Incident causation model for improving feedback of safety knowledge

In order for the construction industry to improve its poor safety performance it needs to learn from its mistakes and put the lessons learned to good use. This need calls for effective feedback mechanisms that can transmit information derived from incident investigation to be utilized in safety planning. The feedback should be at two levels; first, feedback to the Safety Management System that had failed, and second, feedback to the safety planning of future projects. The first level of feedback can be achieved by basing the investigation on an incident investigation model that explicitly identifies system failure. The second level of feedback can be achieved if both incident investigation and safety planning share the same incident causation model, such that the information from each process can be retrieved and utilized in the other process smoothly. One prerequisite to fulfill the two levels of feedback is the development of an incident causation model. In this paper, the modified loss causation model (MLCM), which is able to meet the above-mentioned purposes, will be presented. The MLCM is developed based on an extensive literature review and application on 140 actual accident cases obtained from Singapore's Ministry of Manpower, Occupational Safety Department. In this paper, the model's application will be demonstrated through a case study, which involves codification of investigation information based on an actual incident report, and a safety planning process based on a hypothetical case.