Incident Investigation Form
Structured incident investigation with a 5 Whys root cause section, corrective actions and sign-off.
A ready-to-use manufacturing & industrial form for small teams who need a reliable intake process: 17 questions, 3 pages, 2 conditional rules.
- Questions
- 17
- Pages
- 3
- Layouts
- classic
- Conditional rules
- 2
- Typical time
- 12 min
Searches this template answers
- incident investigation form
- root cause analysis form workplace
- 5 whys incident report template
- workplace incident investigation template
- accident investigation form uk
- safety incident investigation record
Also filed under
Live preview and test console
This is the real form. Answer it to test the flow — nothing is sent or stored.
Page 1 of 3 — Incident details
This template runs as a straight sequence — no branching rules.
What happens after submit: nothing is stored in this preview. On your own copy, every response triggers an instant email notification and lands in your response dashboard, ready to export or forward.
Happy with it? Take a copy into your workspace — every question, rule and setting comes with it.
Who this template is for
Incident Investigation Form is built for small teams who need a reliable intake process who need to collect the same complete information from everyone.
- Small teams who need a reliable intake process working in manufacturing & industrial.
- Teams who need to collect the same complete information from everyone without writing code or paying for a custom build.
- Anyone replacing chasing missing details over email with one structured record per enquiry.
- Respondents are the people you send it to — the form asks them 17 questions across 3 screens.
Why this form is useful
It removes the cost of chasing missing details over email and turns each submission into a record your team can act on immediately.
- 7 questions are required, so submissions arrive complete instead of needing a follow-up email.
- It records a signature you can keep as proof of agreement.
- It pins the request to a specific date.
- Conditional logic hides 2 questions until they are relevant — shorter forms convert better than long ones.
- Splitting the form across 3 pages keeps each screen short and shows respondents how much is left.
- Every response is stored, searchable and exportable, so nothing depends on one person's inbox.
How to use this template
From copy to live form is a few minutes of work, and every step is reversible.
- 1Press “Use this template” — a fresh copy of Incident Investigation Form lands in your workspace, ready to edit.
- 2Rename or delete any question, and change what is required. Nothing here is fixed.
- 3Open Notifications and add the email addresses that should be alerted on each submission; add an auto-reply to the respondent if the form collects an email address.
- 4Publish it, then either share the link directly or paste the embed snippet into your site — the embedded form resizes to fit and loads no marketing or advertising trackers.
- 5Watch responses land in Submissions, where you can filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF.
Logic and conditions blueprint
Exactly how this form behaves as it is answered — 2 conditional rules ship with it.
- Features conditional validation: if “Was anyone injured?” is Yes, “Details of injury and first aid/medical treatment given” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent.
- Features conditional validation: if “Severity” is High, “Corrective actions” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent.
- All 2 rules are editable in the Logic tab, and the built-in checker warns about rules that contradict each other.
About this template
A report that only records what happened tends to produce a fix that only addresses what happened once. This investigation form goes further by structuring a 5 Whys root cause exercise: five linked fields, each asking why the previous answer was true, walking the investigator from the immediate cause (a spill wasn't cleaned up) back toward the systemic one (there's no routine floor-check process) rather than stopping at whoever was nearest at the time. It opens with the standard factual record — what happened, when, where, injuries or damage, and immediate actions taken — before moving into the root cause section, then closes with corrective actions, owners and target dates so the investigation produces changes rather than just a narrative. A severity rating helps prioritise the corrective actions against other open safety work. It's built for incidents serious enough to warrant proper investigation, not routine near misses — for those, the shorter Near Miss Report Form is the right starting point, escalated to this one when a pattern emerges or the potential harm was significant.
What this form asks
Every question is editable — rename it, make it optional, or delete it entirely.
Page 1 — Incident details
- What happened?required
- Locationrequired
- Date and time of incident
- Was anyone injured?required
- Details of injury and first aid/medical treatment given
- Immediate actions taken at the time
- Severityrequired
Page 2 — Root cause (5 Whys)
- Why did this happen? (1)required
- Why did that happen? (2)
- Why did that happen? (3)
- Why did that happen? (4)
- Why did that happen? (5) — root cause
Page 3 — Corrective action and sign-off
- Corrective actions
- Action owner
- Target completion date
- Investigator namerequired
- Investigator signaturerequired
17 questions in total.
How the form changes as it's filled in
This template ships with 2 conditional rules, grouped into 2 behaviours driven by 2 questions. Everything below is already set up — edit or delete any rule once the template is in your workspace.
Driven by “Was anyone injured?”
- Makes answers required
If “Was anyone injured?” is Yes, “Details of injury and first aid/medical treatment given” becomes required before the form can be submitted.
Driven by “Severity”
- Makes answers required
If “Severity” is High, “Corrective actions” becomes required before the form can be submitted.
Set it up step by step
- 1
Don't stop at the first why
The first answer is almost always the immediate cause, not the root one — push through all five before deciding on corrective action.
- 2
Separate facts from opinions
Record what happened and what was observed before moving into the causal analysis, so the 5 Whys builds on evidence rather than assumption.
- 3
Assign every corrective action a name and date
An investigation that ends without an owner and deadline rarely results in an actual fix.
- 4
Escalate from near misses that repeat
If the Near Miss Report Form shows the same hazard reported more than once, that's usually the trigger to run a full investigation like this one.
Mistakes to avoid
- Treating the first 'why' as the root cause and closing the investigation there.
- Writing corrective actions with no owner or deadline, so they never get implemented.
- Investigating every minor near miss with this full process instead of reserving it for incidents that genuinely warrant it.
What it pairs with
Most teams don't run this form on its own. These are the forms and systems it sits next to.
What to do with the responses
Track corrective actions to completion, update the relevant risk assessment with the new controls, and share the root cause finding with anyone doing similar work.
Works in this layout
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Privacy & compliance
This form collects health information. Keep access limited to the people who need it, turn on encrypted answers for the clinical questions, and set a retention window so records don't sit in the dashboard forever.
Frequently asked questions
When should I use this instead of the Near Miss Report Form?
Use the Near Miss Report Form for the quick, on-the-spot flag; escalate to this full investigation when harm actually occurred, the potential harm was severe, or the same near miss keeps recurring.
Do I need to fill in all five 'why' fields?
Push as far as the analysis genuinely goes — some incidents reach a root cause in three or four steps, but don't stop at the first one just because it's convenient.
How does this relate to the Office Risk Assessment Form?
Once you've found the root cause here, update the relevant risk assessment's controls so the same hazard is reflected there going forward.
Who should sign off the investigation?
The investigator conducting the analysis, with the corrective actions reviewed by whoever owns the affected area or process.
Is the Incident Investigation Form template free to use?
Yes. You can preview and test Incident Investigation Form on this page without an account, and take a copy into your own HelloForms workspace on the free plan. There is nothing to install and no card required to publish it.
What does the Incident Investigation Form template ask for?
It asks 17 questions across 3 pages, 7 of which are required. Every question is listed in full further down this page, and each one can be renamed, reordered, made optional or deleted after you copy the template.
Can I edit the Incident Investigation Form form after copying it?
Yes — the copy is entirely yours. Change wording, add or remove questions, switch between the classic layout, restyle it to match your brand, and set who gets notified on each submission.
How does the conditional logic in this manufacturing & industrial form work?
2 conditional rules ship with the template: Features conditional validation: if “Was anyone injured?” is Yes, “Details of injury and first aid/medical treatment given” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent. Features conditional validation: if “Severity” is High, “Corrective actions” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent. All 2 rules are editable in the Logic tab, and the built-in checker warns about rules that contradict each other. All rules are editable in the Logic tab.
Where do responses to the Incident Investigation Form form go?
Submissions land in your workspace under Submissions, where you can search, filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF. You can also email a notification to your team on every submission and send the respondent an auto-reply.
Can I embed the Incident Investigation Form form on my own website?
Yes. Publish the form and paste the embed snippet into any page or share the direct link. The embedded form resizes to fit its container and loads no advertising or marketing trackers inside the iframe.
Is the signature on this form legally usable?
The template captures a drawn signature and stores it with the submission, along with the timestamp, so you keep evidence of who agreed and when. Whether that is sufficient depends on your jurisdiction and the agreement itself.
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