Hi All, I have recently investigated an accident at work which involved a ride-on mower overtuning and resulted in minor injury (bruising to lower arm) to an employee and minor damage to the mower. The employee was following procedures and had the Roll-over Protection locked in the upright position and was wearing the seat belt restraint which possibly prevented a more serious injury. My Corporate Health and Safety have recorded this as a Near Miss. I have tried to explain that it should be recorded as an accident and not a near miss because injury was sustained to the employee and damage occured to the mowing machine, unfortunately my Corporate Health and Safety Unit will not accept this is an accident. Can you tell me if any other member has encountered this difficulty and if so how you overcame this. Manyn thanks, David

I recognise this situation as to something similar encountered in a previous employment. Was the injured party absent from work at all, and is it likely that their injury could affect their work? although this could be early days as yet... It could be that the Corporate H&S personalities are attempting to massage the severity of the incident downwards for possibly 'political' reasons within the corporate sphere. (likely reason too many accidents in a particular period)You may have to conform to what they are doing as they are making the reports and not yourself. You could suggest that the organisation should invest in a global accident reporting system, across the company with identified personel , such as yourself, making the reports, which are then made as per the software provided and classifications for each incident selected as per provided in the package. This takes the reporting of the incident out of the hands of individuals that have axes to grind at corporate level Also take a look at historical incidents, compared with other events this minor accident could pale into insignifcance with other events- and this may influence the corporate perception of the event. I would not lose my job over this, but make a point of asking what criteria is necessary to award a particular event the classification of accident from the Coporate H&S Unit and do they need refresher training? You are probably dealing with an administrator and not a H&S personality

David Can't say I have had the same problem, except that senior managers are sometimes reluctant to acknowledge an accident on site for many different reasons. There are also many definitions of a near miss/hit, but the definition of an accident is an injury to personnel in my book. I suggest you ensure the Accident Book is completed by the injured person and send your Corporate Health and Safety a copy - the penny should drop. Ray

I thought HSG65 was clear enough or am I wrong. I had a blowout with the head of health & safety a couple of years ago over the very same issue as I was teaching H&S as part of a Manual handling course. I doubted myself at that exact moment with the head of H&S until I cooled down and then re-read HSG65 as well as asking others opinion. My mentor (Brilliant H&S manager/practitioner) many years ago gave me an example of Accident and near miss. Imagine a 12 foot high wall around a large piece of Grass that needs mowing. Outside the wall is a path that goes right around the wall. A man gets onto his ride on mower and after a minute hits a stone that flies over the wall over the path an through a window Question ? is this an accident or near miss? 2 minutes later he hits another stone tha goes over the wall and this time hits aman walking on the path. Same question Accident or near miss? 2 minutes later the person driving the mower hits another stone that goes over the wall and lands on the path. Accident or near Miss? To me they are all accidents A near miss would in this case be the mower missing the stone in the grass. What are other peoples opinions?

I’d call it an accident/incident rather than a near miss as someone was injured and something happened. A near miss is more one of those “Oooh! That was close!!” sort of things. Here is my classification for severity of incidents: By Severity Description No Injury-Near Miss No Injury Negligible Injury will cause no further issues and does not require treatment. No time lost. Minor Injury will cause no further issues, but will require minimum amount of first aid treatment, e.g. use of plaster. Small (less than 30 min) amount of time lost. Significant Injury that will restrict dexterity or movement. Requires first aid treatment at least and possibly trip to GP/casualty. Person may be absent from work as a result. Substantial Injury will lead to time off from work or inability to perform some work duties. Casualty/GP involvement. Possible long term medical issues as a result. Severe Major injury. Immediate hospitalisation.

Hi Folks, I have encountered this problem, as Corporate H&S instruct us to record Stats under OSHA definitions, and injuries e.g. a bruise that do not actually receive any first aid 'treatment' fall into a massive grey area. Likewise minor damage slips the net, and Lost time starts with one day not the RIDDOR 7. So much so that although I can't technically report some minor injuries as 1st aid, I keep my own separate data and I added a new category of 'No Lost Time Incident' (arbitrary term) because I didn't feel right 'downgrading' them to near misses. Semantics cause all sorts of borderline cases so I have given up arguing the toss and revert to the Corporate H&S for a decision on classification where necessary. However, I must point out that the reason this doesn't worry me too much is that all incidents, from minor injuries, near misses or otherwise are initially treated in the same way, investigated and suitable corrective/preventive measures determined. I feel this is more important than the figures. I keep all data accurately and truthfully, and let others decide what to do with it. Statistics have their place but they are just numbers and I don't feel they are able to properly reflect the diverse types of incidents we encounter. I think basically what Im saying is as long as you're confident you have helped your employer do everything appropriate to investigate, improve the problem and prevent it reoccurring (considering the full hierarchy of control measures etc) then how the bigwigs pigeonhole it is up to them! Kay

Our corporate system is based on OSHA criteria has prescribed first-aid criteria. Was first-aid administered to the "bruise" . Even if it first aid was not administered, I would have a category that is "non-first aid injuries"--and it is not a near-miss by most standards. Despite the cross over between incidents & accident definitions, "near misses" are those in which there is no damage, injury or loss http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_miss_(safety) However, I agree with Kay regarding the investigation and presenting a recurrence part!