An immediate cause is sometimes called the “direct cause.” The immediate cause is only the symptom of an underlying root cause of an incident. Eliminating immediate causes does not get to the real reason for the problem.
A root cause, on the other hand, is the underlying reason or reasons why unsafe conditions exist or procedure or safety rule was not followed in the workplace. OSHA says root causes generally reflect management, design, planning, organizational, or operational failings. For example, a damaged guard had not been repaired; failure to use the guard was routinely overlooked by supervisors to ensure the speed of production.)
Incident investigations should focus on identifying and correcting root causes. Addressing root causes allows an employer to develop effective corrective actions and to minimize or eliminate serious consequences from similar future incidents.