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Near miss: what it means for the CHST

Toe Board editorial teamUpdated 3 min read

A near miss is an unplanned event that did not injure anyone, make anyone ill or damage anything, but could have. A wrench that lands a step from a worker or a trench wall that sloughs while the crew is on break are near misses: the cause is there without the harm.

A timeline with three branches from one unsafe condition: one ends in an injury, one in property damage and one, marked near miss, ends with nobody hurt, and an arrow loops from the near miss back to fixing the condition
Same cause, different luck. The near miss is the branch you get to learn from for free.
Use this diagram

Why it is not on the log

OSHA's recordkeeping rule, 29 CFR Part 1904, records work-related injuries and illnesses that meet its criteria. A near miss has no injury or illness, so it never goes on the 300 log and never shows in a TRIR or DART rate. That is exactly why it is valuable: it measures risk before the rates move.

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Reporting that works

  • Make it easy. A short form, a phone photo or a word to the foreman is enough to start.
  • Make it safe. Part 1904 bars retaliation against workers who report injuries, and a program that punishes near-miss reports will stop getting them. Thank people for reporting.
  • Close the loop. Tell the crew what changed. If nothing ever changes, reports dry up.
  • Look at trends. Several reports about the same ladder, gate or task point to a condition, not bad luck.

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Investigating one

Treat a near miss the same way as an incident, scaled to its potential. Ask what happened, what could have happened, and why. Look past the person to the conditions and systems: why the material was stacked at the edge, why the guard was off, why the plan did not cover it. Then fix the cause using the hierarchy of controls and update the job hazard analysis for that task. Our blog walks through finding root causes.

Common mix-ups

  • Property damage only is not a near miss under the definition on this page; it is an incident with damage. A near miss has no harm at all.
  • Near misses are not minor. The potential outcome, not the actual one, decides how deep to investigate.
  • Counting fewer reports as improvement. Fewer reports may mean people stopped reporting.

On the CHST exam

The blueprint does not name near misses. Incident causation techniques and recordkeeping are listed under safety program development (22.5%).

Practice it

Our recordkeeping guide explains what does go on the log. Every term in this set is in the CHST terms glossary.

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