What should you do if you have an accident at work?
Naturally, you should firstly seek medical attention to make sure you are okay! At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your wellbeing. Once you are sure you are fine you should report your accident to your manager or supervisor and make sure that a record is properly kept of your accident by your employer.
All employers are legally required to keep an accident book. It is necessary to record all accidents in this book and it is good practice to even record near misses in the workplace. For example, if you trip over something that shouldn’t have been there but don’t fall and hit the ground or injure yourself, you should still report this so that action be taken in order to prevent such incidents happening again.
Recording incidents in an accident report is useful for several reasons. It doesn’t just help to prevent future possible accidents but if you want to make a claim for compensation, there is a record of your accident and what happened – so there is no later suggestion that the accident didn’t happen. Further, you should also ensure that your are happy that your accident has been reported accurately so that if you later have to refer to the entry in the accident report, there can be no suggesting that your accident was different.
You should also know that you are entitled to a copy of your signed accident report. It’s also worth knowing that in terms of signing your accident report form, you do not have to do this until you absolutely sure that you are happy with the entry and that it is accurate.
Other useful things can include recording the names and positions of any witnesses there were to your accident. They can be called upon to help fight your claim by supporting your version of events. Earlier I mentioned that it’s important to see a medical expert to see that you are okay, well this is also useful because the medical expert will record your visit and your recollection of events, which again can be useful evidence in support of your claim. Another good course of action is to try and get photographs of what caused your accident if possible, the more evidence the better.
By doing the above you are helping bring together evidence that can go a long way in making sure you have a successful claim for compensation and it can actually ensure that your claim can be settled sooner rather than later. The more evidence you are able to supply at the start means less delays during the Defendant’s investigations of your claim because evidence is at hand.
If you have had an accident whilst at work and have been injured and want to find out if you can be compensated for your injuries, get in touch with us at The Injury Lawyers today where we will happily provide you with some further free legal advice with no obligations on you.
