From Data to Decisions: Why near-miss insights are essential to pedestrian safety
Real-time proximity alerts are critical for protecting people around mobile equipment, but they’re only one part of the safety puzzle. Equally important is the ability to capture and analyse near-miss data. Without it, you’re flying blind.
Near-miss insights tell you:
- Where risks occur
- How often they happen
- Who is involved
- And under what conditions
This information helps safety managers make better, faster decisions about where to intervene and how to reduce risk.
Why visuals matter
You’ve probably said it a hundred times: “Stay 3 metres away.” But repeating rules rarely changes behaviour. What does? Showing real examples of high-risk actions from your own site. A photograph or short video clip of the event played during a toolbox talk sticks with people far more than a mantra ever will.
You don’t know what you don’t know
We often hear from experienced safety professionals at large companies who say, “We don’t really have a problem.” But when we ask, “How many near misses did you have this week?” the answer is usually: “I’m not sure.”
The truth is, most near misses never get reported, even in workplaces with a strong safety culture. That’s why objective, automated near-miss capture is so valuable. It reveals the risk you can’t see.
It’s common for management to believe that traffic management plans prevent all pedestrian-forklift interactions. But once objective data is captured, it often reveals frequent unsafe incidents that contradict initial assumptions.
Enforcing separation is essential. But if compliance isn't perfect (and it rarely is), then proximity alerts can be life-saving, precisely when they're least expected.
Use data, but keep it simple
Data overload is a genuine concern for busy safety professionals. The goal isn’t just to collect data - it’s to extract insight. A good system doesn’t overwhelm. It filters and highlights what matters.
That’s why your safety tech should:
- Be simple and user-friendly
- Deliver relevant, actionable insights
- Integrate with your existing tools (e.g., via API to your internal dashboards or data lake).
This avoids yet another platform to log into and allows you to correlate safety data with other operational trends, unlocking greater value with less effort.
Real-time insights. Real-time training.
The best time to address risky behaviour is as it happens. With real-time alerts and notifications, supervisors can follow up immediately with staff involved, while the moment is still fresh. These are teachable moments, not disciplinary ones. When handled constructively, they drive awareness and build a stronger safety culture.
Don’t punish. Reward.
People are less likely to report safety incidents if they fear negative consequences. But the absence of reports doesn’t mean the absence of risk. Good safety culture rewards reporting, because every incident shared is an opportunity to learn and improve.
Let AI do what it does best
AI has incredible potential in safety, but it’s only as powerful as the data you feed it. Automatically capturing and classifying near misses allows AI models to surface trends, identify problem areas, and even predict emerging risks.
Let the AI find the patterns, so you can focus on the solutions.
Choose flexible, independent systems
When selecting a data platform for pedestrian detection, look for brand-agnostic solutions. OEM-tied systems may lock you into specific machines or limit your ability to scale globally across mixed fleets. The smarter path is a vendor-independent system that works on any brand, anywhere.
Data security: Don’t wait until it’s too late
Data security may be your least favourite topic, but it’s not your IT department’s. Any system that captures and uploads data will need to be vetted. Get your cybersecurity team involved early to avoid rollout delays.
We've seen companies go all the way to implementation, only to be blocked at the last moment because of unknown hosting risks or hardware from restricted regions. Don’t let that happen to you.
A Million Alerts, and Counting
SEEN recently passed a major milestone: over 1 million detection events uploaded to SEEN Insight. Each one of these represents a real moment - an operator alerted, a decision made, and a potential incident avoided.
Together, these alerts and data points help build a clearer picture of risk, enabling safer, smarter workplaces.
The feedback received from customers consistently shows SEEN Insight really is making a difference to the safety of people working on and around Material Handling Equipment (MHE). Here’s what Darcy had to say about SEEN Insight:
"(A) huge benefit has been the camera's access to the SEEN Insight Dashboard. It gives us real visibility into near misses, so instead of waiting for something to happen, we can identify risks early and run training before there’s an incident. It’s changed the way we think about safety - from reactive to proactive.
For us, SEEN Safety’s system isn’t just another bit of tech - it’s an investment in making sure everyone goes home safe at the end of the day."
Darcy Loechel, WHS Manager - Thomas Foods International
Want to understand the unseen risk at your site?
Talk to us about how SEEN Insight can help you turn proximity data into life-saving decisions.
