Prioritizing Minor Near Misses Eliminates Major Workplace Fall Risks

Minimizing close calls leaves companies vulnerable to OSHA violations, but shifting to digital safety check-ins captures hazards before injuries happen.

• By Gen Handley
• May 26, 2026

Most workplace incidents do not begin with an injury. Most precursors of incidents in the workplace start with near-misses – the subtle, minor events like workers catching their foot on stairs, recovering their balance on icy surfaces or narrowly not tripping over cluttered cables on a regular workday. The issue is that organizations often ignore these seemingly innocent near incidents because no worker is harmed or no company property is damaged; as a result, little to no action is taken in response to the events.

However, these little close calls and near-misses can be more significant than companies assume. Near-miss events at work can help managers and organizations anticipate potential problems and incidents in the future, allowing them to address certain occupational hazards – such as slips, trips and falls – before they hurt an employee.

A telematics study on commercial driving found that near-miss events provided earlier and more actionable indicators for safety risks rather than waiting for actual incidents like crashes or claims. When you look at a work hazard so prevalent and dangerous, like slips, trips and falls, these near misses are even more important to identify and prevent.

Consistently the most cited workplace safety violation, fall safety is a major challenge in U.S. workplaces and has been for a long time – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) listed fall protection as its most cited workplace safety violation for the 15th straight year in 2025, with nearly 6,000 violations. In 2024, fall incidents accounted for 844 workplace deaths and nearly 480,000 injuries requiring days away from work, according to the National Safety Council.

Why Slips, Trips And Falls Are Still A Massive Safety Problem

So why is the category of slips, trips and falls consistently the top occupational hazard in North America every year, across nearly every industry? The first and primary reason is due to the minimization of the near-miss events, misjudging these minor incidents as normal, harmless issues that do not require any attention.

Additionally, there are several common conditions found across all industries that, if not addressed, can increase the chance of falls in the workplace, such as:

• Spills and wet floors
• Cluttered areas and poor housekeeping
• Work fatigue and stress
• Inadequate lighting for walkways
• Changing weather or environmental conditions
• Rushed work environment
• Unknown or unassessed outdoor environments

The Hidden Value Of Near-Miss Reporting

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a near-miss (or close call, near accident or injury-free event) is defined as “a potential hazard or incident in which no property was damaged and no personal injury was sustained, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, damage or injury easily could have occurred.”

By identifying near-misses early, organizations can gather valuable safety intelligence that helps them prevent any harm from occurring to their team members or company property. For example, if multiple workers report slipping at the entrance of a specific work area during rain, the organization can implement proactive measures such as absorbent mats or drainage, and improve floor surface traction to prevent a future, potential head injury.

Another common example includes safety protocol and PPE compliance, like when a worker does not wear the proper, non-slipping footwear or forget to check in with their employer to confirm they are safe when working in environments where falls are a risk.

On top of recognizing the value of near-miss identification, companies can also face the challenge of enacting this value across the organization into ways that are not only effective in protecting the workers, but aligned with safety, operations, as well as leadership. Near-miss monitoring helps provide early risk detection and measurable outcomes, providing crucial data for an organization’s ongoing safety program and the strategic outline for important safety solutions and investments.

The Problem With Post-Incident Safety Culture

By identifying near-misses regularly, the company encourages a safety culture that is more focused on proactivity rather than reactivity – acting after somebody is hurt. Following an incident at work, the typical course of action can include strategies that involve the documentation of the recordable injury or lost-time incident, a compensation claim application and a regulator inspection by the local occupational health and safety agency. While these steps measure numbers like injury rates, claims and violations, they do not measure unsafe work conditions, worker fatigue and stress, lone worker hazards or near-misses.

Why Near-Misses Go Unreported (The Visibility Gap)

Near-misses do not always go unreported because they are not taken seriously. Workers do not report them because it may be slow, manual or a challenge to do so – especially when working in remote environments where falls and near-misses are a concern and there is no accessible means to report an event. It is not until following a fall incident that leadership can see the risk reveal itself, showing a serious issue with the company’s safety program.

What Pre-Incident Prevention Looks Like

To shift to a more effective pre-incident prevention model and system, companies must also try to adjust company safety protocols and attitudes. It is a change to systems that identify risk early through modern, digital-first approaches – in which worker visibility and communication are not dependent on manual processes, which can be forgotten and missed, including early warning signs like near-misses.

• Encourage near-miss reporting which must be accessible for all employees including mobile and lone workers and anonymous if they prefer.
• Conduct consistent, regular hazard risk assessments of all the near-miss events and hazards taking place for each worksite and environment.
• Analyze available safety data for dangerous patterns that could anticipate future falls at specific sites.
• Provide vulnerable workers with easy digital reporting and safety check-in monitoring tools to stay connected with a safety contact.
• Track and real-time monitor vulnerable workers with automated safety technologies for changing environmental conditions and exposure.
• Use a scheduled check-in system and automated alerts through fall detection technology to identify potential issues in real-time.
• Create a cultural shift that rewards and supports reporting instead of blaming workers, normalizing staff discussion around near-misses.

It’s Never The First Time

When a major fall occurs at work, it is rarely the first event. There were smaller events and signs before. By monitoring and paying attention to these near-miss events, companies can anticipate fall accidents and keep their people safe but also protect their operations and safety culture intact at the same time.

The organizations that make the biggest progress are not only reacting faster; they are capturing risk earlier, building systems that provide their workers an easy way to report, check in and stay connected, especially in higher-risk or remote environments.

When a near-miss is identified, it is visible and is therefore actionable. And when a near-miss is actionable, it is also preventable.