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This paper is the last of a series of three, all of them associated with WAIT (Work Accidents Investigation Technique), which is a new method for use in the investigation and analysis of occupational accidents. The initial paper (Part I) introduced the WAIT process as well as its theoretical foundations. Part II discussed the results of its application in 56 real accidents. It showed that WAIT fulfilled its intended purpose and provided good coverage in the case of both simple and complex accidents at work, across a variety of industrial sectors. It is widely accepted that accident data, and the lessons learnt from it, play an important role in the continuous improvement of safety. However, the effectiveness of these improvements relies on the quality of such data,
and one must attempt to ascertain not only whether or not a method works (in terms of its applicability and coverage), but also if it works sufficiently well (in terms of providing valid and reliable information). The latter was the objective of the work reported in this paper (Part III). Three studies are discussed, providing a preliminary insight into the technique’s validity and reliability. The first is a comparison with another structured technique, the second is an inter-analysts reliability study, and the third, designed for assessing certain other attributes, is based on the subjective opinion of the users of WAIT. The paper concludes with proposals for future work aiming to confirm the (apparently satisfactory) results obtained so far and to study the distribution of causation factors in a larger and statistically representative sample.
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