Near miss and its importance
VIJAIARASAN P.A(MIIRSM)(Tech IOSH)
Environment, Health and Safety Manager at Danieli Group
Introduction:
Establish a?reporting?culture where every?near-miss incident?is accurately?reported. Understand the circumstances that lead to the hazard to determine the root cause. Plan and implement preventive action to immediately contain the?incident. Rethink the safety process and build strategies to prevent its reoccurrence.
Definition:
OSHA?defines a near miss as incidents?“in which a worker might have been hurt if the circumstances had been slightly different.”?They are a precursor to accidents and are opportunities to identify hazards and unsafe conditions. It goes without saying that reporting near misses is a critical tool to create solutions, prevent accidents and injuries in the future and?improve your safety culture?overall.?
Near misses are also referred to as “close calls”, “narrow escapes” or “miss accidents”.
There are two main types of near-miss incidents —?unsafe conditions near miss?and?unsafe act near miss.
Unsafe condition?
Circumstances, environment, or state of equipment could lead to an accident occurring.??
Unsafe act?
Behavior that can potentially lead to damage of property, personal injury, or death. It’s often related to ignoring procedures and is signaling the need for new rules.?
Do you need to report near misses to OSHA?
No. You are not required to report near misses to OSHA. But they do?recommend?recording near-miss cases.
“OSHA strongly encourages employers to investigate all incidents in which a worker was hurt, as well as close calls (sometimes called “near misses”)”?
This should involve recording near misses internally and investigating each incident, regardless of the severity of harm caused.
Why is near-miss reporting so important?
Simply put, without a near-miss reporting software system, the learning begins only when an accident occurs and there is severe loss or injury to human life and property.
The notion of reporting close-calls when there’s no damage done seems a futile effort, especially if the odds keep falling in our favor and there are no legal obligations to do so.
Yet, history has shown that almost every catastrophic disaster is a result of overlooking near-miss warnings that preceded the event.
Accidents that are barely avoided have become commonplace in the modern workplace. With so much to do and so little time, employees often cut corners and perform unsafe activities to stay ahead. Every fortunate encounter with a near-miss goes unnoticed or unreported and is often shared casually. Even reporting near-misses or following up on its progress is avoided as it takes time off the task at hand. While some avoid reporting unsafe acts by their fellow employees as it may lead to chastisement, fear of being blamed, or even disciplinary action for reporting.
Writing off a near miss as “no harm no foul” can prove detrimental in the long run. At some point the chain breaks and the luck finally run out, leading to a catastrophic event that gets everyone’s undivided attention to a prevailing?hazard.
Near miss reporting is the only recognized incident management structure that accurately identifies and reports near misses, effectively communicates risk tolerance measures to employees, eradicates the?root cause?of the hazard, and prevents future accidents or injuries from taking place.
Benefits of reporting near misses
Since the same factors that lead to a near miss can lead to an accident, monitoring near misses can help you take proactive action to:
What are the causes of near misses?
Though accidents are impervious to time and space, identifying the core root of an underlying anomaly helps us understand the origins of a hazard and form preventive actions to contain its escalation. Some of the most common causes of near misses are:
The Near Miss Pyramid Theory?
Herbert Heinrich wrote in his 1931 book?Industrial Accident Prevention, A Scientific Approach,?
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“No matter how strongly the statistical records emphasize personal faults or how imperatively the need for educational activity is shown, no safety procedure is complete or satisfactory that does not provide for the . . . correction or elimination of . . . physical hazards,”??
He was referring to the correction of potential hazards before an accident happens. And, one of the easiest ways to do this is to look at accidents that?could?happen, before they?do.
It was Heinrich who developed the?Near Miss Pyramid Theory?– a theory which states that for every single fatal incident a company experiences, it will have had 29 serious disabling workplace injuries and 300 lost time incidents.
How many near misses per accident?
In 1966, Frank Bird analyzed the incident reports of over 300 companies — 1.7 million reports in total. He used his findings to expand Heinrich’s theory. Bird’s Safety Triangle looks deeper into the behaviors leading to potential accidents. In his book,?Damage Control, he determined that for each fatality, a company will see:
Examples of near-miss reporting:
Determining what constitutes a near-miss scenario is easy. Be it any industry, look for incidents or behavioral patterns in which actions that could have led to severe consequences but did not lead to its logical conclusion due to a fortunate turn of events, can be classified as a near miss. Some common near-miss scenarios include:
key components in near-miss reporting:
There is no need to set up a dedicated system for near-miss reporting. You can achieve the same outcome by revising your existing safety management system criteria to include near misses. Companies that are new to a reporting culture can refer to the description of the key components in near-miss reporting in the following Figure
Identify:
Employees need to understand how to properly identify and recognize near-miss events. One method of training is to involve employees in job safety analysis or risk assessment that will highlight potential hazards in their work areas. This is extremely important as it will affect the quality of the near-miss reports turned in. In the earlier stages, while employees are still beginning to understand the concept of near misses, the quality of the reports may vary. But over time, you can use past reports to fine-tune their understanding of your company’s definition of a near-miss event.
Report:
A complicated procedure and overly detailed report would discourage staff. Ensure that the process for reporting near misses is hassle-free and easy to understand. The form for reporting should be kept as simple as possible. Dates, location, and general description of the near-miss incident are key information to include in the form.
Investigate:
When conducting an investigation, you should not only look at what had happened but also probe further into what could have happened. Evaluate the possible consequences of the reported near miss and rank it by its potential severity and likelihood of occurrence. This is similar to how risks are assessed in a risk matrix.
If major injuries or fatalities are likely, a full investigation is encouraged. If the potential consequences were less severe, the hazard can be easily taken care of and communicated to everyone.
Intervene:
The staff working in the area where the near-miss took place should rectify the problem because they are most familiar with the worksite. Interventions can take place before and after an investigation. Encourage your employees to take action to temporarily mitigate the danger before investigations start. After completing investigations, permanent solutions can be implemented.
Review:
The data collected from near misses are leading indicators of your company’s?performance. Use it together with other?safety performance indicators in your evaluation. The review can be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to identify trends and provide solutions to remove the hazard. Reviewing and analyzing the data is an opportunity to gather feedback on performance and enhance your workplace safety.
Difference Between Near Miss, Incident, and Accident
For example, if the outcome of an unsafe event is fully realized and not prevented by luck or a last-minute decision, then the unsafe event is an incident, instead of a near miss, even if it also did not result in injury or property damage.?
Click the below link to know more in detail about near-miss guidelines, benefits, differences, reporting methods, top successful implementation of a near-miss program, Powerpoint presentation part-1, and 2, different types of posters, and also 15 near-miss toolbox topics, etc.