Near Miss Incident Reporting and Investigation
Information letter
Near Miss Incident Identification, Reporting, Investigating and Rectification Program
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve safety and reduce the number of accidental injuries occurring
we are embarking on a near miss incident reporting program as part of our existing safety program. This
system does not replace any of the other elements and activities of our existing program but is an
additional tool in the accident reduction toolbox.
Near miss incidents are also known as; near miss, close call, incident, close shaves, warnings or near hits.
Other familiar terms for these events are; "close calls," or in the case of moving objects, "near
collisions." Near miss incidents have also sometimes been termed “near hits” by some.
For our purposes a near miss incident is:
An undesired event, which, under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people,
and / or property damage, and / or business disruption.
In the past near miss incidents have been reported and their causes rectified but it is intended to
formalize the system and get everyone involved in the process of reporting these accident precursors.
To get all employees involved a training course will be held to inform all how what to report and how to
report it. Examples of near miss events and high risk situations will be given. Anything that looks unsafe
or which may have the potential to cause an accident should be reported. During the training an
exercise will be held in completing the simple form which we have introduced to make reporting easy
and confidential.
We have decided to embark on a ‘no names’ reporting system as we are interested in fixing the problem
not the person. You do not have to fill in your name on the form so feel free to report high risk
situations and near miss incidents without any fear of repercussion.
Remember, it’s not what happened........but what could have happened! Near miss incidents are
accidents waiting in the shadows.
We trust that you are as excited as us about this additional safety effort and look forward to receiving
near miss incident reports from you once you have completed the training. Thank you for helping make
this a safer workplace.
The Management
ABC Engineering Company