Free accident and incident report form template
This free accident and incident report form template — printable PDF or editable Excel — records one incident per sheet: what happened, who was hurt, who saw it, what was done immediately, and what changed afterwards so it does not happen twice.
Free. No email address, no sign-up — the accident & incident report form downloads straight away.
An accident report is written for a reader who is not in the room and may be reading it a year later — an insurer, an inspector, a solicitor, or you. That means facts and times, not interpretation. Write what happened and what was observed, and leave out who you think was at fault; a blame conclusion in a contemporaneous record is the part that gets picked apart later.
Fill it in the same day, ideally on the shift. Detail decays fast: exact times, who was standing where, whether the wet floor sign was out. A form completed three days later from memory is materially weaker than one written that night, and it is obvious to a reader which it was.
The follow-up section is the reason to bother. An accident log full of incidents with no corrective actions demonstrates a hazard you knew about and left alone. One line about the mat you replaced or the mandolin guard you fitted turns the same record into evidence you manage risk.
Log near misses on the same form. The dropped tray that nearly hit someone and the step people keep tripping on are the cheapest warnings you will ever get. Reporting requirements for serious injuries — and how long you must keep records — vary by country, so check what applies to you before deciding an incident does not need reporting on.
What's on the sheet
Form — one record per sheet · Portrait A4 · PDF, Excel and CSV
Header fields
Venue / site · Report reference · Date completed
Person involved
- ·Full name
- ·Staff / customer / contractor / other
- ·Role and section (if staff)
- ·Contact number or address
- ·Date and time of incident
- ·Exact location in the venue
What happened
- ·Type: accident / near miss / illness / violence or aggression / property damage
- ·Describe what happened, in order, factually
- ·What activity was being carried out at the time
- ·Equipment, substance or surface involved
- ·Were the correct guards, signage or protective equipment in use? (Y/N)
Injury and treatment
- ·Injury sustained and to which part of the body
- ·First aid given, by whom, at what time
- ·Sent home / continued shift / taken to hospital / ambulance called
- ·Name of first aider
- ·Did the person lose any time off work? (days)
Witnesses
- ·Witness 1 name and contact
- ·Witness 1 signature
- ·Witness 2 name and contact
- ·Witness 2 signature
Immediate action taken
- ·What was done to make the area safe
- ·Time the area was made safe
- ·Was equipment taken out of use? (Y/N — asset or serial number)
Follow-up and prevention
- ·Root cause as far as it can be established
- ·Corrective action to prevent a repeat
- ·Who is responsible for it and by what date
- ·Risk assessment or procedure updated? (Y/N)
- ·Reportable to an external authority? (Y/N — reference)
- ·Completed by (name and signature)
- ·Reviewed by manager (name, signature, date)
What you get
- ✓Printable PDF, portrait A4, one incident per sheet
- ✓Excel (.xlsx) version usable as a running accident log
- ✓CSV version for import
- ✓Witness block with signature lines
- ✓Immediate action and equipment-out-of-use fields
- ✓Follow-up section for root cause, corrective action, owner and due date
How to use it
- 1
Keep blank forms with the first aid kit, not in a locked office.
- 2
Complete one form per incident, on the same shift wherever possible.
- 3
Write the description factually and in order — times, positions, what was being done.
- 4
Take witness names and signatures before people go home.
- 5
Record the immediate action, then agree a corrective action with a name and a date against it.
- 6
Have a manager review and sign it, then file it securely — it contains personal and health data.
Questions
When should an accident report form be completed?
The same day, ideally on the shift. Recollection of exact times, positions and whether signage was in place degrades within hours, and a form written days later reads that way to anyone reviewing it.
Do we need to record near misses?
You should. A near miss is a free warning about a hazard that has not injured anyone yet, and a pattern of near misses at the same spot is what justifies spending money on fixing it.
Who can see a completed accident report?
Treat it as confidential personal and health data: the injured person, the manager reviewing it, and anyone with a legitimate need such as your insurer or an inspector. Store it securely rather than pinned in the staff room, and follow your own data protection obligations.
How long should accident records be kept?
Retention periods are set nationally and are often years rather than months, with longer periods where a claim could follow. Check your own jurisdiction's requirement and set your retention policy to the longest that applies.
Or stop printing it altogether
Rotahr does this check on a phone — timestamped, with the person who did it attached, reminders when one is due, and a PDF export when somebody asks for a month of records. Same job, no folder to search through.
Templates that go with it
First aid & emergency steps poster
This is a free printable first aid and emergency steps poster for a kitchen or bar wall — the first actions for burns, cuts, choking, falls and illness, plus blank fields for your own trained first aiders, emergency number and address.
Fire safety checklist
This free fire safety checklist template — printable PDF or editable Excel — splits fire checks into daily, weekly, monthly and annual sections so the routine items get done on shift and the specialist items are never quietly skipped.
Guest incident & complaint log
This free guest incident and complaint log template — printable PDF or editable Excel — records each incident with what was offered, what it cost, who resolved it and whether anyone followed up, so recurring problems become visible instead of being absorbed shift by shift.
Free to print, copy and use in your venue — no attribution required. Written for an international audience: where a threshold is a widely used figure it is printed as one, but food safety and employment rules differ by country and change. Check yours before relying on this sheet.
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