Driving for Work: Mythbusters
52 common misconceptions – and the facts employers and drivers need to know
Myth 46: Near misses don’t count if nothing happened
Near misses are among the most valuable safety information an organisation can collect.
They reveal the same underlying risk factors as collisions – hazardous routes, poor vehicle condition, driver behaviour, scheduling pressure – but at a point where no harm has yet occurred.
Treating near misses as insignificant because there was no physical outcome means missing a critical opportunity to prevent a future collision.
Employers should actively encourage near miss reporting through a blame-free culture, investigate reports thoroughly, and use findings to drive improvement.
A culture where near misses are reported and acted upon is a hallmark of a genuinely safety-conscious organisation.
Driver takeaway:
Report every near miss, even if it felt minor or if you think you were at fault.
A near miss is the road’s way of warning you that something in the system is not working. Reporting it protects your colleagues as well as yourself.
Manager takeaway:
Actively encourage near-miss reporting through a genuinely blame-free culture. Investigate reports, feed findings back to drivers, and use the data to identify hazardous routes, junctions, and patterns.
The organisations with the best safety records tend to have the highest near-miss reporting rates, because they have created the culture to support it.
