Near Miss

Reporting Procedure

Safety Management System 2007

SMS ST042 2007

 

We require the reporting of near miss incidents for the safety of all SONOCO employees. If reported, a near miss can be investigated and a corrective action plan can be implemented to help prevent a reoccurrence of a similar event.

A near miss is an incident without injury or property damage. It is an incident that should not be ignored, because next time, a finger could be broken, a back injured, or a hand needing stitches. Near miss incidents must be treated just like an incident with injury or property damage.

Sometimes we misdiagnose or completely fail to diagnose the symptoms of near misses, because luck or blind chance saved us from an injury. We may tend to shrug it off or forget the near miss with a casual kind of ignorance. But, it is not a good practice to rely on luck for effective incident prevention.

One of the best ways to eliminate the likelihood of future close calls is through effective root cause analysis: looking for, and investigating the basic underlying factors, that if corrected or removed will prevent recurrence of the situation. A list of near misses can be endless: poor housekeeping, improperly stored material, bumping against a sharp object, failing to wipe up a spill, ignoring a wet floor sign, or failure to use proper lifting techniques. It is best to learn the real lessons from these near misses since they are very likely to continue to occur repeatedly until an incident occurs.

A study done found that:

This study led to the incident prevention theory that "increased frequency leads to severity."

How can everyone help? Report each and every near miss incident to your supervisor immediately in order to help prompt investigation and follow up actions that will reduce the potential for future near misses. The supervisors must partially rely upon each individual to report these incidents to them because they cannot see everything.

Remember, if you are involved or are a witness to a near miss incident, you or a co-worker might not get a second injury free chance. Do your part to help your workplace safe for everyone involved.