Safety Management: Near Miss Best Practices
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has described near misses as incidents where no property was damaged and no personal injury sustained, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, damage and/or injury easily could have occurred. It has been shown that injury and damage-producing events are frequently preceded by warning signs or near miss incidents. For this reason, a program designed to identify, record, and address near miss incidents will improve worker safety and the safety culture of an organization.





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Course Details
Learning Objectives
• Define the terms “near miss,” “incident,” “best practice,” “root cause,” and “controls” • Identify near miss incidents • List items that should be included in all near miss reports • List best practices for near miss programs • Identify the roles of workers, supervisors, and management in near miss programs • List the benefits of the proactive safety improvements generated by near miss programs • Identify ways to improve participation in near miss programs
Specs
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some alternative terms commonly used as to describe near misses?
What is a root cause?
If no damage is done in a near miss incident, why is it important to track and investigate them?
What is one way to increase worker participation in filling out near miss incident reports?
Which type of employee is the most important in implementing a near miss best practices program?
Sample Video Transcript
Every organization should establish their own definition or definitions of “near miss” or “near hit.” (Note that some organizations require more than one “near miss” definition in order to cover different job functions and multiple environments.) They should then communicate the agreed upon definition or definitions to employees at all levels. This ensures that everyone understands what needs to be reported. Some events that could be considered “near misses” include: • A fork lift bumps into the corner of some storage shelves as it rounds a corner in a warehouse. The shelving remains intact, and no one is injured.