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ONUSOccasional Notes on University Safety

Near Miss Re ortin

What is a near miss?

Imagine the scene you are walking towards a building entrance when suddenly someone in a

rush coming the other way pushes open the entrance door which swings just in front of your face.

You manage to pull away just in time to prevent it hitting you. What do you do and think? Well

apart from asking why the person was in such a rush you probably thought that you were

extremely lucky and that on some other day you could be nursing a sore head. What has just

happened can in safety terms be called a near miss. A near miss can be defined as an unplanned,

unexpected event which does not result in injury but which could have if circumstances weredifferent. They are probably happening around you all the time but in most cases are just ignored.

You may have experienced the following:

A falling object that hits the ground in front of you

A minor trip on a damaged piece of carpet that does not result in you falling over

Dropping something whilst carrying numerous objects

Temporarily loosing your footing on a slippery floor

All these are examples of near misses and your department should take them seriously if accidents

are to be reduced.

Why should they be taken seriously when in fact nobody gets injured?

Numerous studies have been carried out which have looked at accidents and near misses at work.

The main conclusions from these studies have been:

a) there are always more numbers of less serious accidents/near misses than majorinjuries

b) all near misses have the potential to be serious accidentsc) near misses, like accidents, represent a failure in control

The information below highlights the general relationship found between serious injuries, minor

injuries and near misses:

1 MAJOR INJURY

30 MINOR INJURIES

300 NEAR MISSES

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But do I need to report near misses?

Yes, for two reasons.

Firstly - EACH NEAR MISS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SERIOUS ACCIDENT. The

more near misses reported and rectified the less serious accidents will occur.

Imagine how you would feel if, after stumbling on a damaged piece of stair

nosing, you failed to report it and then the next day one of your colleagues did

the same thing but broke a leg falling down the stairs.

Secondly NEAR MISSES REPRESENT A FAILURE IN CONTROL. When a near miss

occurs it normally means that there is a deficiency in the current control measures. Control

measures will include things like the current maintenance regime and the level of supervision and

procedures in place. Again by reporting near misses, people have the chance to put systems right

before someone gets injured.

Management are sometimes unfairly criticised for not being interested in

safety. In a lot of cases this is because they are not aware of the problems. By

reporting near misses you are helping them to help you.

REMEMBER - Near misses should be seen as a valuable source of safety information as nobody

gets injured in the process.

How should they be reported?

You should use the current University accident/incident reporting form. Obviously, there will besome boxes that are not applicable, e.g. the injury, but this does not matter. The most important

thing is that it is reported.

What should I do with the reports should they be treated differently from

forms detailing accidents?

No - once you have completed the first section of the accident/incident report form it should be

processed as if it were an accident. Thus it should be passed to the supervisor or equivalent and

then onto the Departmental Safety Coordinator who will investigate and suggest recommendations.

This will then be passed onto the Head of Department who will consider whether enough has beendone to prevent a recurrence.

REMEMBER you may be one of those departments that do not have many accidents reported.

Consequently, other than what is observed every 6 months via inspections there is little hazard

information coming through on a regular basis. If you report near misses and encourage your

colleagues to do so then there is more chance of hazards being recognised before they result in

injury to yourself or your colleagues.

If you would like to discuss these issues further, either speak to your Departmental Safety

Coordinator or contact Chris Bowes or Steve Dunkley at the Safety Advisers Office.