Health & safety bulletin
Near-miss reporting
28th February 2006
A “Near Miss” or “Incident” is an unplanned event that, given slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in loss, damage or injury.
In simple terms, for every 400 incidents there is likely to be 80 cases of damage, 50 cases requiring first aid, 3 lost time injuries (time off work) and 1 fatality.
If we investigate the cause of each near miss/incident, we can try to rectify the cause by providing training, establishing a safer way of doing the job, or asking our customers to address the issue with their employees or contractors to support our recommendations.
Examples of Near Misses are as follows:-
- A screwdriver being dropped from a scaffold tower.
- A driver moving safety fencing and driving into an exclusion zone.
- A missing or badly fitting manhole cover or interceptor grate that could cause a trip.
- Other contractors who are not working safely (please talk to them about this at the time and then report details of action taken as per your IIF (Incident & Injury Free) training to make the situation safer).
- Someone smoking on a petrol filling station.
- A site manager who cannot understand you enough to be able to sign the clearance certificate or know the emergency evacuation procedure. (If this is the case, you should double check your procedures and work safely - as if it was an unmanned site, but report it as a near miss).
Thinking about how to avoid near misses will reduce potential damage and accidents in the longer term, and suggestions on how to make things safer are always welcomed.