Near misses

Introduction

A near miss is an unplanned event that had the potential to result in injury, illness or damage – but fortunately it did not. In workplaces, near miss situations are common occurrences, though they are often ignored. However, near misses can be looked on as a free lesson to learn how to prevent accidents from occurring. Therefore, gathering information about near misses and analysing the information to initiate the appropriate corrective actions is a way to promote safety in the workplace.

Definition of near misses

The ISO 45001 standard[1] defines a near miss as a type of incident. An incident is an occurrence arising out of or in the…