Incident Classifications

Incidents can be defined an unplanned events with undesirable consequences. In the context of process safety, incidents include fires, explosions, release of toxic or hazardous substances, or sudden release of energy that result in death, injury, adverse human health effects or environmental or property damage.
Near misses can be defined as extraordinary events that could have reasonably resulted in an accident or incident. To some the definition of incidents includes near misses. Because there are many similarities between “incidents” and “near misses” for the purpose of process safety, incidents refer to both types of events.
Reference: CCPS(1989) Guidelines for Technical Management of Chemical Process Safety
Management/Incident Investigation/Incident Recording, Reporting and Analysis