Saturday, February 9, 2013

Accident Reporting

Despite all the precautions that we take, it is possible that you may be injured at some
time while working at Carnegie Mellon. If that should happen you are urged to report it,
no matter how slight the injury may seem.

We ask you to report it for two reasons. First, even minor injuries are warnings that
something happened that wasn't planned. Unless we know about injuries, or even those
incidents that don't result in injuries (referred to as "near miss" accidents), we can't
correct the problem that led to the incident. Left uncorrected, it can easily happen again,
and it may be more serious the next time. Help us, and everyone around you, by reporting
every incident that causes, or has the potential to cause, an injury. EH&S will investigate
and determine what can be done to prevent a recurrence.

The second reason that injuries should be reported is to get them on record for Workers'
Compensation purposes. Your injury may not require treatment now, but there is no
guarantee that it won't require treatment at a later date. Injuries often seem insignificant
when they occur but eventually become more serious. By having your incident on record
you won't be asked to prove that it happened on the job. Without reporting it at the time
it happens, you may have difficulty proving that it was job-related at some later date.
Don't take the chance.

Reporting an injury couldn't be simpler. All you have to do is tell your supervisor about it
and ask him/her to submit a Supervisor's Injury/Illness Report (.pdf). The form will tell you
how it is to be submitted.

That's all you have to do. A copy of the report will get to EH&S, so you won't even have to
call us unless you want to. You may be contacted if we need additional information to
complete our investigation, but you won't be asked to do anything else. What could be
easier?

Feel free to contact us at 8-8182 to determine the status of any investigation or
recommended action.