Near Miss Incident Risk Management and Assessment

Near Miss Incident Risk Management and Assessment 

Occupational health and safety has evolved in an effort to cope with the complexities of modem industry and the risks that accompany manufacturing, mining, transportation, and other activities. 

Much development has been in the field of risk management, which considers probabilities of undesired events occurring and enables action plans to be put in place to prevent and reduce the possible losses that could occur. 

This chapter endeavors to simplify the risk management approach and give the reader an overall idea as to the various components of risk management and how they combine to form a comprehensive management strategy. 

Risk assessment is a vital part of the near miss incident reporting and remedy system (NEMIRR) process and helps one determine the potential probability, frequency, as well as the potential severity of loss of a near miss incident. It helps predicts what could have happened under slightly different circumstances. 

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Near miss incidents have often been referred to as Safety in the Shadows, because this is where the heart of the accident problem lies. Near miss incidents offer management an opportunity to rectify a system breakdown before an accident happens. Because there are no losses as a result of an undesired event does not necessarily mean that the event is insignificant. Risk assessment of near miss incidents will determine which ones warrant a full investigation. This will help to track and eliminate the source of the problem at the root. 

Safety forecasting is the activity a manager carries out to estimate the probability, frequency, and severity of accidents and near miss incidents that may occur in a future time span. This is usually done by means of risk assessment, critical task identification, and task risk assessment. Near miss incident analysis can predict what losses could have occurred if the event had not been identified and the root causes eliminated. 

Near miss incidents are warnings that the management system is flawed. Not all near miss incidents, however, need immediate and in-depth actions as some near miss incidents have less potential than others do. Assessing the potential of a near miss incident gives a clear indication so that investigations can be prioritized. Using a simple risk matrix, each near miss incident s potential can be ranked and consequent investigations and follow-up actions prioritized. 

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