Every example on this page is invented to show a typical pattern. None is a real event, a customer's site or a reported case.
| # | What nearly happened, and where | RIDDOR? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warehouse aisle: forklift and picker meet at an aisle end | No |
| 2 | Yard: lorry reverses towards a person behind it | No |
| 3 | Loading bay: lorry pulls away during loading | No |
| 4 | Loading bay: trailer creeps from the dock | No |
| 5 | Site entrance: staff walk through the vehicle gate | No |
| 6 | Yard, after dark: shunter nearly hits someone at an unlit crossing | No |
| 7 | Racking aisle: load falls from the forks where someone had just walked | No |
| 8 | Ramp: forklift overturns, driver unhurt (a dangerous occurrence) | Yes |
| 9 | Port yard: reach stacker reverses towards a worker on foot | No |
| 10 | Quayside: visiting driver leaves the cab to find the office | No |
What happened: a picker stepped out of a racking aisle into the main forklift route. A forklift crossing the end of the aisle braked hard and stopped about a metre away.
Worst outcome: fatal or life-changing crush injury.
What made it likely: the racking blocks the view both ways; pickers leave the aisle at walking pace straight into the route; nothing slows them down.
Stronger fix: a barrier or gate at the aisle end that makes people stop and look before they step out. A convex mirror helps, but on its own relies on both people using it.
What happened: a delivery driver reversed towards a bay while a member of staff walked behind the trailer to reach the office. The driver stopped when someone shouted.
Worst outcome: fatal.
What made it likely: the reversing area is also the walking route to the office; reversing alarms are so common nobody reacts to them.
Stronger fix: reduce the need to reverse (a one-way route or drive-through layout) and keep people out of reversing areas altogether. HSE says a banksman (a trained person who guides reversing vehicles) should be used "only when all other options have been exhausted". See the traffic management plan guide.
What happened: a lorry driver, thinking loading was finished, pulled away from the dock as a forklift was about to drive into the trailer. The forklift driver stopped at the dock edge.
Worst outcome: forklift falls from the dock; fatal or serious injury to the forklift driver.
What made it likely: no system to stop drive-away; the driver could not see into the trailer; nobody confirmed loading was finished.
Stronger fix: a system that physically controls when the lorry can leave, such as keys handed in, a vehicle restraint or dock traffic lights linked to the door. See visiting HGV drivers.
What happened: during loading of a detached trailer, a gap of about 30 cm opened between the dock leveller and the trailer as forklifts drove in and out. A forklift wheel dropped into the edge of the gap before the driver reversed out.
Worst outcome: forklift overturns into the gap; serious or fatal injury.
What made it likely: the trailer's brakes were not holding fully and nothing else stopped it moving.
Stronger fix: a trailer restraint or wheel chocks used every time, and a check of the gap before the first forklift enters.
What happened: at the end of the day shift, a group of staff walked out through the vehicle gate, because it is nearer the car park than the pedestrian gate. A lorry turning in had to stop suddenly.
Worst outcome: a person struck by a turning lorry; fatal.
What made it likely: the pedestrian route is longer than the route people actually want to take (a "desire line"); shift change puts many people and vehicles in the same place at once.
Stronger fix: put the pedestrian route where people want to walk, and physically separate it from the vehicle gate. HSE says "Segregating pedestrians from vehicles, preferably by making routes entirely separate, is the most effective way of protecting them." See the pedestrian segregation check.
What happened: at 18:30 in November, a yard shunter driver braked when they saw someone on the crossing at the last moment. The floodlight over the crossing had failed the week before.
Worst outcome: fatal.
What made it likely: a broken light nobody had reported; dark clothing; the change in daylight after the clocks went back.
Stronger fix: add lighting to the regular checks, and fix failures as urgent, not routine. See the monthly transport safety check and dark yards after the clocks change.
What happened: a forklift driver lifting a pallet to the third level of racking dropped a carton from the top of the load. It landed in the aisle a few seconds after a picker had walked through.
Worst outcome: head injury, possibly fatal.
What made it likely: an unstable, badly wrapped load; pickers walking in an aisle while forklifts work at height.
Stronger fix: keep people out of aisles while forklifts are working at height, and set a standard for how loads are wrapped before they are lifted.
Reportable? No. A falling load with nobody hurt is not a dangerous occurrence. It would be if a load-bearing part of the forklift had failed.
What happened: a counterbalance forklift turned while coming down a ramp with a raised load and tipped onto its side. The driver was not hurt.
Worst outcome: the driver crushed under the truck; fatal.
What made it likely: turning on a slope with the load raised; the ramp is used as a shortcut.
Stronger fix: route forklifts away from the ramp or make the safe route the easy one; refresher training on slopes; supervision checks. See L117 in plain English.
Reportable? Yes. The overturning of lifting equipment, which includes a forklift, is a dangerous occurrence under RIDDOR and must be reported even though nobody was hurt. See the dangerous occurrences list.
What happened: a worker on foot walked between container stacks to check a seal number. A reach stacker reversing out of the stack stopped when its driver saw him on the camera, about three metres away.
Worst outcome: fatal.
What made it likely: the stack area is used by machines and people at the same time; large machines have big blind spots.
Stronger fix: no people on foot in active stack areas, with a set way to stop machines before anyone enters. See reversing and blind spots in port yards.
What happened: a visiting HGV driver, unsure where to go, got out of the cab on the quay to ask directions and walked into a lane used by terminal tractors. A tractor driver steered round him.
Worst outcome: fatal.
What made it likely: no clear instructions at the gate; the driver did not know the layout or where they were allowed to walk.
Stronger fix: clear rules and a map at the gate, a rule that drivers stay in the cab or in a marked safe area, and a way to ask for help without getting out. See visiting HGV drivers in ports.
A good near-miss report is short and specific. Using example 6:
"18:30, Wed 4 Nov. Crossing between car park and Gate 2. Shunter driver braked hard for a person on the crossing. Floodlight over crossing not working (reported? not sure). Could have been fatal. Nobody hurt."
That is enough to act on. Our near-miss log template has a one-page form with these fields.
Typical examples involving vehicles are a forklift stopping just short of someone at an aisle end, a lorry reversing towards a person behind it, a lorry pulling away from a loading bay during loading, and a load falling where someone had just walked. In each case nobody was hurt, but someone could have been.
If nobody is hurt, it is a near miss in the everyday sense, but it is also a dangerous occurrence under RIDDOR. That means it must be reported to HSE even though there was no injury.
On its own, it is an unsafe condition (HSE calls it an undesired circumstance), not a near miss. If someone steps into the vehicle route to get round it and a vehicle has to stop, that is a near miss. Both are worth reporting.
Yes. They are invented for that purpose. Adapting them to your own site, with your own routes and vehicles, makes them more useful.
Each of these was seen by someone. How many like them happen on your site with nobody watching? Safety Mapping: a free two-week trial on one camera.
By Hao Zheng, CEO at RoboK · Published 2 November 2026 · Last updated 2 November 2026