How should the Deputy handle a near-miss incident?

• A. Record the near miss, investigate to identify causes, implement corrective actions, and share lessons to prevent recurrence.
• B. Ignore, report later.
• C. Only record if injury occurs.
• D. Blame the worker involved.

Answer: (B)

Near-miss events are warnings that a failure could happen. The right approach is to record the near miss in the safety system, investigate to identify underlying causes, implement corrective actions, and share the lessons so the team can prevent recurrence. This turns a near miss into a learning opportunity and helps protect people by enabling timely fixes and pattern detection. Ignoring the near miss or delaying reporting stops learning, and blaming someone erodes trust and discourages open reporting.