Reporting Practices for Close Call (Near Miss) Reporting Systems

This paper identifies best practices for reporting close calls (near misses) in the maritime industry. The practices were identified by reviewing approximately 44,000 actual close call reports from 27 data sources. Even though the close call data is provided in a wide variety of formats, the data demonstrates a surprising degree of uniformity in the collection of the close call data and resolution of the close calls with most organizations capturing an incident description and incident resolution. A number of organizations also have formal corporate response feedback mechanism for all incidents. The analysis demonstrates that many features of close call reporting systems discussed in the literature are being implemented in practice including avoiding blame, disseminating close call reports, and developing effective corrective measures. Based on the review of industry practices and industry feedback, a sample close call reporting form and taxonomy for close calls will be developed.