What is the primary objective of an incident investigation?

• A. Assign blame to individuals involved.
• B. Identify which department is responsible.
• C. Determine the cost impact of the incident.
• D. Determine root causes and implement corrective and preventive actions to prevent recurrence.

Answer: (D)

The aim is to uncover root causes and put in place corrective and preventive actions so that the incident doesn’t happen again. Incident investigations focus on learning from what happened, not assigning blame. By digging into root causes—whether they involve people, processes, equipment, or organizational factors—you identify the underlying factors that allowed the incident to occur. Then you implement corrective actions to address immediate failures and preventive actions to reduce the chance of recurrence, creating safer, more reliable systems.

Assigning blame or determining which department is responsible doesn’t improve safety or reliability, and calculating the cost impact isn’t the central goal of the investigation itself, even though cost considerations may influence decisions about which actions to prioritize. The real value lies in understanding how and why the incident occurred and turning that understanding into concrete changes that prevent future harm.