A leading indicator is a safety measure that tracks activities or conditions before harm occurs, such as near-miss reports, inspection completion or speeding events, so that risk can be reduced before an injury.
OSHA describes leading indicators as proactive and preventive measures that can show how effective safety and health activities are and expose weaknesses in a program before injuries occur. For a forklift fleet, common examples are the share of pre-operation checklists completed, near-miss and close-approach events per thousand operating hours, overspeed events in pedestrian zones, impact events, and refresher training completed on schedule.
A useful leading indicator is something the site can act on and that plausibly links to injury outcomes. Counting activity alone, such as toolbox talks delivered, can rise while risk stays the same. Leading indicators work alongside lagging indicators such as injury rates rather than replacing them. Telematics and detection systems make some indicators cheaper to collect, but the data still needs a regular review routine and an owner who acts on it. The forklift safety KPIs article lists indicators by type.