An incident is an unforeseen event that does not (just yet) result in injury or damage. This is sometimes referred to as an ‘aha moment’. We can further illustrate this with the following example.
The first drawing shows unsafe working conditions because one of the ladder rungs is broken. As soon as the worker steps on the ladder, this becomes an unsafe act. In drawing 3, the worker falls off the ladder due to the broken rung but is still able to catch himself so that he does not injure himself. This is called a near accident. The last drawing shows the scenario of an accident where the worker falls to the ground and injures himself.