Published July 2023.

While the geotechnical and geoenvironmental industry aims to eliminate all accidents and harm to health, from time-to-time accidents could happen, affecting those working within the industry or even third parties.

It is therefore of the upmost importance, to accurately capture what went wrong through accident investigation, record and report the accident findings, and share any learning as wide as possible to aid others to prevent similar accidents from occurring.

The first priority should always be to prevent harm, however, there are also good financial reasons for reducing accidents and ill health, not least because of prosecutions and fines, but also the indirect costs associated with managing incidents. Costings show (as detailed within the cost to Britain of workplace accidents and work-related ill health in 1995/96) that for every £1 a business spends on insurance, it can be losing between £8 and £36 in uninsured costs. In addition, left unmanaged accidents can reoccur, multiplying costs and impacting the wellbeing of those directly affected, witnesses, co-workers, family, friends, etc.