212 Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Framework for the use of official occupational accident investigations as a learning tool: analysis of a public programme for accident investigation in the manufacturing sector Jesús Antonio Carrillo-Castrillo* and Luis Onieva University of Seville, Camino de los Descubrimientos sn, 41092 Seville, Spain E-mail: jcarrillo@io.us.es E-mail: onieva@us.es *Corresponding author Abstract: Accident investigation is a useful tool for safety science. The use of accident investigation as a learning tool at the macro level necessitates specific requirements quite different from the usual needs at the company level. A proper codification system and information on the accident scenarios are needed to let safety practitioners identify if the information is useful for the organisations they are assessing. In the same way epidemiological tools have been applied to the analysis of circumstances of accidents, the epidemiological statistical tools can help to draw conclusions for a set of investigated accidents. Our case study includes the description of the dataset used in a programme for learning from accidents in Andalusia: ‘Pudo haberse evitado’ (this can be translated as ‘This could have been prevented’). This paper covers the requisites for a macro-level learning programme and the possibilities of analysis of the dataset in a ‘research to practice approach’. Keywords: learning from accidents; accident causes; differential causation; risk assessment; manufacturing sector; public programmes. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Carrillo-Castrillo, J.A. and Onieva, L. (2014) ‘Framework for the use of official occupational accident investigations as a learning tool: analysis of a public programme for accident investigation in the manufacturing sector’, Int. J. Risk Assessment and Management, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp.212–232. Biographical notes: Jesús Antonio Carrillo-Castrillo is an Industrial Engineer and has an MSc in Manufacturing Engineering. He worked for seven years in the private sector as Director of Total Quality and as Safety Engineer before joining public sector in 2002. Since 2006, he is responsible for ‘Safety at Work’ promotion in the Regional Government of Andalusia. Luis Onieva is a Professor of Industrial Engineering of the University of Seville since 1995. He obtained his PhD in the same university in 1986. His research interests covers operations research and management.