# Analysing Near-Miss Incidents in Construction: A Systematic Literature Review
## 2 Definition of Near-Miss Events
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**No.** & **Name of Institution/Organization** & **Definition** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{1} & Occupational Safety and Health & \"A near-miss is a potential hazard or incident in which no property was \\  & Administration (OSHA) [21] & damage and no personal injury was sustained, but where, given a slight shift \\  & & in time or position, damage or injury easily could have occurred. Near misses \\  & & also may be referred to as close calls, near accidents, or injury-free events.\" \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{2} & International Labour Organization & \"An event, not necessarily defined under national laws and regulations, that \\  & (ILO) [22] & could have caused harm to persons at work or to the public, e.g., a brick that \\  & & falls off scaffolding but does not hit anyone” \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{3} & American National Safety Council & \"A Near Miss is an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, or \\  & (NSC) [23] & damage—but had the potential to do so” \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{4} & PN-ISO 45001:2018-06 [24] & A near-miss incident is described as an event that does not result in injury or \\  & & health issues. \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{5} & PN-N-18001:2004 [25] & A near-miss incident is an accident event without injury. \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{6} & World Health Organization (WHO) [26] & Near misses have been defined as a serious error that has the potential to cause \\  & & harm but are not due to chance or interception. \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{7} & International Atomic Energy Agency & Near misses have been defined as potentially significant events that could \\  & (IAEA) [27] & have consequences but did not due to the conditions at the time. \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Definitions of near misses by institution. For one fatal injury there were 10 minor injuries, 29 property damage incidents, and 600 non-injury incidents. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [33] constructed a pyramid-shaped model based on the analysis of hazardous events recorded in various industrial sectors within the European Union. In the accident pyramid developed in 2006, for one fatal accident, there were 15 severe accidents resulting in disability, 30 incidents requiring hospitalisation of the injured, and 160 requiring medical treatment compared to 220 total recorded injuries. Figure 1 illustrates the safety pyramids proposed by [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [31], [PERSON] et al. [36], and also [PERSON] et al. [37] emphasise the feature of near misses as a kind of precursor to accidents. [PERSON] and [PERSON] base their research on the so-called common cause hypothesis, which posits that near misses and accidents exhibit similar relative causal patterns [38]. It can thus be concluded that the sequence of a near-miss event is very similar to that of an accident, except for a few missing elements [39]. The elimination of causes of near-miss events has the potential to positively impact the prevention of occupational accidents [29]. Nevertheless, there are those who oppose this theory. [PERSON] [40] posits that a dearth of scientific evidence exists to substantiate the assertion that near misses and accidents are causally linked. This is because unsafe activities can be performed on multiple occasions before an accident occurs, and this is not attributable to the occurrence of more incidents. However, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [41] posit that the emphasis should not be on enumerating near misses, but rather on elucidating the contextual factors that precipitated incidents.