Awareness and accident prevention
Awareness is one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of accident prevention.
As defined by the National Safety Council, a “near miss/incident” is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness or damage but had the potential to do so. An “accident” is an unexpected or unintended event that results in property damage or personal injury.
Although each of these includes terms such as unplanned or unexpected there are steps that can be taken to identify potential hazards and help us in working to avoid them. When incidents or near misses occur, the opportunity should be taken to investigate why and how they occurred and what to do to prevent the same situation from happening in the future. This in turn can prevent a near miss from turning into a future accident.
