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I am working on a procedure for my company and I am seeking a term to use for someone who causes an incident/accident.

Example: Have "term" fill out an incident report as soon as they are able to.

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    What's wrong with just the employee? I'm assuming that the meaning will be understood in the context of the procedure, since the person would have been identified earlier anyway.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jun 10, 2019 at 18:31
  • I wasn't sure if there was a single term or not, rather than the employee. I ended up going with FumbleFingers suggestion, but i am curious to see what other words appear.
    – Geoffrey
    Commented Jun 10, 2019 at 19:21
  • "Culprit" is too judgmental. Please don't use that. Use "The employee" or "the relevant individual" or "the person implicated."
    – aparente001
    Commented Jun 11, 2019 at 4:20
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    Your problem here is the use of the phrase "causes an incident". That suggests culpability on someone's part (unless it was a good or beneficial "incident"). However if it is still an "incident" and not something more specific, it would seem unlikely that at that point responsibility has been determined. So what exactly do you mean by "causes an incident"? Should you perhaps be talking about the person "reporting" an incident?
    – WS2
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 9:30
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    'Party involved' or 'involved party'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 10:15

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A neutral term for this would be principal:

[Merriam-Webster]
noun
1 : a person who has controlling authority or is in a leading position: such as
e : the person primarily or ultimately liable on a legal obligation

In other words:

Who was the principal of the incident.

Admittedly, it's not an entirely common use of the word, but it's still acceptable.

It could also be used adjectivally, a form that would be more common:

Who was principally involved in the incident?

This, too, uses neutral wording.

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  • I'm not entirely sure if the word 'principle' has or ever can be used in a derogatory sense.
    – Noaman Ali
    Commented Jan 6, 2020 at 11:16
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    @Lawrence Thank you for the note! It wasn't my link that was incorrect, it was my fingers having inadvertently typed principle in the body of my answer. I actually did it twice without spotting the error. I have fixed the text.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented May 5, 2020 at 15:46

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