Near hits reporting

Other behavior/activity measures include participation in safety meetings, submission of safety suggestions that are implemented, number of near-hit reports over a period of time, number of JSAs performed or updated, and number of safety corrections made from Work Orders or similar avenues. 

The fact that Judy filled out a near-hit report is certainly good news, but was this a complete report Were there some personal factors within Judy that could have influenced the incident Was Judy under stress or distress and, if so, could this have been a contributing factor It has been estimated that from 75 to 85 percent of all industrial injuries can be partially attributed to inappropriate reactions to stress (Jones, 1984). Furthermore, stress-related headaches are the leading cause of lost-work time in the United States (Jones, 1984). 

Judy s near-hit report was also clearly biased by common attribution errors researched by social psychologists and used by all of us at some time to deflect potential criticism and reduce distress. Attribution errors, along with stress and distress, represent potential barriers to achieving a Total Safety Culture. 

Think back to the anecdote at the start of this chapter. I suggested that Judy s near-hit report was incomplete or biased. Specifically, Judy did not report the potential influence of her own... 

It is possible to derive direct and objective definitions of the other success indices in Figure 7.3 and to use these to estimate overall achievement. Involvement, for example, can be defined by recording participation in voluntary programs, and incidents of corrective action can be counted in a number of situations. You can chart the number of safety work orders turned in and completed, the number of safety audits conducted and safety suggestions given, and the number of safety improvements occurring as a result of near-hit reports. 

A DO IT process can define desirable behaviors to be encouraged or undesirable behaviors to be changed. What the process focuses on in your workplace depends on a review of your safety records, job hazard analyses, near-hit reports, audit findings, interviews with employees, and other useful information. 

In addition to employee discussions, injury records and near-hit reports can be consulted to discover critical behaviors (both safe and at risk). Job hazard analyses or standard operating procedures can also provide information relevant to selecting critical behaviors to target in a DO IT process. Obviously, tire plant safety director or the person responsible for maintaining records for OSHA or MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration) can provide valuable assistance in selecting critical behaviors. 

Several sources can be consulted to obtain behaviors for a CBC, including injury records, near-hit reports, job hazard analyses, standard operating procedures, rules and procedural manuals, and the workers themselves. People already know a lot about their own safety performance. They know which safety rules they sometimes ignore, and they... 

So, what kinds of people should you look for as potential members of a safety team Perhaps, first and foremost, the candidate should be conunitted to safety. Has the individual done something recently to indicate personal concern for the safety or health of a coworker Perhaps, she turned in a comprehensive near-hit report in a work culture where... 

Incident Analysis Team - conducts fact-finding evaluations of near-hit reports and injuries, including behavioral, environment, and person-based factors and recommends corrective action. 

Injury-related Incidents Near hit reports Frequency and type of near hits... 

We will not comment on why workers fail to report, but continue to believe that documentation of potential problems, unsafe conditions, and especially near misses (or more accurately referred to as near hits ) are important in the prevention of incidents at all types of sites. 

To determine which jobs you should analyze first, review your injury and illness reports such as the OSHA 200 log, your medical case histories, your first-aid cases, and workers compensation claims. First, you should conduct a JHA for jobs with the highest rates of disabling injuries and illnesses. Do not forget jobs in which you have had close calls or near hits. You should give these incidents a high priority. Analyses of new jobs and jobs in which changes have been made in processes and procedures should be the next priority. 

This chapter describes near misses, discusses their importance, and presents the latest methods for getting near misses reported and investigated. The term near miss has a long history of use, but the terms near hit or close call more closely describe what actually happens. The term near miss is used throughout this book since it is so widely accepted as the term for incidents that are direct precursors to accidents. 

Co-workers should discuss past accidents Near hits should be reported to management... 

Promote the reporting of aU injuries, near hits, and property damage incidents. 

Let us get away from tire perspective of incident equals failure. The focus should be on how an incident gives us the chance to learn and improve. This can lead to more reports of personal near hits and property damage to correct problems before a major injury to a friend or coworker occurs. 

Instead, keep track of the various components of an incident analysis. Monitor the number of near hit, property damage, and injury reports. Track the number of corrective actions implemented for environment, behavior, and person-based factors. Now, you have an accountability system that facilitates participation. Of course, the focus needs to be on... 

The next section of this chapter introduces another means of reducing distress. It is a phenomenon that has particular implications for safety. In the aftermath of an injury or near hit, it can distort reports and incident analyses. This results in inappropriate or less-than-optimal suggestions for corrective action. This phenomenon of attributional bias can also create communication barriers between people and limit the co-operative participation needed to achieve a Total Safety Culture. 

In some work cultures, the interpersonal consequences for reporting an environmental hazard or near hit are more negative than positive. After all, these situations imply that... 

Focus on the process. Safety goals should focus on process activities that can contribute to injury prevention. Workers need to discuss what they can do to reduce injuries, from reporting and investigating near hits to conducting safety audits of environmental... 

How often has the individual performed the at-risk behavior A particular error or calculated risk is analyzed and punishment considered because something called attention to its occurrence. In other words, the analysis (commonly referred to as an "investigation") is likely a reaction to an injury. But how many at-risk behaviors typically occur before leading to an injury As I reviewed in Chapter 7, Heinrich (1931) estimated 300 near hits per one major injury. Bird observed this ratio to be 600 to one (as reported in Bird and Germain, 1997). Both Henrich and Bird presumed numerous at-risk behaviors occur before even a near hit is experienced, let alone an injury. 

It is interesting that the 300 30 ratio of near hits to injuries is referred to as a "law," when, in fact, it was only an estimate. It was not until more than 30 years later that this "law" was actually tested empirically. As Director of Engineering Services for the Insurance Company of America, Frank E. Bird, Jr., analyzed 1,753,498 "accidents" reported by 297 companies. These companies employed a total of 1,750,000 employees who worked more than ree billion hours during the exposure period analyzed. 

Guess what they discovered At least a dozen people had slipped on that same loose plate and said nothing about it. No one reported a near hit. They did not want to report a "near miss," implying careless or thoughtless behavior. 

As illustrated in Figure 20.14, when people give personal testimony, the presentation is more useful than a statistical analysis. We should probably spend less time calculating summary injury statistics and more time eliminating the barriers to the personal reporting and analysis of safety-related incidents—from near hits and first-aid cases to lost-time injuries. 

The text of the standard contained a section about the importance of reporting near misses (precursors to accidents). In order to encourage reporting, examples of near-misses were given, with the classification of a near-miss, in general, being one class less than the corresponding hit . 

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