Many near miss reporting (NMR) systems don’t work as intended. In most systems, what typically gets reported includes: (1) only events severe enough or with witnesses where there is no other option but report; and (2) “softball” near misses like paper cuts or a deer on the shoulder of the highway on the way to work.
Why this gap between near miss reporting systems’ intent and ultimate impact? Many NMR processes function to discourage the very behavior they require: reporting a situation where an injury or damage could have happened but didn’t. The systems inadvertently punish reporting substantive near misses.