How to Fill Out and Submit ENG Form 3394: Accident Investigation Report

To fill out ENG Form 3394, investigate the mishap, complete each applicable section of the current August 2021 “Mishap Notification and Investigation” form with specific facts and dollar figures, tie every causal factor to a concrete corrective action, collect the contractor and USACE signatures, and submit it to your district safety office within the deadline set by the mishap’s class. The form is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ single record of what happened, why, and what you are doing so it doesn’t happen again, and reviewers reject vague or incomplete entries.

When You Have to File One

USACE classifies mishaps into four tiers, and any Class A, B, C, or D event is recordable and requires a 3394:

Class A: fatality or permanent total disability, or property damage of $2.5 million or more.
Class B: permanent partial disability, hospitalization of three or more people from one event, or property damage from $600,000 up to $2.5 million.
Class C: a nonfatal injury with one or more lost workdays beyond the day of the incident, or property damage from $60,000 up to $600,000.
Class D: medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, needlestick or contaminated sharps exposure, or property damage from $25,000 up to $60,000.¹

First aid treatments defined by 29 CFR 1904.7 do not trigger the form unless the contracting officer or contracting officer’s representative asks for one. Near misses under EM 385-1-1 do require a 3394.² When you calculate property damage, use total repair or replacement cost across government equipment, contractor equipment, and third-party property; a damaged piece of floating plant or a government vehicle can push a mishap into a higher class quickly.

Get the Current Version

Use the August 2021 revision, titled “Mishap Notification and Investigation.” Download it from the USACE Publications Engineer Forms page at publications.usace.army.mil/USACE-Publications/Engineer-Forms/. Some district safety offices also post fillable PDFs. Older editions, including the March 1999 version, use a different section layout and may not be accepted.

What to Gather Before You Start

Collect your supporting documentation before opening the form: witness statements, photographs of the scene and equipment, maintenance logs for any involved machinery, training records for the involved worker, and the project’s Accident Prevention Plan. You need all of it to answer the causal analysis questions. Leave the accident scene undisturbed until the investigating official releases it.² A separate report is required for each person injured or who caused or contributed to the mishap; uninjured witnesses do not each get their own form.³

Filling In the Form Section by Section

Sections 1 and 2: Mishap Classification and Personal Data

Section 1 identifies whether the involved person is military, civilian, contractor, or a member of the public, and the type of mishap (injury, illness, fatality, property damage, motor vehicle, diving, fire, or other). Section 2 captures name, age, sex, grade or job title, duty status, and employment status. Section 2 also asks whether OSHA was notified. Answer it. That field must show “yes” for fatalities and serious injuries.⁴

Sections 3 and 4: General and Project Information

Section 3 records the date, time, and exact location of the mishap; the contractor name; the contract number; and the type of contract (construction, A/E, service, dredge, or other). Indicate whether the involved contractor is prime or subcontractor.³ For hazardous or toxic waste work, identify whether it falls under DERP, IRP, Superfund, or another category. Section 4 applies only to construction and uses coded entries for construction activity type and equipment involved.

Sections 5 through 9: Injury, Vehicle, Property, and Vessel Data

These sections are conditional. Section 5 covers injury and illness details: estimated days lost, days hospitalized, days on restricted duty, body part affected, and the nature and source of the injury. Section 6 covers public fatalities, including the victim’s activity and whether a personal flotation device was in use. Section 7 covers motor vehicle accidents (vehicle type, collision type, seatbelt use). Section 8 records property and material damage, including item name, ownership, and dollar amount. Section 9 covers vessel or floating plant accidents.

Skip a section only if nothing in it applies. Do not skip Section 8 just because the mishap was primarily an injury; equipment often takes damage in the same event, and leaving that cost out can misclassify the mishap.

Causal Analysis and Corrective Actions

This is where most 3394s fall apart. The “Why Did the Mishap Occur?” section separates what happened from why, and your entries need to be specific enough for the district safety office to act on. The form organizes causal factors into these categories:⁴

Performance causal factors — the unsafe act that directly led to the mishap.
Support causal factors — equipment maintenance failures, inadequate tools, or missing safety devices.
Standards, policy, and planning — whether the Accident Prevention Plan or Activity Hazard Analysis was inadequate, outdated, or not followed.
Training causal factors — whether the involved person was trained, the type of training, and the date of the most recent formal training.
Leader or supervisor factors — inadequate oversight, failure to enforce safety protocols, or assigning tasks beyond a worker’s qualifications.
Individual factors — physical condition, fatigue, distraction, or substance involvement.
Physical environment and material factors — weather, lighting, noise, or defective materials.
Facility or building design and existing hazards — structural issues or known hazards that were not adequately controlled.

Every causal factor you check must be paired with a concrete corrective action: what has been done, what is planned, or what is recommended. “Improve safety awareness” will not clear review. Describe the specific control: a guardrail installed, a procedure rewritten, a worker retrained on a specific task, a piece of equipment taken out of service. The corrective action plan portion then asks whether the actions are complete, who is responsible, and the target completion date.⁴

The form also asks whether a written Activity Hazard Analysis existed for the task. If one existed and the mishap still happened, explain what the AHA missed or how work deviated from the plan. If no AHA existed, say so; that fact by itself is a significant causal finding.

Signatures and Routing

The contractor supervisor responsible for the involved person signs the form first, whether that person works for the prime or a subcontractor. Both sign under the same “Contractor Signature” block.³ From there the form routes through USACE management, typically the division chief, director, chief of safety and occupational health, and the local commander.⁵ The local commander must give written concurrence or non-concurrence on each finding and recommendation.⁶ A non-concurrence sends the report back for revision before it can be closed.

Most districts accept digital submission through ENGLink or secure email. Encrypt anything containing personnel data, and request confirmation of receipt so you have proof the form was delivered on time.

Submission Deadlines

Deadlines depend on the mishap class, and USACE treats a miss as a compliance failure rather than a paperwork slip. Before the full 3394 is due, two earlier notifications may apply. For any known or potential Class A or B mishap, the supervisor must immediately notify the local commander and the Safety and Occupational Health office, and a Report of Serious Accident must follow within eight hours. For every recordable mishap, a Preliminary Accident Notification must be entered in ENGLink within seven days of the accident.⁶

The completed ENG Form 3394 itself is due:

Class A and B (on-duty): to HQUSACE within 45 calendar days.
All other recordable mishaps, including Class C, Class D, and off-duty military: to the local safety office within seven calendar days.⁶

Some districts shorten the seven-day window to five days. Check your district safety office for local work instructions before you rely on the standard deadline.

OSHA and Coast Guard Notifications You Still Owe

Filing the 3394 does not satisfy federal reporting obligations. EM 385-1-1 supplements OSHA rather than replacing them, and where the two differ, the more stringent standard applies.² OSHA requires you to report a work-related fatality within eight hours and any in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours.⁷ If the incident is a marine casualty under 46 CFR Part 4, notify the U.S. Coast Guard as well. Plan on dual reporting for any serious injury or fatality, and mark those notifications in Section 2 of the 3394.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

A late, incomplete, or missing 3394 is a safety non-compliance issue, not a filing error. EM 385-1-1 gives the contracting officer authority to stop operations for safety non-compliance.² A work stoppage is expensive and lands on the contractor’s record. Repeated or serious failures can produce negative contractor performance evaluations that follow you into future federal contract competitions, and a sustained pattern can lead to contract termination. OSHA penalties for missed fatality or hospitalization notifications run separately from anything USACE does.

1
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. USACE Albuquerque District Contractor Mishap Reporting Instructions 2025
2
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. EM 385-1-1 Safety and Occupational Health Requirements
3
USACE Publications. ENG Form 3394 Accident Investigation Report
4
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. ENG Form 3394 Mishap Notification and Investigation
5
U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville. Accident Reporting
6
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. ER 385-1-99 Accident Investigation and Reporting
7
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Report a Fatality or Severe Injury