Accident investigation and root cause analysis method

A large number of accidents happened each day in many industries all over the world, which result in injury to people, environment pollution and consequential reputation damage. By investigation into accidents, we can identify root causes of accidents and develop implement corrective actions, which prevent accidents from reoccurring. Accident root cause analysis method is introduced in this paper. By analyzing each causal factor of accidents, root causes are found, and corrective actions are developed due to root causes to prevent accidents from reoccurring. This paper introduces a accident model of root cause analysis and its root cause tree, and apply this method to Luojia “12 23” blowout accident which killed 243 because of hydrothion releasing from blowout in Luojia-16, on 23^rd December 2003. Root cause analysis has a good application prospect in accident investigation and analysis in oil well drilling industry.