Something serious has just happened on your premises. Someone is injured. The clock is running.

Most small employers have no plan for this moment. They have a first aid kit, maybe a safety statement, and a vague intention to deal with incidents "if they ever happen." Then one does, and the next 72 hours determine whether the company comes out the other side intact.

This is the guide for that moment.

The First Hour: Immediate Welfare Comes First

One thing only matters right now. The injured person.

Call 999 or 112. Get emergency services moving. Do not delay that call to make any other call first. Do not move the casualty unless leaving them in place creates immediate further danger. If you have trained first aiders on site, get them working. If you do not, keep the person warm, still, and reassured until the ambulance arrives.

Once emergency services are en route, secure the scene. Nobody enters the area where the incident happened. No cleaning up. No moving equipment. The scene is evidence, and disturbing it before the HSA inspects is a serious mistake that has cost employers dearly in prosecutions.

Assign one person to meet the ambulance at the site entrance. Assign another to keep everyone else away from the scene and to start writing down what they observed, in their own words, immediately. Memory degrades fast.

Contact the injured person's next of kin directly. This is not a job for HR or for a text message. A manager picks up the phone, gives the facts calmly, tells them which hospital the person is being taken to, and asks if they need help getting there. This conversation matters for the family, and it matters for how your company is perceived through everything that follows.

Think also about supporting your team through workplace trauma from the outset. Witnesses to a serious incident are affected too, and ignoring that in the first hours creates problems that surface weeks later.

Hours One to Four: Who You Must Notify, and When

Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the relevant regulations, certain incidents must be reported to the Health and Safety Authority. This is not optional and the timeline is tight.

A fatal accident must be reported to the HSA immediately by phone. The number is 1890 289 389. You then follow up in writing within five working days using an IR1 form.

A dangerous occurrence, or an accident that leaves an employee unable to work for more than three consecutive days not including the day of the accident, must be reported in writing within ten working days using the same IR1 form, available on the HSA website.

Do not assume your incident falls below the threshold. If you are unsure, report it. A phone call to the HSA costs you nothing. Failing to report when you should have costs you in court.

Notify your insurance company at this stage. Read your policy before you say too much. You have a duty to notify, but you are not obliged to admit liability on that call. Keep to facts. Notify your solicitor if the injury is serious.

Hours Four to Twenty-Four: Preserving Evidence and Taking Statements

Preserve the scene. If work must resume nearby for safety reasons, photograph and video the incident area extensively first. Record positions of equipment, tools, guards, barriers, or their absence. Note weather conditions if relevant. Write down times.

Take witness statements now. Every person who saw or heard anything relevant should write their own account in their own words, signed and dated. Do not let people compare notes first. Do not coach anyone on what to say. Accurate, independent accounts protect you and protect them.

Start an incident file. Keep everything in one place: the statements, photos, any maintenance records for equipment involved, relevant risk assessments, training records for the injured person, and any CCTV footage. Save the CCTV footage immediately. Many systems overwrite after 24 to 72 hours and that footage is gone.

Review your safety statement and risk assessment for the activity involved. You will be asked about this. If there are gaps, document what controls were actually in place even if they were not written down. Do not alter records after the fact. That turns a safety failure into a fraud.

Hours Twenty-Four to Seventy-Two: Professional Support and the Day After

By this point you should have a solicitor involved if there is any prospect of litigation or prosecution. Get one who knows health and safety law. A commercial generalist will not do.

The HSA may inspect. Inspectors have the right to enter your premises, examine documents, take samples, interview workers, and issue prohibition or improvement notices. Cooperate. Answer questions factually. Do not speculate. If an inspector asks something you do not know, say so. Your solicitor can advise on how to handle a formal interview.

Brief your team. Workers deserve honest communication about what happened and what the company is doing. Silence breeds rumour, and rumour breeds anxiety and claim culture. You do not need to share legal detail. You do need to confirm the injured person's status if family has given permission, explain that an investigation is underway, and tell people what support is available to them.

If employees are distressed, bring in professional critical incident support. Employee Assistance Programmes are the most common route. If you do not have one, your EAP provider can often be engaged on a per-incident basis. Occupational health input at this stage prevents longer term psychological fallout in the team.

The Internal Investigation

Do not confuse the HSA investigation with your own. You need an internal investigation regardless of what the authority does.

The goal is to understand what happened and why, so it cannot happen again. Not to assign blame internally, and not to build a legal defence document, though both of those things matter too. Get someone with competence to lead it. In a small operation that may mean bringing in an external safety consultant.

The output should be a factual report with a root cause analysis and a corrective action plan with named owners and completion dates. If you identify a systemic failure, fix it before you restart the relevant work. Restarting without addressing the root cause and having an inspector return is a situation nobody survives well.

The Checklist Summary

Hour 0 to 1: Emergency services called. Casualty cared for. Scene secured. Nobody enters. Next of kin contacted. Witnesses separated and statements started.

Hour 1 to 4: HSA notified if required. Insurer notified. Solicitor contacted if injury is serious. CCTV footage saved.

Hour 4 to 24: Full evidence preservation. Photographs, video, documentation. Incident file opened. Training and maintenance records pulled.

Hour 24 to 72: Team briefed. Welfare support arranged. Internal investigation begun. HSA inspection prepared for. Corrective actions identified.

The first 72 hours will not undo what happened. But they will determine whether the response makes things better or considerably worse.

Get the welfare right first. Get the notification right second. Everything else follows from those two things.