Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

Moving on to the investigation side of things. As in the UK, the situation is slightly complicated by the fact that the incident took place on military/federal/government property. There will be no less than 4 separate investigations, and potentially 2 separate court cases. I will do my best to explain them, and what has happened so far:

CID (Criminal Investigation Division): The equivalent of our SIB, this is a military body that immediately took control of the site, closing it down and undertaking the initial ‘crime scene’ investigation, including taking photographs and evidence etc. The investigation is military and aimed at documenting the incident, as well as trying to determine if there is any criminal negligence. This report is not necessarily made available to the public, but can feed a potential criminal investigation.

OSHA (Occupational Safety & health Administration): The closest thing to our HSE. Under Federal law OSHA were contacted within 8 hours and took over the site once it was handed over to them by CID. OSHA represent the Federal Department of Labor [sic], this investigation is open to the public and transparent. This investigation will focus on what caused the accident, and who was at fault. It focuses on any violations that may have taken place, and particularly on any ‘willful violations’. It can apportion fines to those responsible, all of which are paid to the Department of Labor.

Contractor Investigation: The sub-contractor have five days to produce their own incident report, which is then passed on to USACE and feeds the USACE investigation.

USACE: An internal investigation aimed at understanding what went wrong, as well as making recommendations and generating ‘lessons learned’. The investigation establishes an ‘Executive Incident Board’ comprising 6 personnel from across the Corps (military and civilian), who are experts in their fields and are given considerable powers to investigate the incident from a military (non-criminal) perspective.

Once these investigation have been concluded, which could be as soon as six months, but likely to be much longer, there are then court proceedings to consider:

Civil Court Case: Likely to be sought by the family of the deceased in order to claim compensation from those deemed to be responsible. Any awards here would be made to the relatives of the deceased, as opposed to fines paid to the Department of Labor under the OSHA investigation.

Criminal Court Case: Potentially sought by some branch of the government against anyone likely to be criminally liable. As in the UK a higher burden of proof is required to obtain a conviction in a criminal case over a civil one. Depending on the investigation(s) the truck driver could potentially face a charge of ‘vehicular homicide’, which in Maryland can carry a custodial sentence of ten years.

Both civil and criminal trials have the ability to subpoena information from any of the plethora of investigations conducted.