A safety-symptom is an observable indicator that a safety failure or incident may be imminent. Its parameters: (1) it must be an observable or reportable event — a near-miss, weak signal, hazard precursor, or early warning — not a full-blown incident; (2) it must be interpreted within a safety-management framework that has the categories and procedures to recognize and classify it; (3) it functions as a diagnostic signal that prompts investigation or corrective action before harm occurs. Its persistence mechanism: organizational safety reporting systems, near-miss databases, safety training curricula, and risk assessment protocols that codify what counts as a symptom and how to respond. Without these human-made structures, near-misses remain unclassified incidents rather than diagnostic safety-symptoms. [formal: signum | substrate: mind | horizon: as-long-as-us | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
safety-symptom
A safety-symptom is an observable indicator that a safety failure or incident may be imminent. Its parameters: (1) it must be an observable or reportable event — a near-miss, weak signal, hazard precursor, or early warning — not a full-blo…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made analytical construct in safety management: an observable indicator — such as a near-miss, weak signal, or early warning sign — that a safety failure or incident may be imminent. It is a categorized concept built into safety reporting systems and risk assessment frameworks, persisted through organizational practice, training, and documentation.
Names and aliases
- safety-symptomen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cms8zl7xj02pu73fkgiuhf5jtINSTANCE_OF →
safety-symptom is a specific kind of safety-metric: a measurable indicator that signals degraded safety capacity or emerging hazard conditions. Competent-speaker test: 'a safety-symptom is a safety-metric' — passes cleanly.
- cms7wyk72004ph6s8d82lhwqlSERVES →
Safety symptoms serve reliability: early warnings of deteriorating conditions let operators intervene before failures occur, maintaining reliable operation through proactive detection.
- cmsa4nqsc02sl7skq9qh3uhj8DEPENDS_ON →
A safety symptom is an observable indicator that depends on safety significance for its interpretation: a symptom only has meaning as a safety-relevant signal when assessed against significance criteria. Remove significance assessment and a symptom cannot be evaluated as safety-relevant.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 1, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC
- Content hash
- c4d074df178efbaf9980f2528bae5ce8ddaaa2987e5ca8cf08605c28a8c99847