near miss

A situation in which danger or problems are barely avoided. Used literally, it usually refers to a potential collision of some kind. It was a near miss when that deer jumped out in front of my car! Luckily, I swerved in time and managed to avoid hitting it. It was a near miss for the senator, whose charges were dropped due to a technicality.

a near ˈmiss

a situation in which an accident, usually involving two moving objects, is only just avoided: There was another near miss this afternoon just over Heathrow Airport when a jet nearly hit a small private plane. ♢ He drove like a maniac. We had one near miss after another.