Which technique involves interviewing individuals about accidents and hazardous conditions?

The correct choice, the critical incident technique, involves systematically gathering information about accidents or hazardous conditions by interviewing individuals who have firsthand experience. This technique focuses on identifying specific incidents that had significant impacts, whether positive or negative, to understand the factors that led to those incidents. By engaging directly with individuals, safety professionals can uncover insightful details about behaviors, environmental factors, and other circumstances that may not be visible through observational methods or numerical data alone.

This technique is particularly useful in the context of safety as it allows for a nuanced understanding of incidents, helping organizations to pinpoint areas that require intervention or improvement. Through these detailed interviews, the critical incident technique facilitates the identification of both risks and successes, offering a comprehensive look at safety practices within the organization.

Other choices represent different analytical methods that do not primarily focus on personal interviews regarding accidents. For instance, failure mode effects analysis is a systematic approach for evaluating processes to identify where and how they might fail, rather than gathering personal accounts. Fault tree analysis relies on a deductive, top-down method to analyze the causes of system failures. Root cause analysis seeks to identify the underlying reasons for an incident, often using data and past records rather than interviews to build its analysis. Each of these techniques serves a specific purpose in safety