The service provider (entrepreneurs or another service provider, such as a municipality or a parish) must notify the surveillance authority of an accident or a hazardous situation occurred in the course of a consumer service or related to a consumer product (the Act on the Safety of Consumer Goods and Consumer Services (75/2004, known here as the Act, section 4). These notifications form usually the so-called tip of the iceberg of the accidents and hazardous situations which have occurred, representing more serious incidents.

In addition to the notifications mentioned in the Act, the service provider must, to comply with the section 3 of the Act, also keep records of the smaller accidents and hazardous situations even if they don't require the afore-mentioned notification to the authorities. These kinds of incidents are recorded in the service provider's own accident/incident report. It is advisable to follow and make use of the record keeping of your own initiative, thus improving customer safety. The threshold for record keeping must be kept low and the management must encourage the employees to record incidents to the accident/incident report without fear of consequences. Good experiences with implementing and making use of accident records have been obtained, for example, with aviation safety.

Accident record keeping is a service provider's (company's) tool in developing safety procedures. The management must continuously keep an eye on the safety situation based on the information on the recordings and/or forms and take action immediately when required to do so. The essential part is to organise the regular follow-up of the accident record keeping (according to the amount of company operations) and recognise hazardous places where same type of accidents regularly occur and to take action with the problems which arise, because, as time goes on, individual cases might otherwise escape attention.

In a small company, an accident can be recorded quite simply, for example, on an exercise book. Within larger companies, it is appropriate to use, for instance, a specified form with which the employees (such as instructors and activity leaders) can make an entry in the accident record. The forms are filed for future use and the actual record keeping is made using a computer. Controlling authority might ask to see the accident record keeping, for instance during an inspection.

 Accident/Incident report template

You must remember that the information describing customers' details and their state of health, and possibly recorded on an accident/incident report, form a personal register. For these parts the requirements of the Personal Data Act (523/1999) must be taken into account and the information (forms) must be kept and destroyed appropriately.

Example of a small activity programme service provider’s accident record keeping

No.	Date and time	Incident: description of the incident and the scene of incident	Action taken  a) first aid b) notifications made about the incident c) actions to improve the level of safety	Instructor's (an employee) name and signature
1.	3.1.2007 time 14.30	The customer burnt a finger when drinking campfire coffee at the tent.	First aid administered at the tent (finger cooled and bandaged). Leena (company director) has been notified.  In the future, the guide will take the pot from the camp fire and pour the coffee.	Pertti Pertti A.
2.	2.2.2007 time 12.45	The customer slipped by the corner of the equipment container and hurt his hand a little. However, the pain disappeared during the afternoon.	The customer's condition was checked and fitting the equipment was continued. The customer apparently has shoes with slippery soles.	Arttu Artturi B.
3.	15.2.2007 time 09.05	The customer drove a snowmobile into a tree 150 metres from the start (first right-hand corner). The customer was briefly unconscious; the snowmobile is probably a write-off.	The injured person was put in a recovery position, kept warm and observed. Ambulance was called and the person taken to the health centre for observation. The rest of the group continued with the safari after the incident was cleared (the route was shortened). Leena notified at once. The notification according to section 4 of the Act made to the surveillance authority (copy of notification attached). Leena will contact the insurance company. In the future, insecure customers are to receive extensive driving instructions or offered an opportunity to let another person drive.	Pertti Pertti A.
4.	16.2.2007 time 17.00	The customer slipped by the equipment container and dropped his digital camera.	Grit applied to the slippery area.	Pertti Pertti