The Investigation Process Research Resource Site
A Pro Bono site with hundreds of resources for Investigation Investigators
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. . . .. . . . . . . . last updated 8/8/09

INVESTIGATING
INVESTIGATIONS

to advance the
State-of-the-Art of
investigations, through
investigation process
research.



Research Resources:


Launched Aug 26 1996.
 
musings
This section contains random personal musings about the investigation processes and investigation practices I have observed over the years. I hope they will be entertaining, at least. Revised to 12/22/2020.

Did you ever wonder?
  • whwy there are 40 different accident investigation and analysis methods in use?

  • why in organizations that investigate accidents, their investigation productivity and efficiency are rarely mentioned, and have been declining or static in an era when both productivity and efficiency have been a focus in almost all other organized endeavors?< Hmmm.

  • why whengovernment agencies ente>r into research projects based on disparate views about wht an accident is, without demanding that those view be made explicit in proposals?

  • why investigation organizations are so reluctant to predict the safety effectiveness of their proposed risk ameliorting actions, and how successful amelioration effectiveness will be recognized?

  • why investigators raise the level of abstraction when they have to describe events they do not understand - especially in the human factors arena?

  • why there isn't anyone - beside litigants or salesmen - who is willing to ague the merits of probable cause or root cause determination as investigation objectives??

  • why so many managers, operational types and designers seem to give lip service only to investigation programs until something really bad happens?


  • why with the advances in predictive analyses used in system safety programs for products, investigations are not always used to update or upgrade these analyses?

  • why an accident or fire or explosion or spill is still referred to as an event rather than a process, and what difference the answer makes to investigators?

  • why so much investigation and accident causation literature is generated by academics of disciplines other than researchers educated as practitioners of the investigation discipline?
In the USA, a 1996 amended law made data used to support government-sponsored studies available to the public under Freedom of Information requests. It will be interesting to watch how that law is implemented.

My own first experience with such a request has been greeted by delay until the final study is released. Of course, by then any damage due to inadequate or inappropriate underlying data will have been done, because corrections always get a lot less attention than the original releases.
Pity there is no peer review requirement for such research.

by
Perplexed