When something nearly causes serious harm, it still carries lessons. These “near-miss” events often share the same root causes as the worst accidents but offer a chance to prevent them before someone is hurt.
The Potentially Serious Incidents (PSI) program gives you the tools to spot those events and use them to strengthen your safety systems.
A summary of high-potential safety events across Alberta's energy industry — what's causing them, and where the biggest opportunities for prevention sit.
PSIs involving energy ≥ 1,500 Joules
High-energy events continue to dominate PSI reporting and are consistent with serious injury and fatality potential.
PSIs involved Gravity, Motion or Chemical Energy
Three energy sources account for most reported high-potential events.
of PSIs identified Human Performance as the primary proximal cause
Human Performance should be viewed as an opportunity to understand the systems and conditions that influence work, not worker blame.
Similar incidents continue to reoccur across organizations — a key opportunity for industry-wide learning.
Safety and HSE leads who oversee systems and incident investigations
Supervisors and field leads who want to bring stronger awareness of near-misses to their crews
Companies that want to shift from just tracking incidents to learning from events that almost led to serious harm
A guideline to help you recognize what qualifies as a potentially serious incident.
Share the guideline with your leadership and safety team so everyone uses the same definition of “potentially serious.”
Use the decision tree during incident review or near‐miss debriefs to determine if the event qualifies as a PSI.
Use the toolbox talk to bring awareness of what can go wrong and what changed the outcome.
Use the data reports to support investment in prevention, ask “what if a worse outcome had happened?” and adjust controls accordingly.