Difference between Near Miss, Accident and Incident

 In this blog i will explain you Near miss, Accident and Incident (Definition and Difference)

Near Miss

A narrowly avoided accident.          Or

An unplanned event that did not result in any injury, illness or damage, but had the potential to do so.

Near-misses are a subset of incidents where no one got hurt, but only by a pure stroke of luck. In a near-miss, someone was a hair's breadth away from getting injured.

For example a group working on a scaffold and co-worker standing on the floor. Hammer slipped from his hand and fell near the worker standing on the floor. Neither hammer hurt/injured co-worker nor damage the property. So this is a near miss, if hammer may fell on the co-worker and injured him or damage property. But lets assume that was a drill machine then after falling down it might broken/damage. there is a damage so it is not a near miss.

Accident

An unexpected event which results in serious injury or illness of an employee and may also result in property damage.

A workplace accident is an incident—meaning an unexpected workplace event—that resulted in injury or even fatality. Many injuries are non-critical, but many are.

Critical injuries include loss of consciousness, bone fracture, amputation of any kind, loss of sight in at least one eye, severe burns, and substantial loss of blood.

Even though the word “accident” implies that no one was at fault, a thorough investigation is required. Someone might have failed to follow the necessary H&S procedures, or someone else may have failed to assess the severity of a workplace hazard. It’s vital to recognize exactly how and why the accident took place.

Incident

An unintended event that disturbs normal operations.

or 

An instance of something happening, an unexpected event or occurrence that doesn’t result in serious injury or illness but may result in property damage.

Workplace incidents are any adverse events that cause interference in daily work activities. Incidents that almost caused an injury or fatality are labeled as near-misses. Incidents that resulted in an injury or fatality are called accidents. 

So, an incident can involve a near miss, where someone narrowly avoided injury or illness. But, if a serious injury takes place, we are talking about an accident. What they have in common is that both events are unplanned and can cause damage to places or things. It is only accidents, however, that cause serious injury or illness to people. So, all accidents are incidents, but not all incidents are accidents. Therefore, incidents are more common than accidents, in fact, accidents make up only 2% of incidents.