Most serious workplace incidents don't happen suddenly. The warning signs are usually there long before the injury, spill, fire, or fatality occurs .     Incidents build over time.   Unsafe conditions become normalised, people stop speaking up, and one day something catastrophic happens — and everyone says they never saw it coming. The truth is, they almost always did. In occupational health and safety, we talk a great deal about incident prevention and risk assessment. But real prevention does not begin after the accident report is filed. It begins when you learn to read the room — when you recognise the quiet, easy-to-miss signals that a serious workplace incident is being prepared, slowly, by the environment around you.  Seven Warning Signs that Safety Officers, Supervisors, and Workers Should Never Ignore. 1 Near Misses Stop Being Reported Near miss reporting is one of the most reliable early-warning systems in workplace safety. When reports dry up, it ra...