Road Traffic Accident and Incident Investigation

What is the difference between road accident and road incident?

Incident doesnt always have an outcome such as injury, property damage etc whereas Accident always
have outcome such as injury, property damage or both.
Road Incidents: Customer complaints, high speed driving, traffic violation and fines, Transport Authority
fines, fire and others accident on road, damaged/under construction road, high temperature, sand storm,
dense fog, rain, events which interacts with road traffic etc.
Road/traffic Accidents: commonly called as Driver Fault (DF) Accident, Non Driver Fault Accident, accident
at parking lot, accident at workshop, terminal etc.
Why Road Traffic Accident and Incident Investigation is Important?
Accident/Incident important because learning from that incident/accident could be shared with other
drivers to prevent similar road traffic accident, reduce maintenance cost of taxi operation, enhance public
safety/KPI target given by concerned authority(if any), maintain long run business relationship with
Transport Authority etc. Always Remember, Police report for road accident doesnt always give us the way
to prevent such incident in future.
Who should do the Accident Investigation?
Accident and incident investigation must always be done by a trained person who has set of knowledge and
experience in doing investigation. Remember: Investigation is not Just an Observation.
What is to be reported and investigated?
Road and traffic Incident and accidents, incidents at workshop & terminal, dangerous occurrences/ nearmisses (i.e. about to meet an accident but escaped by chance.), fire incident, driver ill health, camp incident
(if any), customer complaints, road traffic fines, QC fines from Transport Authority, physical violence etc.
What are the main focuses of the incident/accident investigation?
To know details of the incident/accident (not only to accept what driver explains)
To find Immediate Cause of the Incident/Accident
To find Root Cause of the Incident (refer root cause analysis mechanism given below fig. no. 01)
Carryout Immediate corrective action (to correct the same driver, taxi, condition, situation which met accident)
Initiate Preventive Action from lesson learnt for the local division and for all other taxi divisions of the
group
Its a process of LEARNING BY DOING
Correction of our mistakes is not possible without identifying the issue and the identification of issue is
not possible without thorough investigation of incident/accident.
LETS LEARN TOGETHER IMPROVEMENT IS CORRECTION

ZERO ACCIDENT IS A SET OF MIND

Road Traffic Accident and Incident Investigation

fig. no. 01

Arabia Taxi Accident 2014 = 8474

fig. no. 01
INCIDENT / ACCIDENT ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
TAXI
CONDITION

ROAD
CONDITION

MAINTENANCE
WORKMENSHIP

DAMAGE
CONSTRUCTION

PARTS | TOOLS

SLIPPERY| NARROW

MAINT | PROCEDURE

DISTRACTING

SPEED | LOAD

VISIONS/GLARE
ACCIDENT | EVENT

MODEL | TECHNOLOGY

ROAD ACCIDENT

DRIVER
CONDITION

WEATHER
CONDITION

SLEEPING

RAIN

EYE SIGHT/HEALTH

DENSE FOG

STRESS

SAND STORM

FATIGUE

NIGHT/VISION

ATTITUDE

HIGH TEMPERATURE

ZERO ACCIDENT IS A SET OF MIND