Near Miss Reporting

A Near Miss Today Will Be an Accident Tomorrow So Better Report Near Miss
Today Instead of Reporting Accident Tomorrow

Report Near Miss Incidents to Prevent the Accidents

 Near Miss Reporting Doc Ref: XXXX/IMS/QHSE/F/00
Logo Issue Date: DD-MM-YYYY
QHSE Department Rev #: 00

Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................2
Definitions ...............................................................................................................................................2
1. Accidents .....................................................................................................................................2
2. Incident ........................................................................................................................................2
3. Near Miss .....................................................................................................................................2
4. Dangerous Occurrence ................................................................................................................2
5. First Aid Injury .............................................................................................................................2
6. Medical Treatment Case .............................................................................................................2
7. Lost Time Injury - LTI ...................................................................................................................2
8. Lost Workday Case – LWC...........................................................................................................2
9. Restricted Work Case – RWC ......................................................................................................3
10. Lost Work Days........................................................................................................................3
11. Immediate Cause.....................................................................................................................3
12. Basic Cause ..............................................................................................................................3
Loss Causation Model .............................................................................................................................4
Heinrich’s Accident Triangle ...................................................................................................................4
Advantages of Near Miss Reporting .......................................................................................................5
Difference between Accident and Incident ...........................................................................................5
Barriers in Reporting Near Miss Incidents .............................................................................................5
General Examples of Near Miss Incidents ..............................................................................................5
Near Miss Incident Reporting and Investigation Procedure .................................................................6
1. Reporting the Near Miss Incident...............................................................................................6
2. Investigation Procedure ..............................................................................................................6
3. Report Sharing.............................................................................................................................6
4. Review .........................................................................................................................................6
5. Record Management ..................................................................................................................6
6. Measures to enhance reporting of Near Miss Incidents ...........................................................6
Near Miss Reporting and Investigation Form ........................................................................................7

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 Near Miss Reporting Doc Ref: XXXX/IMS/QHSE/F/00
Logo Issue Date: DD-MM-YYYY
QHSE Department Rev #: 00

Introduction
It is established that there is always a near miss before occurrence of an accident. Not only this, a
comprehensive study in various industries also indicate that there are 50 to 100 near miss incidents
are reported against every loss causing accident.

In many industries scope of accident/incident investigation and reporting is limited to physical injury
or property damage only and near miss incidents are not reported by the workers due to many reasons
and one of the major reasons is lack of knowledge. As a pro-active measure, the organization must
educate the workers about reporting of all kind of incidents including near miss. Through this
approach, occurrence of the accidents can be prevented and number of accidents will decrease
automatically.

Definitions
1. Accidents
An undesired event that results in form of loss of property, product, or human life or damage the
environment.

2. Incident
An Incident is an unplanned and unwanted event or chain of events that could have resulted in form
of injury, illness or damage to asset, damage to the environment or image of the company.

3. Near Miss
An Undesired or unwanted event that could harm the environment, property, product or human life
but didn’t do so.

4. Dangerous Occurrence
Dangerous Occurrence also known as High Potential Near Miss Incident is an undesired event which
under slightly different circumstances could have resulted in major injury, major property damage,
major environment damage, major reputation damage, e.g., Crane Failing and no one gets hurt.

5. First Aid Injury

Any Minor scratch, cuts, burns, splinters with one time treatment and subsequent observation which
don’t require medical care by a physician.

6. Medical Treatment Case

Any reportable injury that involves neither lost workdays nor restricted workdays but which requires
treatment by, or under the specific order of, a physician or could be considered as being in the
province of a physician. It doesn’t include first aid even if this is provided by physician or registered
professional personnel.

7. Lost Time Injury - LTI

Lost Time Injuries are the sum of fatalities, permanent total disabilities permanent partial disabilities,
and lost workday cases, but excluding restricted work cases and medical treatment cases.

8. Lost Workday Case – LWC

A lost workday case is any reportable injury other than a permanent disability which renders the
injured person temporarily unable to perform any regular job or restricted work on any day after the
day one which the injury was received.

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9. Restricted Work Case – RWC

A restricted work case is any work injury which results in a work assignment after the day the incident
occurred that doesn’t include all the normal duties of the person’s regular job.

10. Lost Work Days

The number of the lost work days is the total number of calendar days on which the injured or ill-
person was temporarily unable to work as a result of a lost workday case, illness or a permanent
disability.

11. Immediate Cause

The substandard acts/practices or conditions which directly contribute to the occurrences of an
accident/incident. This is frequently referred as unsafe act or condition.

12. Basic Cause

The job and Person factor such as inadequate engineering, lack of knowledge, skill, etc., from which
the substandard acts/conditions originate. Basic causes may be referred as underlying, root or real
cause, system defects or contributing causes.

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 Near Miss Reporting Doc Ref: XXXX/IMS/QHSE/F/00
Logo Issue Date: DD-MM-YYYY
QHSE Department Rev #: 00

Loss Causation Model

The below model illustrates the sequence of loss causing and leading to near miss.

The

Immediate Incident Loss

Lack of Control Basic Cause Cause
Inadequate - Personel - Substandard - Event Harm/Damage
- System factor Act
- Standard - Job/System - Substandard
factor Condition
- Compliance

Near Miss Accident

Threshold Limit

If due to lack of controls or training something happens but doesn’t cause harm, it will be known as
Near Miss, but if sequence of events crosses the threshold limit, and harm occurs, it will be known as
Accident.

Heinrich’s Accident Triangle

In 1931, American Industrial Safety Expert presented a theory and explained that 88% accidents occur
due to unsafe act of worker. He collected the data and showed that number of minor or near miss
incidents is higher against every major accident. The below placed model describes the whole
scenario.

1 Major Accident

Property Damage
10
Near Miss
600

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Advantages of Near Miss Reporting

- Investigation launching to check the root cause why accidents and near miss occur
- Identification of management weakness and corrective actions to improve processes
- Less number of accidents
- Immediate rectification of wrong things
- Maintenance of broken or faulty equipment
- Pro-active resolution of hazards before occurrence of accident
- Increase in safety ownership
- Reinforcement of self-esteem of worker
- Exposes valuable information for discussion that otherwise might not be discussed

Learning from Near Miss is less expensive than learning from Accident. Near Miss Reporting
provides a golden opportunity to improve the HSE Performance.

Difference between Accident and Incident

Before the reporting of Near Miss Incident, the workers must understand the difference between
Accident and Near Miss Incident.

S/# Near Miss Incident Accident

A man is working on height, he stumbles over A man is working on height, he stumbles over
1 the wires and falls but didn’t get any injury. the wires, falls on his face and injured
himself.
Two vehicles collided and the drivers Two vehicles collided and the drivers of both
2
remained safe. vehicles got injured.
Free falling objects from height landed close Free falling objects from height hit a worker’s
3 to a worker working underneath and shoulder working underneath and got injury.
remained safe.
A fork lifter moving with load and suddenly A fork lifter moving with load and suddenly
4 load fells down due to broken rope and no load fells down on a worker due to broken
one got harm. rope and worker gets injured.

Barriers in Reporting Near Miss Incidents

Few factors are listed below that become hurdle when it comes to report Near Miss incidents.

- Disciplinary Action fear

- Blame culture
- Concerned about the performance record
- Desired to avoid work interruption
- Desired to keep personal work record clear
- Desired to avoid paper work
- Poor understanding of importance of reporting near miss incidents
- Lack of training and process to report near miss incidents

General Examples of Near Miss Incidents

- Violation of working regulation – working without valid work permit
- Falling of objects from height close to workers working underneath
- Non-working of emergency appliance
- Reliving relief valve before the set pressure

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 Near Miss Reporting Doc Ref: XXXX/IMS/QHSE/F/00
Logo Issue Date: DD-MM-YYYY
QHSE Department Rev #: 00

Near Miss Incident Reporting and Investigation Procedure

1. Reporting the Near Miss Incident
Any worker who experiences the near miss is liable to report the Near Miss Incident. He shall fill the
Incident Reporting Form and submit it to the concerned department.
The Incident must be reported in 24 Hours of occurrence.

2. Investigation Procedure
Once the Near Miss Incident Intimation form has been received, the concerned person of HSE
Department will launch investigation to investigate the incident. The management of the department
where incident occurred will assist in investigation.
If the incident is of very serious nature, a committee can be formed comprising of engineers, safety
professionals, supervisors to investigate the incident.

3. Report Sharing
The report of the incident must be shared within one week of the incident. HSE Manager of the
organization should prepare the report, get it approved by the top management and share with all the
concerned departments.
The section manager, supervisor should share the report with all the line workers and staff so they
learn the root cause of incident and stay attentive.

4. Review
The Safety Committee/HSE Department must review the Investigation Report in Safety Meeting and
ensure that the proposed corrective actions are implanted as per requirements. The record of all the
activities is being maintained and the staff members know what is going on.

5. Record Management
The incident investigation reports should be maintained by HSE Department. These reports are used
as a reference in risk assessments, and performance measurement. The record should be kept
according to Document Control Procedure of the organization.

6. Measures to enhance reporting of Near Miss Incidents

The HSE Department must propose a reward system to ensure the workers report maximum near miss
incidents along with other issues. Cash Prize or Annual Reward should be given to worker who reports
highest number of near miss incidents.

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 Near Miss Reporting Doc Ref: XXXX/IMS/QHSE/F/00
Logo Issue Date: DD-MM-YYYY
QHSE Department Rev #: 00

Near Miss Reporting and Investigation Form

PART A – Near Miss Report Form
General Guidance

- The Form should be filled by the person who experienced or witnessed the Near Miss Incident.
- Complete description of the incident should be mentioned.
- The report should be submitted to the HSE Department within 24Hrs for investigation either
by HARD COPY or SOFT COPY.

Area Name/ Section

Reporting Person Name Employee Number
Number

Near Miss Location Near Miss Date & Time

To be filled by Victim or Witness

Incident Description

Suggest Measures to take to prevent the re-occurrence

Reporting Person’s Signatures Date

To be filled by the Safety Officer

Remarks by the Safety Officer

Safety Officer Signature Date & Time

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Logo Issue Date: DD-MM-YYYY
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PART B – Lessons Learnt from the Incident

Incident Title

Incident Description -
Describe what happened

Potential Losses

Immediate Causes
To Be Filled by Safety Officer

Contributing Causes

Basic Cause/Root Cause

Lessons Learnt/
Recommendations

Safety Officer Signature Date Time

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PART C – Recommendations and Compliance Monitoring

Action Closed Out

S/# Recommendations Target
Party Date
To be filled by Safety Section

Review
Date Date Date

Signature Signature Signature

Name Name Name

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