Hazard vs Near Miss Reporting

When risks and hazards are recognised early, controls can be put in place to prevent harm to workers, visitors, and the public. 

Reporting and controlling hazards/risks is a way of being proactive and helping create a safe environment for everyone to work in.

A key part of Health and Safety legislation across Australia is the need to both identify these hazards, and then manage the risks involved so they are either removed or controlled correctly. Creating a Task in the HazardCo App to report the hazard is a simple and effective way to manage this responsibility.

There are always going to be hazards and risks on construction sites; they are dynamic places. Identifying the hazards that could cause serious injury or harm to both workers’ health and safety helps manage risk as the project moves along and helps those who manage the jobs plan for them better in the future. 

For example:

The concrete pumping truck has a blockage on-site, and the team decides to try and rectify the blockage whilst other workers are in close proximity. Joe is aware of the hazards and risks of clearing blockages under high pressure, and that someone could get seriously injured if things go wrong. He recommends that the concrete pumping team stop and do it away from other workers in a safe location. Because no incident or near miss occurred of anyone getting or nearly getting hurt, Joe logs this hazard as a Task in the HazardCo App.

The company reviews all the tasks that have been logged for the project and sees Joe’s reported hazard. With new knowledge of the dangers involved and the controls used to manage the risks of concrete truck blockages. The company decides to use those controls on all sites going forward. 

Hazard reporting is an effective and ongoing way for workers to raise concerns or suggest improvements on a day-to-day basis.

How hazards differ from near misses:

Hazard: something could occur. 

Near Miss: something did occur but there was no harm caused.

Hazard example:

Joe notices an extension cable has been badly damaged and is still plugged in. He turns off the power and removes the cable from services and logs it as a Task in the HazardCo App before someone could get hurt.

Reporting hazards as a Task in the HazardCo App helps with: 

• being proactive by controlling risk before it turns into an incident
• getting workers involved in managing site safety
• identifying and reporting hazards when completing risk assessments and site reviews on-site brings attention to the hazards that need addressing by assigning action and priority to the right team member, and then being able to track progress until the hazard is sorted.

Near miss example: 

Joe sees a fellow worker about to roll up a badly damaged extension cord whilst it is still plugged in, he immediately stops the worker before he could have got hurt. Turns off the power and removes the cable from service and logs a near miss as an Incident in the HazardCo App.

Reporting a near miss helps with: 

• recording incidents that nearly or could have caused harm
• shows how well or not controls are working
• identifying if too many similar near misses are happening which could indicate that you have an issue that needs controlling