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On site response | Incident specific

How to deal with a serious accident

If a fatal or serious accident occurs to an employee or third-party (such as a member of the public or contractor) a manager should follow the instructions below.

Reporting a serious accident

Contact the emergency services - if appropriate
  • Explain the nature of the incident and ask for assistance.
Arrange First Aid
  • Provide or arrange first aid for the injured person.
Report the incident
  • Notify your Health and Safety Advisor and senior operational managers.
  • Health and Safety Advisor will advise if the incident needs to be dealt with under the Serious and Fatal Process.
  • Notify Central Postal Control (CPC) if outside of normal office hours of if operations is impacted.
Post-incident safety management
  • You must consider whether activities/work must stop to remove any ongoing risk.
  • Cordon off the area where the incident occurred as best you can
    • Ensure the cordon is clear and that staff are prevented from entering
    • If barriers, lighting and/or signage are required and these are not on site, contact PFS helpdesk on a rapid response job
    • Cordoning off the area may have an impact on activities on site, and could temporarily give rise to risks that must be managed appropriately (e.g. if blocking off traffic routes, walkways or fire exits). You must assess any impact, and put in place temporary arrangements as required to ensure the site can continue to operate safely – if it can’t, the impacted activities must stop until they can be done safely. Your Health and Safety Advisor will assist with this
  • Brief all staff (and any visitors) on temporary arrangements in place, both verbally and by displaying short written brief. Ensure the temporary arrangements are monitored.
  • If the incident impacts the security of your site, contact the security helpdesk
  • If cordoning off the area will cause operational disruption, inform Central Postal Control (CPC)
Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) Investigation
  • An SIO will be appointed to take charge of the investigation. This replaces the need for a local investigation.
  • All emails and correspondence should be on the authority of the SIO.

* This process still applies if the employee or third-party dies, or their condition seriously deteriorates some-time after the accident.

Serious and Fatal Incidents

  • Fatalities or suicides occurring whilst the RMG employee in on duty but excluding natural causes
  • Work-related incidents resulting in a fatality that involve a third party including contractors, visitors, members of the public etc.
  • Incidents involving serious life-threatening or life-changing injuries
  • Incidents that result in or have the potential to result in serious injury to a contractor, RMG employee of third-party visitor as a result of work performed by a contractor on behalf of RMG
  • All incident classified under RIDDOR as a dangerous occurrence

If in doubt at any stage always call Central Postal Control (CPC)

Central Postal Control deals with issues on a regular basis and will be able to talk you through how to deal with any situation.

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