Short Course: Introduction to Incident Investigation in the Process Industry

Lea en Español

S2: Introduction to Incident Investigation in the Process Industry 

Near misses, accidents and incidents are a great source of priceless information for process safety professionals, everyone involved in loss prevention and to all aspects of process safety in the chemical and process industries. Knowing and isolating the root cause of an incident is crucial for continued success in any process safety program. Incident investigation is part detective work, part management, part science and finally common sense.

The participants of this course will debate the different phases of an investigation and the best practices to execute a well rounded investigation, which generate significant and effective recommendations. Common industrial accidents and other investigated accidents will be used by the instructor as a starting point for debates and the work in groups. 

Who Should Attend:

• Process engineers in charge of managing a process plant
• Process safety engineers
• EH&S Personnel in charge of root cause analysis and incident investigations

Instructor: Carlos Barrera

Course Description:

Basic Concepts

• Accidents, incidents, near misses: why?, how?, and their importance
• Investigation and Reconstruction of Accidents
• Process Safety: learning from the past

Brief History

• Important accidents in human history
• Important accidents in the chemical and process industries

Better Practices

• Collecting Information
• Reconstructing the sequence of events
• Management and storage of evidence
• Witness interviews
• Analysis Tools
  • ​Fault Tree Analysis
  • Cause and Consequence Analysis
  • Brainstorming

​Reporting and Publishing Information

• Corporate Systems
• Using a database
• Metrics

Recommendations and Case Studies

• Development
• Communication