Near Misses Matter

Send us Fan Mail (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2512363/fa...) Your facility can go weeks without a serious injury and still be sitting on a pile of warning signs. Near misses are those warnings: the dropped wrench that lands inches away, the forklift that stops just in time, the slip that “doesn’t count,” the frayed cord someone quietly avoids. When those moments stay unreported, you do not have a clean record, you have missing data. We dig into what near misses really mean in workplace safety and why near miss reporting is often far lower than the true number of close calls. We talk candidly about fear of blame, learned futility when “nothing ever changes,” the friction of clunky reporting systems, cultural pressure to keep production moving, and how risk becomes so normal that people stop seeing it. Then we spell out the true cost of silence: lost predictive power, hidden patterns, accepted hazards, and a higher chance that the first visible event is a severe one. From there, we get practical. We share how to build psychological safety, simplify hazard reporting with fast options like QR codes, cards, mobile or verbal reports, and why speed and feedback matter so much for trust. We also cover how to make it stick: supervisors set the tone, real examples help people recognize risks, and tracking trends turns near misses into action through engineering controls, risk assessments, and smarter safety KPIs. If you want fewer injuries, start by learning faster. Subscribe for more real-world EHS and safety culture insights, share this with a leader who needs it, and leave a quick review if it helped. What is the biggest barrier to near miss reporting where you work? Hosted by: Joe Garcia, Safety Leader & Culture Advocate New Episodes Every Other Tuesday  Safety on Purpose (https://safetyonpurpose.buzzsprout.co...) Follow & Connect: 🔸 Instagram: Instagram (  / safetyonpurpose  ) 🔸 LinkedIn: Joe Garcia (  / jgarcia373  ) 🔸 Spotify | Apple | Podcasts: Search "Safety on Purpose"