Near Miss Reporting

[Hendrik]

I would have to write this up as a near miss every day! ointhead
]

that looks like the dudette that Tiny was talking about
Seriously though, sure it feels like dobbing in someone when you are dealing with reports. However these sort of systems are designed for larger organisations and sure they are not always user friendly and can be intimidating.
Remember though the near miss report filed at work site A might safe a life at work site Y because the safety system was reviewed and improved. From your point of view it is narcing on your mates but the company looks at it as a constant feedback system to ensure their safety policies are working.
Perhaps you have some thoughts on how you would like the system to work?

 

[Tiny]

I'm really looking for opinions . As I find it hard to want to narc on someone or myself . Has anyone been hurt or canned over a near miss report ??

...

 

[MrElectric03]

My company has started this recently. We also have to report any cut, scrape, or bruise as an accident. As a result our safety record went to **** and we were kicked out of some of our large mine site customers for having a poor safety record. Apparently if I cut myself on a nail on a shipping crate and the guy with me gets his arm cut off, the effect on the safety record is the same for both of us...which is ridiculous. My branch had the best safety record at something like 3,500 days without a lost time incident when our safety board that keeps count shorted out and now due to a few small cuts our record is shot.

 

[DoosanFan]

The company I worked for was very serious on safety. It was a corporate timber grower, and harvesting safety was their biggest concern. Near misses have to be recorded, and such things as a forwarder driving over a stump and people from the community walking past the operation were counted. Personnel not wearing PPE and hangups in a mechanised operation are also considered near misses. The company worked out that 600 FACs (First Aid Cases) would lead to 30 MTCs (Medically Treated Cases), then to 10 LTIs (Lost Time Injuries), resulting in 1 Fatality. 2011 this formula was proved; a chainsaw operator was crushed beneath a tree after 11 LTIs.

I suppose it depends on the company; you can be serious about safety without being pedantic. Also, if your onsite safety officer is terse and obstinate, people tend not to report accidents.

 

[norite]

I am of two minds on this. I've seen it at it's worst when near miss/ potential accident reporting is a "rat" system and used to punish employees or contractors, usually by another contractor who is trying to divert attention from his own issues by making someone else look as bad or worse than he is.

At it's best, it can be a safety tool to get employees thinking about performing their job safely, looking for potential hazards, and increasing their situational awareness at the start of and during their shift. Sort of ecourages you to get and keep your mind on the job. Of course if you punish people for reporting issues, you won't get much participation.

I prefer the carrot to the stick approach, got a video camera as a reward once for suggesting that an icy path should be sanded. Trivial suggestion yes but the camera was cool.

 

[alco]

I fully support reporting near misses.......provided they are actual near misses. Simply reporting for the sake of generating paperwork to justify having a reporting system in place is pointless, in my opinion. If there's something worth reporting, then there's the potential for rectifying the problem, which could possibly save someone from getting hurt.

We have a Field Level Risk (FLRA) system where I work. In concept, it sounds like a great idea, but in reality, I feel it has an almost negative effect. We are required to fill out an FLRA card for every task we perform. If you are caught working without a filled out and signed card for the task you are working on, you will be subject to disciplinary action. The cards require you to list the tasks you will be undertaking, then all the potential hazards, and the steps you will take to mitigate each of those potential hazards. These are all handwritten, not a form where you circle a selection from a list. The biggest issue, is that it has to be done for every task. Not just tasks that are not a regular occurance, or something you are not familiar, but every task. So,if I have to perform shovel pit checks on three different shovels, then I have three seperate cards to fill out. In theory, this sounds like a good idea, but reality seems to disprove that. It seems that in most cases, the people filling out the cards, think only long enough to figure out something to write down, then switch off their brains because "I did my FLRA, so I don't have to think about it anymore.". I prefer to constantly watch for any hazards that may show up, and deal with them as we go, but this process wants you to think of anything that could happen before you start. Unfortunately, like I said, I find this causes most people to stop looking for hazards once the initial assessment is done, and in the worst case, simply write something down for the sake of having something written down. That seems somewhat counterproductive to me. But, that keeps safety busy, so they're happy.

 

[norite]

I've worked using that flra system also. We had to write down every possible step in a task, then identify every possible hazard and then state every precaution we would do to eliminate the hazards. This went from the trivial to major hazards and we had to write these out for every job we did. Sometimes we did 3 or 4 different jobs a day and had to fill out an flra each time. Each guy on the crew and the supervisor/foreman had to sign it.

It was randomly checked by safety guys from each contractor, the engineering co. and the client and their union safety committee. You better have one made out for the crew with your signature on it and know who had it and where it was. Anybody else who wanted to work in your work area had to sign it too. If there was any kind of incident or safety violation, real or imaginary they grabbed them and used them to hang you with it.

They were collected and filed at the end of the shift. Sucked big time, made you want to quit. Spent as much time filling these out as we did working some days. Worse part was none of these safety guys they hired had a clue what is necessary to do a construction project, they all seemed to come from some safety fantasy world.

If they get any worse I don't know how they will ever get anything built.

 

[oldtanker]

I can see where this could go both ways. It could make a job site much safer but could also me used as a means of IDing and getting rid of "complainers" who are always filing these reports. Most of my adult work experience is US Army so I have seen a lot of ladder climbers who will back stab in a heartbeat and supervisors who would look at the person filing the report as a trouble maker.

I can also see where all the darn paper work would get in the way of getting a job done in a reasonable manner.

I can also see a company using these reports to try to minimize their responsibility shold an accident occure.

I'm not a big fan of unions but this is one place were this should be brought to the attention of union officials.

Rick

 

[RTSmith]

...

And you still don't have an answer to the question at hand. Does that mean "No", that no one has been harmed? I'm thinking if someone had, they would have chimed in.

But the discrepancy I do see here is that there are many different types of reporting on the same system. So just because no one else has had career harm, does not mean that your multi-national safety bean counters will respond the same way.

 

[akpolaris]

"Near Miss" reporting is big in the oil fields. Makes for topics in the daily "tool box" or safety meetings Sometimes those meetings sound entirely too sincere in their message and communications. I find this syrupy sincerity to be sickenly sweet.

 

[.RC.]

I just have no patience for writing up a report saying I wiped my boots off so some safety person can file it to justify having an administrative assistant. I always insist that the first thing my employees do when they make a mistake or something goes wrong is to tell me about it.

Sounds to me like there is a lot of crazy stuff going on by people justifying their job..

Stupid stuff just makes people blase about it all.

 

[Dozerboy]

No its not, these people have no problem justifying their job when we all go home to our families the way we came to work. I think of it this way. As a young man I leaned lots of things the hard way. By watching myself and other employees get hurt. What if as a greenhorn someone gave you all the hazards associated with a task gathered from years experience. Kind of like your parents telling don't touch the oven you'll get burned as a kid. There are those that will learn the hard way still.

You don't have to dream anything up. I bet all of us do this all day long subconsciously and just don't realize it. All I do is pick those things out and write them down. I wish I didn't have to do it, but I do they pay me too. Maybe one day it will save someones life...