Originally Posted by chessman

Except near miss is a perfectly precise and accurate description. Near miss doesn't mean that it was almost a miss. It means that the miss was a very close one (in the sense of two things being near to each other). Conversely, a big miss would mean that something/someone missed by a lot.

It happens that near collision is also accurate. In that context, near means that the collision almost occurred.

Words can mean different things (or have similar, but subtly different senses). (And if you find disagreement there, just say "yeah right").