NearMiss

A near miss, sometimes written as nearmiss, is a safety term used to describe an unplanned event that could have led to injury, illness, equipment damage, or environmental harm but did not, usually due to chance, timely intervention, or the effectiveness of safeguards. Near misses signal the presence of hazards and an opportunity to prevent future harm by addressing underlying causes before an incident occurs.

Common in workplaces, healthcare, aviation, construction, and industrial settings, near-miss events include a worker narrowly avoiding a fall, a machine shutdown preventing a jam, or a chemical spill containment that prevented exposure. Documenting these events helps organizations understand risk patterns and prioritize preventive measures without waiting for actual losses.

Near-miss reporting programs aim to capture, classify, and analyze such events, followed by corrective actions and system changes. They rely on a learning culture and non-punitive reporting to ensure information sharing. Metrics may include near-miss frequency, rate per hours worked, or per tasks completed, used alongside traditional lagging indicators to gauge safety performance.

Challenges include underreporting, subjective judgments about what constitutes a near miss, and inconsistent definitions across industries. Effective use requires clear criteria, management support, training, and timely investigations, often employing root-cause analysis or fault-tree methods to identify contributing factors and prevent recurrence.