USPS Accident Report (PS Form 1769/301): Filing, OSHA, and Retention

PS Form 1769/301 is the USPS accident report a supervisor must enter into the electronic Employee Health and Safety (EHS) system within 24 hours of a workplace injury, vehicle collision, property damage, or fire on postal operations. Filing it satisfies both internal Postal Service policy and the federal OSHA Form 301 recordkeeping requirement, since the two forms have been consolidated since 2010.¹ The immediate supervisor prepares it, a higher-level supervisor signs off on it, and the servicing safety office receives it within three calendar days.²

When You Have to File One

The Employee and Labor Relations Manual requires a report in six situations:³

Any on-the-job injury or occupational illness to a postal employee, whether or not it causes lost work time.
The death of a postal employee on USPS premises or while performing duties. In a fatality the EHS system also generates the Department of Labor forms (CA-5 or CA-6).
Injury or death of a non-employee, such as a customer or bystander, on postal premises.
Any motor vehicle accident involving a postal vehicle that results in death, injury, or property damage, regardless of cost, fault, or whose property was damaged.
Damage to USPS property or to the property of customers or the general public, whether or not anyone was injured.
Any fire that damages postal property.

There is no dollar threshold for vehicle accidents. A minor parking-lot scrape with no injury still triggers the requirement.³

Filling Out the Form in EHS

There is no paper version to print. The form lives entirely inside the electronic Employee Health and Safety application, reached through the internal Blue portal. Log in with your ACE user ID and password, click My Work, and select Report an Accident or Incident under Safety Resource Tools.¹ Because the portal runs on the internal USPS network, you need a postal workstation or authorized remote access.

Gather the Details Before You Start

Pull the following together before opening the form. Filling in fields from memory hours later is where most errors originate.

Employee’s full name, employee identification number, job title, and craft designation.
The specific address or facility area where the incident happened. For accidents on a route, use the nearest street address or intersection.
Exact date and time, plus weather, lighting, and road or floor surface conditions.
A factual, chronological account of what happened, based on what you observed or what witnesses reported. Do not speculate about causes.
Names and contact details of witnesses, and badge numbers of any responding officers.
The nature and extent of any injuries, which body parts were affected, and whether medical treatment was given.

Writing the Narrative

The Supervisor’s Safety Handbook (EL-801) tells supervisors to describe “as clearly as possible the events that occurred during the accident sequence” and to “be as detailed as possible, keeping in mind that your narrative needs to provide upper management and safety personnel a clear understanding of the circumstances.”² The left side of the form uses numerical codes to categorize the type of accident. If none of the codes fits, write a description instead. Based on what you enter, EHS applies OSHA recordkeeping rules to decide automatically whether the incident is OSHA-recordable and Postal Service–reportable.³

Submitting the Report and Getting It Signed

Complete PS Form 1769/301 within 24 hours of learning about the accident.² A supervisor one level above the person who prepared the report must review and sign it to vouch for its accuracy. The completed report reaches the servicing safety office within three calendar days of the incident.

Once it clears local review, EHS routes the report to the district safety office for validation and sends automated notifications to the district safety manager and regional risk offices. If anything is missing or inconsistent, the district office will send it back for clarification, and that request slows processing for the whole facility, not just the single case.

When OSHA Has to Be Called Directly

Some incidents require a separate call to OSHA, on a much tighter clock than the 24-hour EHS deadline. Report a workplace fatality to OSHA within eight hours. Report an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours of the event.⁴ “In-patient hospitalization” means a formal admission for care or treatment; being held for observation or diagnostic testing alone does not count.

You can call the nearest OSHA Area Office, dial the national line at 1-800-321-6742, or file electronically on OSHA’s website. Give the facility name and address, accident location, date and time, the number of employees affected, a contact person, and a brief description of the accident.² One exception matters here: motor vehicle accidents on public streets or highways outside a construction work zone are generally excluded from these expedited OSHA reports.⁴

What Else the Supervisor Owes After Filing

Filing the accident report does not close out the supervisor’s obligations. Handbook EL-801 requires several follow-up actions:²

For any motor vehicle accident, complete PS Form 4584, Observation of Driving Practices, for each employee involved regardless of fault, within a few days.
For any accident, complete PS Form 1783, On-the-Job Safety Review/Analysis, evaluating the work activity the employee was performing at the time.
Observe the involved employee’s work practices each day for the next two weeks. Reinforce safe behavior and correct any deficiencies immediately.

The handbook also lists 14 possible causative factors to investigate, from poor housekeeping and defective equipment to fatigue and lack of training. The purpose is identifying root causes and putting corrective actions in place, not assigning blame.

Fixing a Mistake After Submission

Contact your District Safety office as soon as you notice an error. Corrections require entering a new, corrected version of the accident report into EHS.³ You cannot edit fields in the original submission on your own; the district office coordinates the amendment. Act quickly. The longer an incorrect report sits in the system, the more likely it is to distort safety statistics, OSHA logs, or an employee’s compensation case.

The Form Does Not File a Workers’ Comp Claim

PS Form 1769/301 documents the incident for the Postal Service’s internal safety system. It does not, on its own, start a workers’ compensation claim. To seek benefits under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), the employee still has to file CA-1 for a traumatic injury (a single event during a single work shift) or CA-2 for an occupational disease or illness that develops over time.⁵ Supervisors are required to help employees prepare those injury documents.²

The two records are connected, though. PS Form 1769/301 creates the official record that an incident happened on duty, and that record supports the factual basis for any FECA claim that follows. It is also used in the investigation and litigation of tort claims for personal injury or property damage.⁶ Gaps or errors on the 1769/301 give claims examiners reasons to ask questions that slow everything down.

Getting a Copy If You Were the Injured Employee

An injured employee can request a copy of their own PS Form 1769/301. The Employee and Labor Relations Manual requires the supervisor to provide a copy of the completed accident report on written request.³ A short email or memo to your immediate supervisor works. Keep a copy for your records.

Union safety representatives from local safety and health committees may also participate in facility safety inspections under the applicable collective bargaining agreement.⁷ If you believe an accident was not properly documented, raising it through your union steward or the local safety committee is an effective channel.

Recordkeeping and Retention

Because PS Form 1769/301 is the Postal Service’s OSHA Form 301, it must be retained, along with the OSHA 300 Log and annual summary, for five years after the end of the calendar year the records cover.⁸ Within that five-year window, the 300 Log has to be updated when new recordable injuries are discovered or when a case’s classification changes. The 301 forms, and therefore the PS Form 1769/301, do not have to be updated, though a facility may do so voluntarily.

The records live primarily inside EHS, and local facilities may keep digital or physical copies for immediate reference. Each year the data feeds the OSHA Form 300A annual summary, which has to be posted in a conspicuous location at every postal workplace where employees can see it.⁹

1
United States Postal Service. Postal Bulletin – PS Form 1769 Accident Report Is Changed to PS Form 1769-301
2
United States Postal Service. Handbook EL-801 Supervisors Safety Handbook
3
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – 820 Reports and Investigations, Program Evaluations, and Inspections
4
Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Reporting Fatalities, Hospitalizations, Amputations, and Losses of an Eye as a Result of Work-Related Incidents to OSHA
5
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – 542 FECA Claim Requirements
6
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – Appendix Records Control Schedules
7
United States Postal Service. Employee and Labor Relations Manual – Safety and Health Inspections
8
eCFR. 29 CFR 1904.33 – Retention and Updating
9
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 1904 – Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses