Posted By Alan Hoskins Hi Neil, Depends how you define near miss - if it includes property damage but no fatality or serious injury, then: http://www.safetyphoto.c...old_collapse_cardiff.htm This collapse happened when there was no one about... ...so did the Bluncefield Depot 'near miss'! Alan

Posted By Alan Hoskins Yes I agree Ralph, but compared to the potential consequences perhaps the point could be stretched somewhat? Alan

Posted By Robert K Lewis Neil All this points to the need to define your near-miss first before you start to illustrate. I personally have the rather esoteric view in that "It is any event which happens, or is caused by animate beings, that increases the level of risk in the work area, but which has no consequence in injury to persons or damage to plant, equipment or property however minor". Thus an object falling to the ground close to a person is not a Near Miss because the object is damaged to some extent. The Near Miss pre-dated the falling in that some person acted to locate the object. Bob

Posted By Neil Koskie The definition which I use is 'an unplanned event, that under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people or damage to property'. I would be interested to know how other people define a near miss, and also how you educate your workforce on the importance of reporting them. Neil

Posted By fats van den raad Heard a rather nifty defenition of a near miss once... "An accident that didn't happen".. At least I am glad to see that there seems to be general agreement on the term "near miss" as I can clearly recal long boring arguements about "there is no such thing as a near miss.." or "it should be a near hit instead...."

Posted By Neil Koskie I suppose that what I am really after is an interesting way of demonstrating what a near miss is. I am preparing a presentation for staff in a manufacturing environment, primarily to make it clear in their minds the difference between a near miss and an accident and also the importance of reporting near misses. Maybe representing a near miss using photos is not possible, as Fats has already pointed out. But what about using clipart or other graphics? If anyone can point me in the direction of this or has any other ideas please let me know. Neil

Posted By fats van den raad Neil May I suggest that you select the Image search on GOOGLE and enter the phrase "near miss". This does bring up a varaiety of (mostly airoplane based) images. Maybe you can use some of these to illustrate your point.

Posted By steve e ashton Neil: for illustrative purposes, I used to describe a pile of (redundant) loose tiles left on a roof parapet following maintenance. A windy day - the first thirty tiles fall, landing in the grass, and may be kicked to one side to prevent anyone tripping. This falls within my own 'near miss' definition. It is a clear learning opportunity that will be missed if no-one reports it. The next tile hits the managers car - minor property damage. The next tile hits someone's arm as they walk underneath, causing bruising and shock. The next tile slices through a skull - why didn't we learn from the near miss, the property damage or the minor injuries? If the next tile has potential to hit the discharge hose from the LPG tanker fuelling the Central Heating system... - how many fatalities? The example is useful, because all events have the same fundamanetal or underlying cause(s) - and the reason for encouraging near misss reporting is to learn from them, to take remedial actions that prevent the more serious property damage or injury accidents. It is also useful because you can have as many tiles as you need to fit your own version of the Bird / Heinrich accident triangle. It's also fairly easy to draw as a cartoon on powerpoint or OVH slides! Hope this helps. Steve

Posted By Alan Hoskins To be pedantic Robert - the items you describe are now termed 'undesired circumstances' (HSG 245). Alan

Posted By Sheila EJ Keogh The Fire Protection Association has a video called "Stay Alive from 9 to 5" that shows "near misses". I've only just bought our copy and so haven't sent it out to staff yet (so no other feedback), but it was the visuals of the near misses that grabbed me (or just missed me??? - if you know what I mean). I think it will be very helpful. Sheila