A vehicle has hit something, or nearly hit someone, and the first question after everyone is safe is usually the same: do we have to report this? The regulations answer it, but they answer it in the order of the law rather than the order a manager asks the questions on the day. This guide puts them in the order you need them. It is a guide to the regulations, not a substitute for reading them; where it matters, check the text at hse.gov.uk/riddor or with your adviser.
The duty falls on the responsible person: for an employee, their employer; for a self-employed person or anyone else injured on premises, the person in control of those premises. So if a visiting haulier's driver is injured in your yard, the report is yours to make.
The incident must arise out of or in connection with work. A collision in your yard, at your loading bay or on an access road you control is in scope. An incident in ordinary traffic on a public road is generally outside RIDDOR and handled under road traffic law, with specific exceptions for loading and unloading, roadworks and similar activities.
Three categories, and the distinction between them sets the deadline.
Specified injuries (regulation 4(1)): fractures other than to fingers, thumbs and toes; amputations; permanent loss or reduction of sight; crush injuries to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs; serious burns; scalping requiring hospital treatment; loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia; and injuries from working in an enclosed space that lead to hypothermia, heat illness, resuscitation or more than 24 hours in hospital. Report without delay; written report within 10 days.
Over-seven-day incapacitation (regulation 4(2)): the worker cannot do their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days, not counting the day of the accident but counting weekends and rest days. Being put on light duties counts as incapacitated. Report within 15 days.
Over-three-day incapacitation (regulation 12): not reportable, but a record must be kept for at least three years. An accident book entry is enough.
Non-workers (regulation 5), such as a visitor or a member of the public, are reportable if they are taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment of the injury. A precautionary check does not count; treatment does.
A near miss with no injury is, in almost all cases, not reportable. That surprises people, and it is also the reason near misses are the most under-recorded events on most sites: nothing outside the organisation requires them to be written down.
The exception is the list of dangerous occurrences in Schedule 2, which are reportable whether or not anyone was hurt. For workplace transport the one that comes up most is the first entry: the collapse, overturning or failure of any load-bearing part of lifting equipment. A forklift or telehandler that tips over is reportable even if the driver walks away. Contact with overhead power lines, explosions or fires that stop normal work for more than 24 hours, and unintended collapses of structures or loads are on the same list.
A forklift that tips over is reportable even if the driver walks away. A forklift that misses a pedestrian by a metre is not. The second one is the one worth recording.
Deaths, specified injuries, non-worker hospital cases and dangerous occurrences: notify HSE without delay, by the quickest practicable means, and complete the online form within 10 days. HSE accepts telephone reports for fatal and specified injuries. Over-seven-day injuries: online form within 15 days of the accident.
The report is made at hse.gov.uk/riddor. Keep a copy. The reporting duty is separate from your investigation and does not wait for it: you report what you know, and the investigation follows.
Regulation 12 requires records of every reportable incident, and of over-three-day injuries, kept for three years. Beyond that, the regulations are silent, and that silence is where most sites lose information. There is no statutory duty to record a near miss. There is a strong practical one: a near miss is the only warning you get before the incident that is reportable, and the investigation of a reportable incident almost always starts by asking what happened before it.
A record that will be useful later has, at minimum: date and time to the minute, exact location, vehicle and driver (by role if your policy requires), who else was involved and who saw it, what happened in one or two sentences, the immediate cause, what was done on the day, and who owns the follow-up. The time matters more than it seems: when CCTV is checked afterwards, a report that is twenty minutes out can cost half a day of searching.
Did the incident arise out of or in connection with work? On your site, or somewhere under your control. Incidents in normal traffic on a public road are generally outside RIDDOR; loading, unloading, roadworks and yards are inside it. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 2 and reg. 14)
Did anyone die as a result? (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 6)
Reportable: work-related death. Notify HSE without delay, by the quickest practicable means (telephone is acceptable for fatal and specified injuries), and send the written report within 10 days. A death within one year of a reportable injury must also be reported. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 6 and Schedule 1)
Was anyone injured? (RIDDOR 2013, regs 4 and 5)
Is the injured person a worker? An employee, an agency worker, or a self-employed person working on your site. Visiting drivers employed by another company are workers; the duty to report sits with the person in control of the premises where the accident happened. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 3)
Is it a specified injury? A fracture other than to fingers, thumbs or toes; an amputation; permanent loss or reduction of sight; a crush injury to the head or torso causing damage to the brain or internal organs; a serious burn; scalping requiring hospital treatment; loss of consciousness caused by head injury or asphyxia. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 4(1))
Reportable: specified injury to a worker. Notify HSE without delay and send the written report within 10 days of the accident. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 4(1) and Schedule 1)
Will the worker be off normal duties for more than seven consecutive days? Not counting the day of the accident. Count weekends and rest days. Light duties or being sent home count as unable to do normal work. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 4(2))
Reportable: over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker. Send the report within 15 days of the accident. The day of the accident is not counted. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 4(2) and Schedule 1)
Will they be off normal duties for more than three consecutive days? (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 12(1)(b))
Not reportable, but must be recorded: over-three-day incapacitation. Keep a record (an accident book entry is sufficient) for at least three years. No report to HSE is needed unless the absence goes beyond seven days. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 12)
Did lifting equipment overturn, collapse or fail? A forklift, telehandler, crane or other lifting equipment overturning, or a load-bearing part of it collapsing or failing. A lift truck tipping over is a dangerous occurrence whether or not anyone was hurt. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 7 and Schedule 2, Part 1, para. 1)
Reportable: dangerous occurrence (lifting equipment overturned, collapsed or failed). Reportable even with no injury. Notify HSE without delay and send the written report within 10 days. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 7, Schedule 2 Part 1 para. 1, Schedule 1)
Was there any other dangerous occurrence listed in Schedule 2? For example: plant or a vehicle coming into contact with overhead power lines; an explosion or fire that stopped normal work for more than 24 hours; an unintended collapse of a structure or a load. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 7 and Schedule 2)
Reportable: dangerous occurrence. Check the specific entry in Schedule 2 that applies. Notify HSE without delay and send the written report within 10 days. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 7 and Schedule 2)
Not reportable under RIDDOR. A near miss with no injury and no listed dangerous occurrence is not reportable to HSE. It is still the most useful thing you can record: log it, investigate it in proportion, and keep it where the next one can be compared with it. (RIDDOR 2013, regs 4–7 (none engaged))
Was the injured non-worker taken directly from the scene to hospital? For treatment of the injury. Examination or precautionary checks alone do not count; treatment does. Injuries from medical treatment itself are excluded. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 5)
Reportable: injury to a non-worker taken to hospital. Notify HSE without delay and send the written report within 10 days. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 5 and Schedule 1)
Not reportable under RIDDOR as a work accident on your premises. Road traffic incidents are usually dealt with under road traffic law and reported to the police. Still record it and investigate it internally if your people or vehicles were involved. (RIDDOR 2013, reg. 14)
Not on its own. A near miss where nobody is injured and no dangerous occurrence in Schedule 2 took place is not reportable to HSE. If the forklift overturned, or a load-bearing part of it failed, that is a dangerous occurrence and is reportable even without injury. All near misses should be recorded internally and investigated in proportion.
Yes. The overturning, collapse or failure of any load-bearing part of lifting equipment is a dangerous occurrence under RIDDOR Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraph 1, and must be reported whether or not anyone was injured.
Deaths, specified injuries, injuries to non-workers taken to hospital and dangerous occurrences: notify without delay and report within 10 days. Over-seven-day incapacitation of a worker: report within 15 days of the accident. Over-three-day incapacitation: record only, keep for three years.
Yes. For a self-employed person, or an employee of another company injured on premises you control, the responsible person is the person in control of the premises. The driver's own employer may also have duties, but the RIDDOR report for an accident in your yard is yours.
Generally not. Road traffic accidents are excluded from RIDDOR unless they involve loading or unloading, work alongside the road such as roadworks, or an escape of a substance being carried. They are handled under road traffic law instead.
At least three years from the date of the record, under regulation 12. Many organisations keep them longer because civil claims can be brought up to three years after the injury and investigations may need to go back further.
If this one was reportable, what did the near misses before it look like, and did anyone record them? Safety Mapping: a free two-week trial on one camera.
Published 27 October 2026 · Last updated 27 October 2026