Leading indicators for serious injuries and fatalities (SIF) measure exposure and the health of controls before anyone is hurt. Useful ones include high-energy near misses; the rate of close forklift-pedestrian interactions in shared areas; critical controls, such as gates and interlocks, found failed or bypassed; overdue pre-operation inspections; speeding in pedestrian zones; and unsafe conditions that repeat in the same place. Unlike injury rates, they move before harm occurs, so they show where to act. They work when each is tied to a specific high-energy hazard and reviewed often enough to drive corrective action.
The full guide is leading vs lagging indicators in forklift safety. Keep the list short and tied to SIF potential: counting all near misses equally mixes trivial events with ones that could kill.
Normalise exposure counts by operating hours or shifts so sites of different sizes can be compared, and track whether speed zones, gates and barriers work as designed alongside the events themselves. SIF exposure explains how to find high-energy interactions, and forklift safety KPIs lists metrics worth reporting.