Definition
A near miss is a situation in which a hazard occurred but nobody was hurt - a pedestrian passed a forklift by a metre, someone entered a machine zone while it happened to be stopped. Statistically such situations are many times more frequent than accidents, so they reveal risk far earlier.
Why accident statistics are not enough
In a plant with a mature safety culture accidents are rare, so their annual count cannot separate improvement from chance. Reacting only to accidents means learning from harm.
Near misses are far more numerous, so a trend is visible before an injury occurs. That is a shift from reacting to anticipating.
Why manual reporting fails
Reporting systems depend on a worker noticing the situation, judging it significant and spending time describing it. Only a fraction of events gets reported, and not a random fraction.
Vision detection counts them automatically and without judging people. Acceptance depends on clearly separating prevention from discipline.
Frequently asked questions
How does it differ from an accident?
In the outcome. The sequence can be identical; whether an injury occurred is often a matter of chance.
How many near misses per accident?
Classic safety pyramids give various ratios and should not be taken literally. What matters is that there are an order of magnitude more.
Can the record be used against an employee?
That depends on the rules adopted at the plant. Experience shows that using it to hold people to account ends in people avoiding cameras.