In the industry, a near miss is an incident which lies at the bottom of the safety pyramid.
Safety Pyramid
A near miss does not cause any injury, damage or publicity. However, the main reason why it doesn’t do so is usually due to dumb luck. For example:
- A tie rod would hit someone on the head if it was two inches to the left.
- A dropped box would crush someone if there was a person on a designated walkway.
- A hammer missed smashing equipment because the wielder’s reach was 3 inches too short.
Here’s a near miss near our offices. In this case, it would be an incident if the power cable snapped, or the power cable was 4 feet longer, or a 10 ft tall person happened to walk by.
Near Miss - Detached Lighting Fixture
Posted by Wata 
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 