The event is recorded as INC-26-044 and is under investigation. The studio trims corflute by hand when the flatbed cutter is busy, cut resistant gloves are available but not required, and the task has no written safe work method. Renee Okafor has asked you to run the investigation, identify the root cause, recommend controls in line with the hierarchy of controls, update the register and prepare a toolbox talk. Helena Marsh wants the findings at the next leadership meeting.

Your brief

Investigate the injury using the incident report structure, find the immediate and root causes, recommend and rank controls, update the Incident and Hazard Register with actions, owners and dates, and prepare a toolbox talk for the studio team.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the Occupational Health and Safety Policy and the Incident and Hazard Report Form guidance on investigation, and confirm whether the injury is notifiable to the regulator.
• Review the register entry INC-26-044 and prepare interview questions for the injured worker, the witness and Jarrod Fenech that establish the sequence of events without blame.
• Walk through the corflute trimming task as it is actually done, noting the tool, the work height, the glove use, the time pressure and the availability of the cutter.
• Identify the immediate cause and the root cause using the five whys, and record which control failed or was missing.
• Recommend controls ranked by the hierarchy of controls, such as scheduling trimming on the cutter, a safety knife with a retracting blade, mandatory cut resistant gloves and a written safe work method.
• Update INC-26-044 in the Incident and Hazard Register with the findings, corrective actions, owners and due dates, and change the status.
• Prepare a toolbox talk on the Toolbox Talk Record Template for the studio covering the event, the new controls and the reporting expectation.
• Write a one page findings report for Helena Marsh with the risk ranked and the actions recommended for the leadership meeting.

What someone in this role would produce

• Investigation record with interview notes and root cause
• Ranked control recommendations
• Updated Incident and Hazard Register entry
• Completed toolbox talk record
• Findings report for the General Manager