CHST CHST - Construction Health and Safety Technician Incident Investigation and Reporting Questions and Answers 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: During an incident investigation on a construction site, what is the PRIMARY purpose of conducting witness interviews as soon as possible after the event?
- To assign blame to responsible workers
- To capture accurate recollections before memory fades (Correct answer)
- To satisfy insurance company requirements
- To prepare for potential litigation
Correct answer: To capture accurate recollections before memory fades
Witness interviews should be conducted promptly because human memory deteriorates rapidly, and early interviews yield the most accurate and detailed accounts of what occurred.
Question 2: Which root cause analysis technique uses a diagram that categorizes potential causes into groups such as Man, Machine, Method, Material, and Environment?
- Fault tree analysis
- Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram (Correct answer)
- 5 Whys technique
- Failure mode and effects analysis
Correct answer: Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram
The Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram organizes potential causes into major categories like Man, Machine, Method, Material, and Environment to systematically identify root causes.
Question 3: Under OSHA recordkeeping requirements, which of the following incidents must be reported to OSHA within 8 hours?
- Any workplace injury requiring first aid
- A work-related fatality (Correct answer)
- A work-related amputation
- A work-related loss of an eye
Correct answer: A work-related fatality
OSHA requires employers to report any work-related fatality within 8 hours, while amputations, loss of an eye, and inpatient hospitalizations must be reported within 24 hours.
Question 4: What is the MOST important reason for preserving the incident scene before an investigation begins?
- To prevent other workers from being exposed to the same hazard
- To ensure physical evidence is not altered or destroyed (Correct answer)
- To allow time for management to prepare a response
- To document the scene for media inquiries
Correct answer: To ensure physical evidence is not altered or destroyed
Preserving the incident scene ensures that critical physical evidence remains intact and unaltered, which is essential for accurately determining the sequence of events and root causes.
Question 5: A construction worker falls from scaffolding and is hospitalized. During the investigation, the team discovers the scaffold was missing guardrails and the worker had no fall protection training. Which investigation finding represents a SYSTEM-level root cause?
- The worker chose not to wear a harness
- The guardrails were removed by a subcontractor
- The company lacked a scaffold inspection program (Correct answer)
- The scaffold was erected on uneven ground
Correct answer: The company lacked a scaffold inspection program
The absence of a scaffold inspection program is a system-level root cause because it represents a management system failure that allowed the unsafe condition to persist undetected.
Question 6: Which of the following is the BEST practice for writing corrective actions in an incident investigation report?
- Use general language to allow flexibility in implementation
- Assign each action to a specific person with a target completion date (Correct answer)
- Focus corrective actions only on the worker involved in the incident
- Recommend disciplinary action as the primary corrective measure
Correct answer: Assign each action to a specific person with a target completion date
Effective corrective actions must be specific, assigned to a responsible individual, and include a target completion date to ensure accountability and timely implementation.
During an incident investigation on a construction site, what is the PRIMARY purpose of conducting witness interviews as soon as possible after the event?