Dive summary:

• Contractors stand a better chance of preventing lost-time reportable accidents if they encourage employees to report what almost – but didn't – happen on job sites so the contractors can guard against those mishaps.
• Various studies over the decades have postulated that there could be 300 to 600 "non-accidents" for every one that cost time off the job, but companies could use even a relatively small 50:1 ratio to "guesstimate" whether they are hearing of all the incidents they should know about.
• A company building a power plant in Louisiana started a formal program of encouraging reports of accidents that almost happened but didn't, and while the number of reports rose dramatically, the company went 1 million hours without a lost-time accident.

From the article:

The management team knew that identifying and investigating near-misses were key elements to finding and controlling risks before workers were injured or property was damaged. ...