What to Do After a Workplace Accident

The Sequence

1. Medical care. Always first, and never delayed for testing.
2. Make the area safe. Stop the equipment, isolate the hazard, prevent a second incident.
3. Record the basics while they are fresh: time, location, who was involved, who witnessed it, what was happening.
4. Apply your testing criteria. Does this incident meet a trigger written in your policy, and whose conduct could have contributed?
5. Order the test and note the time you did so.
6. Get the employee to the collection and arrange how they get home afterward.
7. Complete the documentation the same day, while the detail is still accurate.

Apply the Criteria, Do Not Invent Them

The decision to test should follow criteria written before the incident: an injury requiring treatment beyond first aid, a vehicle incident, property damage above a threshold, or a near miss that could have caused serious injury. A supervisor applying a written rule is in a completely different position from one making a judgment call about a colleague in the middle of a crisis.

Test Everyone Who Could Have Contributed

This is both the fairer approach and the one aligned with OSHA's guidance. If a forklift clipped a rack, the operator may not be the only person whose conduct is relevant: the spotter, the person who loaded it, and the supervisor who directed the movement may all be. Testing only the injured employee, or only the person who filed the report, is the pattern that draws scrutiny.

The Clock, and Why Alcohol Sets It

Drug testing tolerates delay better than alcohol testing does. Alcohol concentration falls steadily, so a test hours later tells you much less. The federal rules for motor carriers illustrate the point: test within two hours, document why if you could not, and stop attempting after eight.

Practically, this is why after-hours coverage matters more for post-accident testing than for anything else in your program. Incidents do not schedule themselves for business hours.

Document Six Things, the Same Day

• What happened, when, and where
• Who was involved, and how each person could have contributed
• Which policy criterion was met
• Who decided to test, and at what time
• When the employee was notified and when the collection occurred
• Any delay, and the reason for it

Six items, written the night of the incident, are worth more than a detailed reconstruction a year later.

Mind the Gap Between Incident and Order

There is a window nobody owns: the supervisor is dealing with an injury, someone has to find the person who authorizes testing, and that person has to reach the provider. Those minutes are rarely documented, and in a contested claim they are among the first things examined. Decide in advance who can order a test without hunting for approval, and record times as they happen.

What Not to Do

• Do not delay medical care for a test.
• Do not test only the person who reported the injury.
• Do not let an employee drive themselves after a reasonable suspicion or post-accident test.
• Do not discuss the reason for testing in front of the team.
• Do not act on a screening result before confirmation and Medical Review Officer review.