Phew, that was close! How many times have we stumbled and just managed to catch ourselves, been distracted for a moment and dodged an obstacle at the last second? Often dicey situations turn out just right. Then we take a deep breath and carry on as usual the next day at the latest. But we could learn from such near-accidents.
Frank Bird analysed about 1.7 million accidents in 1996 and found that for every fatal accident there are ten serious accidents, 30 "normal" accidents and about 600 near misses. But what does the occupational safety expert actually mean by "accident"? An accident is a sudden, external event in which someone is injured. According to the employers' liability insurance association, for an occupational accident to occur, the event must also happen to an insured person during an insured activity. This rules out a heart attack, for example, because it does not occur externally. Even someone who slips on a lettuce leaf in the canteen does not have an occupational accident because lunch in the canteen is not one of the insured activities. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration defines near-accidents as accidents in which no one was harmed, but also unsafe conditions or behaviour, for example, an open manhole cover into which no one fell. But why investigate near misses when nothing happened?
The idea behind it is: if we prevent near-accidents, we also prevent normal, serious or fatal accidents. Because no matter how serious the consequences, a near-accident or worse is triggered by a dangerous situation - and if you prevent it, you also prevent the consequences.
Talking about near misses also enables others to learn from the mistakes of their colleagues.
You should be able to report near misses to a central office, preferably to colleagues who are also involved in occupational safety and health and accidents, because if certain unsafe conditions or behaviours occur more often, it is very likely to be a fundamental problem. In a central place, colleagues can better investigate the causes and look for effective countermeasures.
When people think of reporting near misses, the word "snitch" inevitably comes to mind. This is not about reporting that your colleague Schmidt did not have his safety goggles on again. You can discuss that with him personally. However, the information that employees in a certain area perhaps even more frequently do without safety glasses is very much of interest to occupational safety experts. For perhaps the problem is simply that the glasses are not within reach. In that case, a goggle box would be an easy remedy. The way companies deal with such reports has a great influence on the acceptance of the concept. In an open error culture, it should therefore be normal to talk about unsafe situations in order to improve collectively. And every individual in a company must live this, the employee at the workbench as well as the managing director. And that also means, of course, that near-accidents should not result in any sanctions. For example, we make sure that our colleagues do not mention any names and describe the situation in general and respectfully. To keep the effort for a report as low as possible, we have developed an online form in which every employee can complete such reports in two minutes. Since this solution is not practical for everyone, our colleagues can also call us directly or report it to their supervisor, who sends the report to us. Other companies work with slips of paper that employees can fill out and pass on.
Of course, such ideas are not accepted equally by all employees, but it is worth working on. It is ideal if colleagues recognise conditions that favour the occurrence of an accident, for example if the gap on a machine should be reduced or an opening mechanism improved. Because then we can get started before someone has to say: Phew, just in time!
