Near miss incidents are near miss events that come close to causing some form of loss, as there was an actual flow of, or exchange of, energy below the threshold level. In some instances, the flow of energy may have dissipated without making any contact, thus causing no loss. In most cases, the energy does not contact anything, thus causing no harm. In some cases, the exchange of energy was insufficient to cause loss or injury, but the fact that there was an exchange of energy is reason enough to heed the warning. Remember, it’s not what happened—but what could have happened. Near miss incidents are accidents waiting in the shadows.
Defining a Near Miss Incident
Near miss incidents are also known as: near miss, or incident, close shaves, or warnings.
Other familiar terms for these events are: close calls, or, in the case of moving objects, near collisions. In some safety management book "Near miss incidents also sometimes have been termed near hits".
A near miss incident is
An undesired event that, under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people, or property damage, or business disruption, or a combination.
An accident with no injury or loss.
An event that narrowly missed causing injury or damage.
An incident where, given a slight shift in time or distance, injury, ill health, or damage easily could have occurred, but didn’t this time around.
EXAMPLES OF NEAR MISS INCIDENTS
Below are some true-to-life examples of actual near miss incident reports. The reports have been edited to make for easier reading, but the contents have not been changed.
An employee tripped over an extension cord that lay across the floor, but avoided a fall by grabbing the corner of a desk.
An outward-opening door nearly hit a worker who jumped back just in time to avoid a collision with the door.
Instead of using a ladder, an employee put a box on top of a drum, lost balance, and stumbled to the ground. Although the employee was shaken, there was no injury.
A pry bar that was left on the bottom of a mill under repair flew through the air like a missile when a loosened liner fell onto it while the mill was being rotated. The heavy bar missed workers in the immediate vicinity and neither injury nor damage was sustained.
An employee tested the brakes at the beginning of the shift and they checked out okay. As he approached another vehicle, he hit the brakes and they did not work and he narrowly missed the other vehicle.
While walking from his car to the stairs, an employee was almost struck by a fast-moving pickup.
A miner was pulling out hoses to set up the jack leg and the hoses hung up making the miner mad. He pulled really hard and lost his balance and fell down.
After changing the engine oil on a vehicle, the employee left the discharge gun in the fill tube of the tank and the air purged in the line and spat oil out the tube nearly striking him in the eyes.
Two welders received minor shocks when they touched a welding machine. On inspection, a loose wire was discovered in the plug of an extension lead that was connected to the welding machine.
While the employee was in the process of lowering a side plate of a bulkhead, the safety catch on the hook opened and the grab that held the plate almost unhooked.
An employee was walking toward his job on the demarcated walkway inside the big workshop. The forklift driver rode toward the workshop. At the corner, the forklift driver nearly knocked the employee over because he was unaware that the forklift was approaching.
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