Prevention is the key to avoiding accidents. Part of prevention is reporting and learning from events that could have led to an accident. This is known as the Near Miss Incident Reporting process.
Humber defines a near miss as an occurrence that does not result in injury/illness or property damage, but which, under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people, damage to property, or loss to process.
At Humber, all near miss incidents must be reported promptly. Employees and supervisors should work together to learn from these situations and prevent injury/property damage in the future. If you have a near miss, you should:
- Discuss it with your supervisor; and,
- Complete the Health & Safety Incident Report with your supervisor, identifying the incident as a near miss. Your supervisor will submit the report to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Services at healthandsafety@humber.ca.
This way, the college is made aware of potential hazards, and OHS can work with employees and managers to strategize how to mitigate these risks. Reporting near misses is an important part of supporting a positive culture of safety.
Remember, whether an incident leads to an injury and/or property damage or not, they are all treated the same and must be reported!
This post is brought to you by Humber’s Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC). For information about the JOHSC at your site, meeting dates, workplace inspection schedules, or the contact information of the committee members, visit our website.