Effective Incident Investigation is at the heart of any good safety program. Over the last 30 years safety professionals have developed a broad series of robust tools to help them better evaluate a safety event and take appropriate action. However, in recent years there is increasing evidence that these approaches may not be yielding either reliable data or driving suitable corrective actions.

This paper will explore some of these challenges, some approaches to addressing them, and specifically how our understanding of Visual Literacy can significantly contribute to improved appreciation, insight and learning from our incident analysis.