Near miss

A near miss is an incident that had the potential to cause injury, ill health or damage, but happened not to on this occasion. A scaffold board that slips but hits no one, or a load that swings close to a worker, are near misses.

They matter because they are a free warning. Recording and reviewing near misses lets you fix the cause before it becomes an accident. Sync’s incident reporting lets teams log near misses from site alongside accidents, with follow-up actions tracked to close-out.