# Root Cause Analysis for Construction: Stop Fixing Symptoms
When a worker gets injured or a near miss occurs, most companies write up the incident and move on. Maybe they add a guardrail or retrain the crew. But if you only fix symptoms, the same types of incidents keep happening.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) digs deeper to find why the incident truly occurred—and fixes the underlying system failure. HazComFast includes two proven RCA methods built directly into the incident investigation workflow.
Method 1: The 5 Whys
The 5 Whys technique is simple but powerful: keep asking "Why?" until you reach the root cause.
Example: Worker Chemical Burn
| Step | Question | Answer |
|------|----------|--------|
| Why 1 | Why did the worker get a chemical burn? | He splashed muriatic acid on his arm |
| Why 2 | Why wasn't he wearing PPE? | He said he didn't know PPE was required |
| Why 3 | Why didn't he know? | He wasn't trained on that specific chemical |
| Why 4 | Why wasn't he trained? | The chemical was added to the jobsite last week and training wasn't updated |
| Why 5 | Why wasn't training updated? | There's no process to trigger retraining when new chemicals are added |
Root cause: Missing process link between chemical inventory updates and training requirements.
Fix: Configure HazComFast to automatically flag workers for retraining when new chemicals are added to their jobsite.
How HazComFast Guides the 5 Whys
1. Start from any incident report or near miss
2. The system prompts you through each "Why?" level
3. Each answer is documented with supporting evidence (photos, SDS data, training records)
4. The final root cause is linked to a corrective action
5. The entire investigation becomes part of the defense package
Method 2: Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram
For complex incidents with multiple contributing factors, the Fishbone diagram organizes causes into categories: