WorldWideScience

Sample records for safety fatal accident

  1. Estimation of fatality and injury risk by means of in-depth fatal accident investigation data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yannis, George; Papadimitriou, Eleonora; Dupont, Emmanuelle; Martensen, Heike

    2010-10-01

    In this article the factors affecting fatality and injury risk of road users involved in fatal accidents are analyzed by means of in-depth accident investigation data, with emphasis on parameters not extensively explored in previous research. A fatal accident investigation (FAI) database is used, which includes intermediate-level in-depth data for a harmonized representative sample of 1300 fatal accidents in 7 European countries. The FAI database offers improved potential for analysis, because it includes information on a number of variables that are seldom available, complete, or accurately recorded in road accident databases. However, the fact that only fatal accidents are examined requires for methodological adjustments, namely, the correction for two types of effects on a road user's baseline risk: "accident size" effects, and "relative vulnerability" effects. Fatality and injury risk can be then modeled through multilevel logistic regression models, which account for the hierarchical dependences of the road accident process. The results show that the baseline fatality risk of road users involved in fatal accidents decreases with accident size and increases with the vulnerability of the road user. On the contrary, accident size increases nonfatal injury risk of road users involved in fatal accidents. Other significant effects on fatality and injury risk in fatal accidents include road user age, vehicle type, speed limit, the chain of accident events, vehicle maneuver, and safety equipment. In particular, the presence and use of safety equipment such as seat belt, antilock braking system (ABS), and electronic stability program (ESP) are protection factors for car occupants, especially for those seated at the front seats. Although ABS and ESP systems are typically associated with positive effects on accident occurrence, the results of this research revealed significant related effects on accident severity as well. Moreover, accident consequences are more severe

  2. Type A behavior pattern, accident optimism and fatalism: an investigation into non-compliance with safety work behaviors among hospital nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ugwu, Fabian O; Onyishi, Ike E; Ugwu, Chidi; Onyishi, Charity N

    2015-01-01

    Safety work behavior has continued to attract the interest of organizational researchers and practitioners especially in the health sector. The goal of the study was to investigate whether personality type A, accident optimism and fatalism could predict non-compliance with safety work behaviors among hospital nurses. One hundred and fifty-nine nursing staff sampled from three government-owned hospitals in a state in southeast Nigeria, participated in the study. Data were collected through Type A Behavior Scale (TABS), Accident Optimism, Fatalism and Compliance with Safety Behavior (CSB) Scales. Our results showed that personality type A, accident optimism and fatalism were all related to non-compliance with safety work behaviors. Personality type A individuals tend to comply less with safety work behaviors than personality type B individuals. In addition, optimistic and fatalistic views about accidents and existing safety rules also have implications for compliance with safety work behaviors.

  3. Fatal occupational accidents in Danish fishing vessels 1989-2005

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Laursen, Lise Hedegaard; Hansen, Henrik L; Jensen, Olaf

    2008-01-01

    training for all fishermen and improved safety measures are needed, especially in the underscored areas of sea disasters concerning small vessels and occupational accidents on big vessels. Better registration of time at risk for fishermen is needed to validate the effect of the safety measures......./capsizing due to stability changes in rough weather and collisions; 39 fatal occupational accidents mainly occurred on the larger inspection obligated trawlers during fishing. In the remaining 14 other fatal accidents, the main causal factors were difficult embarking/disembarking conditions by darkness...... in foreign ports and alcohol intoxication. In the period 1995-2005, the overall incidence rate was 10 per 10,000 fishermen per year with no down-going trend during that period. The fatal accident rates are still too high, despite the efforts to reduce the risk. Increased focus on regular and repeated safety...

  4. Fatal accidents at railway level crossings in Great Britain 1946-2009.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Andrew W

    2011-09-01

    This paper investigates fatal accidents and fatalities at level crossings in Great Britain over the 64-year period 1946-2009. The numbers of fatal accidents and fatalities per year fell by about 65% in the first half of that period, but since then have remained more or less constant at about 11 fatal accidents and 12 fatalities per year. At the same time other types of railway fatalities have fallen, so level crossings represent a growing proportion of the total. Nevertheless, Britain's level crossing safety performance remains good by international standards. The paper classifies level crossings into three types: railway-controlled, automatic, and passive. The safety performance of the three types of crossings has been very different. Railway-controlled crossings are the best-performing crossing type, with falling fatal accident rates. Automatic crossings have higher accident rates per crossing than railway controlled or passive crossings, and the accident rates have not decreased. Passive crossings are by far the most numerous, but many have low usage by road users. Their fatal accident rate has remained remarkably constant over the whole period at about 0.9 fatal accidents per 1000 crossings per year. A principal reason why fatal accidents and fatalities have not fallen in the second half of the period as they did in the first half is the increase in the number of automatic crossings, replacing the safer railway controlled crossings on some public roads. However, it does not follow that this replacement was a mistake, because automatic crossings have advantages over controlled crossings in reducing delays to road users and in not needing staff. Based on the trends for each type of crossing and for pedestrian and non-pedestrian accidents separately, in 2009 a mean of about 5% of fatal accidents were at railway controlled crossings, 52% were at automatic crossings, and 43% were at passive crossings. Fatalities had similar proportions. About 60% of fatalities were

  5. Fatal accidents analysis in Peruvian mining industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Candia, R. C.; Hennies, W. T.; Azevedo, R. c.; Almeida, I.G.; Soto, J. F.

    2010-01-01

    Although reductions in the tax of injuries and accidents have been observed in recent years, Mining is still one of the highest risks industries. The basic causes for occurrence of fatalities can be attributed to unsafe conditions and unsafe acts. In this scene is necessary to identify safety problems and to aim the effective solutions. On the other hand, the developing countries dependence on primary industries as mining is evident. In the Peruvian economy, approximately 16% of the GNP and more than 50% of the exportations are due to the mining sector, detaching its competitive position in the worldwide mining. This paper presents fatal accidents analysis in the Peruvian mining industry, having as basis the register of occurred fatal accidents since year 2000 until 2007, identifying the main types of accidents occurred. The source of primary information is the General Mining Direction (DGM) of the Peruvian Mining and Energy Ministry (MEM). The majority of victims belongs to tertiary contractor companies that render services for mine companies. The results of the analysis show also that the majority of accidents happened in the underground mines, and that it is necessary to propose effective solutions to manage risks, aiming at reducing the fatal accidents taxes. (Author)

  6. Using Occupational Safety and Health Administration accident investigations to study patterns in work fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendeloff, J M; Kagey, B T

    1990-11-01

    Investigations of fatalities by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provide the most detailed available information about traumatic workplace deaths that are potentially related to violations of existing safety standards. Comparison of the number of such deaths investigated by OSHA from 1977 to 1986 with the comparable category of deaths reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses indicates that the overall magnitudes have been roughly similar. The OSHA data contain more information than other sources and are especially valuable for analyses of fatalities at smaller workplaces. The OSHA data show that death rates decline sharply with establishment size; the inverted "U" pattern for lost workday injury rates is absent. Because accident investigations are conducted as part of an administrative system, the OSHA data can be influenced by changes in administrative policies. Changes over time in the percent of fatalities in which violations of OSHA standards were cited have clearly been influenced by changes in OSHA citation policy and thus do not provide a valid measure of the rate of violation-caused deaths. Realization of the epidemiological value of this data source depends upon a commitment from OSHA to maintain consistency in investigating accidents and to improve its data collection methods.

  7. [Fatal occupational accidents in Lombardy].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pianosi, G

    1995-01-01

    All fatal occupational accidents compensated in Lombardy from 1984 to 1989 were analyzed (1259 cases): significant differences between geographical distribution of fatal occupational accidents and workers were observed. Males accounted for about 95% of fatalities; an excess of cases was shown in both young and elderly workers. Death was the consequence of injuries involving most frequently the head, thorax and spinal cord. An excess of fatalities was observed in agriculture and, at a lower level, in manufacturing industries; small enterprises were involved in approximately 25% of fatalities occurring in the manufacturing industries and services. Employers were the victims of fatal accidents in 50% of cases in agriculture and in 70% of cases in craft industries. Construction, agriculture and transport accounted for about 50% of all fatalities. About 50% of fatal occupational accidents were related to vehicle use: the victim was the driver in the majority of cases, sometimes the victim was run over by a vehicle or fell from a vehicle. The results agree with some previous observations (e.g.: sex and age distribution; construction, agriculture and transport as working activities at high accident risk); but some original observations have emerged, in particular about the frequency of employers as victims and the role of vehicles in the genesis of fatal occupational accidents. If further studies confirm these latter observations, important developments could follow in preventive action design and implementation.

  8. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Fatal Accidents in Aviation Medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laukkala, Tanja; Bor, Robert; Budowle, Bruce; Sajantila, Antti; Navathe, Pooshan; Sainio, Markku; Vuorio, Alpo

    2017-09-01

    Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interfere with functioning and/or development. ADHD occurs in about 2.5% of adults. ADHD can be an excluding medical condition among pilots due to the risk of attentional degradation and therefore impact on flight safety. Diagnosis of ADHD is complex, which complicates aeromedical assessment. This study highlights fatal accident cases among pilots with ADHD and discusses protocols to detect its presence to help to assess its importance to flight safety. To identify fatal accidents in aviation (including airplanes, helicopters, balloons, and gliders) in the United States between the years 2000 to 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database was searched with the terms ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and attention deficit disorder (ADD). The NTSB database search for fatal aviation accidents possibly associated with ADHD yielded four accident cases of interest in the United States [4/4894 (0.08%)]. Two of the pilots had ADHD diagnosed by a doctor, one was reported by a family member, and one by a flight instructor. An additional five cases were identified searching for ADD [5/4894 (0.1%)]. Altogether, combined ADHD and ADD cases yielded nine accident cases of interest (0.18%). It is generally accepted by aviation regulatory authorities that ADHD is a disqualifying neurological condition. Yet FAA and CASA provide specific protocols for tailor-made pilot assessment. Accurate evaluation of ADHD is essential because of its potential negative impact on aviation safety.Laukkala T, Bor R, Budowle B, Sajantila A, Navathe P, Sainio M, Vuorio A. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and fatal accidents in aviation medicine. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(9):871-875.

  9. Cirrus Airframe Parachute System and Odds of a Fatal Accident in Cirrus Aircraft Crashes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alaziz, Mustafa; Stolfi, Adrienne; Olson, Dean M

    2017-06-01

    General aviation (GA) accidents have continued to demonstrate high fatality rates. Recently, ballistic parachute recovery systems (BPRS) have been introduced as a safety feature in some GA aircraft. This study evaluates the effectiveness and associated factors of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) at reducing the odds of a fatal accident in Cirrus aircraft crashes. Publicly available Cirrus aircraft crash reports were obtained from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database for the period of January 1, 2001-December 31, 2016. Accident metrics were evaluated through univariate and multivariate analyses regarding odds of a fatal accident and use of the parachute system. Included in the study were 268 accidents. For CAPS nondeployed accidents, 82 of 211 (38.9%) were fatal as compared to 8 of 57 (14.0%) for CAPS deployed accidents. After controlling for all other factors, the adjusted odds ratio for a fatal accident when CAPS was not deployed was 13.1. The substantial increased odds of a fatal accident when CAPS was not deployed demonstrated the effectiveness of CAPS at providing protection of occupants during an accident. Injuries were shifted from fatal to serious or minor with the use of CAPS and postcrash fires were significantly reduced. These results suggest that BPRS could play a significant role in the next major advance in improving GA accident survival.Alaziz M, Stolfi A, Olson DM. Cirrus Airframe Parachute System and odds of a fatal accident in Cirrus aircraft crashes. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(6):556-564.

  10. Fatal accidents in nighttime vs. daytime highway construction work zones.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arditi, David; Lee, Dong-Eun; Polat, Gul

    2007-01-01

    Awareness about worker safety in nighttime construction has been a major concern because it is believed that nighttime construction creates hazardous work conditions. However, only a few studies provide valuable comparative information about accident characteristics of nighttime and daytime highway construction activities. This study investigates fatal accidents that occurred in Illinois highway work zones in the period 1996-2001 in order to determine the safety differences between nighttime and daytime highway construction. The lighting and weather conditions were included into the study as control parameters to see their effects on the frequency of fatal accidents occurring in work zones. According to this study, there is evidence that nighttime construction is more hazardous than daytime construction. The inclusion of a weather parameter into the analysis has limited effect on this finding. The study justifies establishing an efficient work zone accident reporting system and taking all necessary measures to enhance safety in nighttime work zones.

  11. Road Accidents and Road Fatalities in Denmark from 1968 to 2004

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Orozova-Bekkevold, Ivanka; Hels, Tove; Bernhoft, Inger Marie

    2008-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe the road accidents and road fatalities in Denmark in the period 1968-2004. Only accidents registered by the police were used. Crude and gender & age specific fatality rates (counts per 1,000,000 inhabitants) were estimated for all road users...... and for bicyclists. The accident and fatality rates have decreased by around 70% from 1968 to 2004, while the motorisation rate has increased by approximately 90%. The sharpest decrease in the fatality rate was observed among the youngest (below 18 years old) and the older (above 64) road users. Gender related...... and actions targeted to improve road safety have indeed led to a significant reduction in injury accidents and fatalities. Further research and more detailed data, especially on traffic volume and individual exposure are necessary in order to investigate properly a causal relation between the number...

  12. Duty of Notification and Aviation Safety-A Study of Fatal Aviation Accidents in the United States in 2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vuorio, Alpo; Budowle, Bruce; Sajantila, Antti; Laukkala, Tanja; Junttila, Ilkka; Kravik, Stein E; Griffiths, Robin

    2018-06-13

    After the Germanwings accident, the French Safety Investigation Authority (BEA) recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO) and European Community (EC) develop clear rules for the duty of notification process. Aeromedical practitioners (AMEs) face a dilemma when considering the duty of notification and conflicts between pilot privacy and public and third-party safety. When balancing accountability, knowledge of the duty of notification process, legislation and the clarification of a doctor’s own set of values should be assessed a priori. Relatively little is known of the magnitude of this problem in aviation safety. To address this, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database was searched to identify fatal accidents during 2015 in the United States in which a deceased pilot used a prescribed medication or had a disease that potentially reduced pilot performance and was not reported to the AME. Altogether, 202 finalized accident reports with toxicology were available from (the year) 2015. In 5% (10/202) of these reports, the pilot had either a medication or a disease not reported to an AME which according to the accident investigation was causal to the fatal accident. In addition, the various approaches to duty of notification in aviation in New Zealand, Finland and Norway are discussed. The process of notification of authorities without a pilot’s express permission needs to be carried out by using a guidance protocol that works within legislation and professional responsibilities to address the pilot and the public, as well as the healthcare provider. Professional guidance defining this duty of notification is urgently needed.

  13. Impact of the effect of economic crisis and the targeted motorcycle safety programme on motorcycle-related accidents, injuries and fatalities in Malaysia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Law, T H; Umar, R S Radin; Zulkaurnain, S; Kulanthayan, S

    2005-03-01

    In 1997, a Motorcycle Safety Programme (MSP) was introduced to address the motorcycle-related accident problem. The MSP was specifically targeted at motorcyclists. In addition to the MSP, the recent economic recession has significantly contributed to a reduction of traffic-related incidents. This paper examines the effects of the recent economic crisis and the MSP on motorcycle-related accidents, casualties and fatalities in Malaysia. The autocorrelation integrated moving average model with transfer function was used to evaluate the overall effects of the interventions. The variables used in developing the model were gross domestic product and MSPs. The analysis found a 25% reduction in the number of motorcycle-related accidents, a 27% reduction in motorcycle casualties and a 38% reduction in motorcycle fatalities after the implementation of MSP. Findings indicate that the MSP has been one of the effective measures in reducing motorcycle safety problems in Malaysia. Apart from that, the performance of the country's economy was also found to be significant in explaining the number of motorcycle-related accidents, casualties and fatalities in Malaysia.

  14. Estimating cost ratio distribution between fatal and non-fatal road accidents in Malaysia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamdan, Nurhidayah; Daud, Noorizam

    2014-07-01

    Road traffic crashes are a global major problem, and should be treated as a shared responsibility. In Malaysia, road accident tragedies kill 6,917 people and injure or disable 17,522 people in year 2012, and government spent about RM9.3 billion in 2009 which cost the nation approximately 1 to 2 percent loss of gross domestic product (GDP) reported annually. The current cost ratio for fatal and non-fatal accident used by Ministry of Works Malaysia simply based on arbitrary value of 6:4 or equivalent 1.5:1 depends on the fact that there are six factors involved in the calculation accident cost for fatal accident while four factors for non-fatal accident. The simple indication used by the authority to calculate the cost ratio is doubted since there is lack of mathematical and conceptual evidence to explain how this ratio is determined. The main aim of this study is to determine the new accident cost ratio for fatal and non-fatal accident in Malaysia based on quantitative statistical approach. The cost ratio distributions will be estimated based on Weibull distribution. Due to the unavailability of official accident cost data, insurance claim data both for fatal and non-fatal accident have been used as proxy information for the actual accident cost. There are two types of parameter estimates used in this study, which are maximum likelihood (MLE) and robust estimation. The findings of this study reveal that accident cost ratio for fatal and non-fatal claim when using MLE is 1.33, while, for robust estimates, the cost ratio is slightly higher which is 1.51. This study will help the authority to determine a more accurate cost ratio between fatal and non-fatal accident as compared to the official ratio set by the government, since cost ratio is an important element to be used as a weightage in modeling road accident related data. Therefore, this study provides some guidance tips to revise the insurance claim set by the Malaysia road authority, hence the appropriate method

  15. GIS based analysis of Intercity Fatal Road Traffic Accidents in Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alizadeh, A; Zare, M; Darparesh, M; Mohseni, S; Soleimani-Ahmadi, M

    2015-01-01

    Road traffic accidents including intercity car traffic accidents (ICTAs) are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality due to the growing number of vehicles, risky behaviors, and changes in lifestyle of the general population. A sound knowledge of the geographical distribution of car traffic accidents can be considered as an approach towards the accident causation and it can be used as an administrative tool in allocating the sources for traffic accidents prevention. This study was conducted to investigate the geographical distribution and the time trend of fatal intercity car traffic accidents in Iran. To conduct this descriptive study, all Iranian intercity road traffic mortality data were obtained from the Police reports in the Statistical Yearbook of the Governor's Budget and Planning. The obtained data were for 17 complete Iranian calendar years from March 1997 to March 2012. The incidence rate (IR) of fatal ICTAs for each year was calculated as the total number of fatal ICTAs in every 100000 population in specified time intervals. Figures and maps indicating the trends and geographical distribution of fatal ICTAs were prepared while using Microsoft Excel and ArcGis9.2 software. The number of fatal car accidents showed a general increasing trend from 3000 in 1996 to 13500 in 2012. The incidence of fatal intercity car accidents has changed from six in 100000 population in 1996 to 18 in 100000 population in 2012. GIS based data showed that the incidence rate of ICTAs in different provinces of Iran was very divergent. The highest incidence of fatal ICTAs was in Semnan province (IR= 35.2), followed by North Khorasan (IR=22.7), and South Khorasan (IR=22). The least incidence of fatal ICTAs was in Tehran province (IR=2.4) followed by Khozestan (IR=6.5), and Eastern Azarbayejan (IR=6.6). The compensation cost of fatal ICTAs also showed an increasing trend during the studied period. Since an increasing amount of money was being paid yearly for the car

  16. GIS based analysis of Intercity Fatal Road Traffic Accidents in Iran

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alizadeh, A; Zare, M; Darparesh, M; Mohseni, S; Soleimani-Ahmadi, M

    2015-01-01

    Road traffic accidents including intercity car traffic accidents (ICTAs) are among the most important causes of morbidity and mortality due to the growing number of vehicles, risky behaviors, and changes in lifestyle of the general population. A sound knowledge of the geographical distribution of car traffic accidents can be considered as an approach towards the accident causation and it can be used as an administrative tool in allocating the sources for traffic accidents prevention. This study was conducted to investigate the geographical distribution and the time trend of fatal intercity car traffic accidents in Iran. To conduct this descriptive study, all Iranian intercity road traffic mortality data were obtained from the Police reports in the Statistical Yearbook of the Governor’s Budget and Planning. The obtained data were for 17 complete Iranian calendar years from March 1997 to March 2012. The incidence rate (IR) of fatal ICTAs for each year was calculated as the total number of fatal ICTAs in every 100000 population in specified time intervals. Figures and maps indicating the trends and geographical distribution of fatal ICTAs were prepared while using Microsoft Excel and ArcGis9.2 software. The number of fatal car accidents showed a general increasing trend from 3000 in 1996 to 13500 in 2012. The incidence of fatal intercity car accidents has changed from six in 100000 population in 1996 to 18 in 100000 population in 2012. GIS based data showed that the incidence rate of ICTAs in different provinces of Iran was very divergent. The highest incidence of fatal ICTAs was in Semnan province (IR= 35.2), followed by North Khorasan (IR=22.7), and South Khorasan (IR=22). The least incidence of fatal ICTAs was in Tehran province (IR=2.4) followed by Khozestan (IR=6.5), and Eastern Azarbayejan (IR=6.6). The compensation cost of fatal ICTAs also showed an increasing trend during the studied period. Since an increasing amount of money was being paid yearly for the

  17. Studded and unstudded winter tires in fatal road accidents in Finland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Malmivuo, Mikko; Luoma, Juha; Porthin, Markus

    2017-07-04

    The aim of the study was to compare the safety effects of studded and unstudded winter tires based on fatal road accidents. The data included 958 road accidents involving a passenger car or van that occurred in Finland from November to March between 1997 and 2012. Comparing the proportions of winter tire type in accidents and in general traffic showed that the overall effect of tire type on the number of accidents was not significant, although studded tires reduced fatal accidents by 10-15%. Compared to unstudded tires, studded tires reduced accidents significantly only on bald ice in 2005-2012. Drivers using unstudded tires were more experienced and their profession was more frequently related to driving. In addition, the vehicle age was lower for vehicles with unstudded tires. On the other hand, the state of repair was less pertinent for unstudded than for studded tires. These confounding factors offset their effects to some degree. The risk of fatal road accidents in winter between studded and unstudded tires does not differ significantly. However, the accident risk has recently been substantially higher on bald ice for unstudded than for studded tires. The magnitude of this risk difference is difficult to determine without specific information on exposure by road surface.

  18. Fatal accidents among Danes with multiple sclerosis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brønnum-Hansen, Henrik; Hansen, Thomas; Koch-Henriksen, Nils

    2006-01-01

    We compared the rate of fatal accidents among Danes with multiple sclerosis (MS) with that of the general population. The study was based on linkage of the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Registry to the Cause of Death Registry and covered all 10174 persons in whom MS was diagnosed during the period 19...... for deaths from burns (SMR = 8.90) and suffocation (SMR = 5.57). We conclude that persons with MS are more prone to fatal accidents than the general population. The excess risk is due not to traffic accidents but to burns and suffocation.......-1996. The end of follow-up was 1 January 1999. We calculated standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for various types of fatal accidents. A total of 76 persons (48 men and 28 women) died from accidents, whereas the expected number of fatalities from such causes was 55.7 (31.4 men and 24.3 women). Thus, the risk...... for death from accidents among persons with MS was 37% higher than that of the general population (SMR = 1.37). We found no significant excess risk for fatal road accidents (SMR = 0.80). The risk for falls was elevated (SMR = 1.29) but not statistically significantly so. The risks were particularly high...

  19. Do failures in non-technical skills contribute to fatal medical accidents in Japan? A review of the 2010-2013 national accident reports.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uramatsu, Masashi; Fujisawa, Yoshikazu; Mizuno, Shinya; Souma, Takahiro; Komatsubara, Akinori; Miki, Tamotsu

    2017-02-16

    We sought to clarify how large a proportion of fatal medical accidents can be considered to be caused by poor non-technical skills, and to support development of a policy to reduce number of such accidents by making recommendations about possible training requirements. Summaries of reports of fatal medical accidents, published by the Japan Medical Safety Research Organization, were reviewed individually. Three experienced clinicians and one patient safety expert conducted the reviews to determine the cause of death. Views of the patient safety expert were given additional weight in the overall determination. A total of 73 summary reports of fatal medical accidents were reviewed. These reports had been submitted by healthcare organisations across Japan to the Japan Medical Safety Research Organization between April 2010 and March 2013. The cause of death in fatal medical accidents, categorised into technical skills, non-technical skills and inevitable progress of disease were evaluated. Non-technical skills were further subdivided into situation awareness, decision making, communication, team working, leadership, managing stress and coping with fatigue. Overall, the cause of death was identified as non-technical skills in 34 cases (46.6%), disease progression in 33 cases (45.2%) and technical skills in two cases (5.5%). In two cases, no consensual determination could be achieved. Further categorisation of cases of non-technical skills were identified as 14 cases (41.2%) of problems with situation awareness, eight (23.5%) with team working and three (8.8%) with decision making. These three subcategories, or combinations of them, were identified as the cause of death in 33 cases (97.1%). Poor non-technical skills were considered to be a significant cause of adverse events in nearly half of the fatal medical accidents examined. Improving non-technical skills may be effective for reducing accidents, and training in particular subcategories of non-technical skills may be

  20. Do failures in non-technical skills contribute to fatal medical accidents in Japan? A review of the 2010–2013 national accident reports

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uramatsu, Masashi; Fujisawa, Yoshikazu; Mizuno, Shinya; Souma, Takahiro; Komatsubara, Akinori; Miki, Tamotsu

    2017-01-01

    Objectives We sought to clarify how large a proportion of fatal medical accidents can be considered to be caused by poor non-technical skills, and to support development of a policy to reduce number of such accidents by making recommendations about possible training requirements. Design Summaries of reports of fatal medical accidents, published by the Japan Medical Safety Research Organization, were reviewed individually. Three experienced clinicians and one patient safety expert conducted the reviews to determine the cause of death. Views of the patient safety expert were given additional weight in the overall determination. Setting A total of 73 summary reports of fatal medical accidents were reviewed. These reports had been submitted by healthcare organisations across Japan to the Japan Medical Safety Research Organization between April 2010 and March 2013. Primary and secondary outcome measures The cause of death in fatal medical accidents, categorised into technical skills, non-technical skills and inevitable progress of disease were evaluated. Non-technical skills were further subdivided into situation awareness, decision making, communication, team working, leadership, managing stress and coping with fatigue. Results Overall, the cause of death was identified as non-technical skills in 34 cases (46.6%), disease progression in 33 cases (45.2%) and technical skills in two cases (5.5%). In two cases, no consensual determination could be achieved. Further categorisation of cases of non-technical skills were identified as 14 cases (41.2%) of problems with situation awareness, eight (23.5%) with team working and three (8.8%) with decision making. These three subcategories, or combinations of them, were identified as the cause of death in 33 cases (97.1%). Conclusions Poor non-technical skills were considered to be a significant cause of adverse events in nearly half of the fatal medical accidents examined. Improving non-technical skills may be effective for

  1. Cannabis, alcohol and fatal road accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Jean-Louis; Gadegbeku, Blandine; Wu, Dan; Viallon, Vivian; Laumon, Bernard

    2017-01-01

    This research aims to estimate the relative risks of responsibility for a fatal accident linked to driving under the influence of cannabis or alcohol, the prevalence of these influences among drivers and the corresponding attributable risk ratios. A secondary goal is to estimate the same items for three other groups of illicit drugs (amphetamines, cocaine and opiates), and to compare the results to a similar study carried out in France between 2001 and 2003. Police procedures for fatal accidents in Metropolitan France during 2011 were analyzed and 300 characteristics encoded to provide a database of 4,059 drivers. Information on alcohol and four groups of illicit drugs derived from tests for positivity and potential confirmation through blood analysis. The study compares drivers responsible for causing the accident, that is to say having directly contributed to its occurrence, to drivers involved in an accident for which they were not responsible, and who can be assimilated to drivers in general. The proportion of persons driving under the influence of alcohol is estimated at 2.1% (95% CI: 1.4-2.8) and under the influence of cannabis at 3.4% (2.9%-3.9%). Drivers under the influence of alcohol are 17.8 times (12.1-26.1) more likely to be responsible for a fatal accident, and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever exceeded the legal limit for alcohol is estimated at 27.7% (26.0%-29.4%). Drivers under the influence of cannabis multiply their risk of being responsible for causing a fatal accident by 1.65 (1.16-2.34), and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever drove under the influence of cannabis is estimated at 4.2% (3.7%-4.8%). An increased risk linked to opiate use has also been found to be significant, but with low prevalence, requiring caution in interpreting this finding. Other groups of narcotics have even lower prevalence, and the associated extra risks cannot be assessed. Almost a

  2. Cannabis, alcohol and fatal road accidents.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jean-Louis Martin

    Full Text Available This research aims to estimate the relative risks of responsibility for a fatal accident linked to driving under the influence of cannabis or alcohol, the prevalence of these influences among drivers and the corresponding attributable risk ratios. A secondary goal is to estimate the same items for three other groups of illicit drugs (amphetamines, cocaine and opiates, and to compare the results to a similar study carried out in France between 2001 and 2003.Police procedures for fatal accidents in Metropolitan France during 2011 were analyzed and 300 characteristics encoded to provide a database of 4,059 drivers. Information on alcohol and four groups of illicit drugs derived from tests for positivity and potential confirmation through blood analysis. The study compares drivers responsible for causing the accident, that is to say having directly contributed to its occurrence, to drivers involved in an accident for which they were not responsible, and who can be assimilated to drivers in general.The proportion of persons driving under the influence of alcohol is estimated at 2.1% (95% CI: 1.4-2.8 and under the influence of cannabis at 3.4% (2.9%-3.9%. Drivers under the influence of alcohol are 17.8 times (12.1-26.1 more likely to be responsible for a fatal accident, and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever exceeded the legal limit for alcohol is estimated at 27.7% (26.0%-29.4%. Drivers under the influence of cannabis multiply their risk of being responsible for causing a fatal accident by 1.65 (1.16-2.34, and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever drove under the influence of cannabis is estimated at 4.2% (3.7%-4.8%. An increased risk linked to opiate use has also been found to be significant, but with low prevalence, requiring caution in interpreting this finding. Other groups of narcotics have even lower prevalence, and the associated extra risks cannot be assessed

  3. Economic and cultural correlates of road-traffic accident fatality rates in OECD countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaygisiz, Esma

    2009-10-01

    The relationships between economic conditions, cultural characteristics, personality dimensions, intelligence scores, and road-traffic accident mortality rates were investigated in 30 member and five accession countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Economic indicators included the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, the unemployment rate, and the Gini index. Cultural variables included five Hofstede's cultural dimensions, seven Schwartz cultural value dimensions, NEO-PI-R scales, and the intelligence quotient (IQ). The results showed positive associations between favorable economic conditions (high income per capita, high employment rate, and low income inequality) and high traffic safety. Countries with higher road-traffic accident fatality rates were characterized by higher power distance and uncertainty avoidance as well as embeddedness and emphasis on social hierarchy. Countries with lower road-traffic accident fatality rates were more individualistic, egalitarian, and emphasized autonomy of individuals. Conscientiousness (from NEO-PI-R) and IQ correlated negatively with road-traffic accident fatalities.

  4. Pilot Certification, Age of Pilot, and Drug Use in Fatal Civil Aviation Accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akparibo, Issaka Y; Stolfi, Adrienne

    2017-10-01

    This study examined the association between mean age of pilot, pilot license, pilot medical certificate and drug use trends in pilots fatally injured in aircraft accidents. The prevalence of prescription drugs, OTC drugs, controlled drugs and drugs that may be potentially impairing was also examined. This study was a descriptive observational study in which the NTSB Aviation Accident Database was searched from the period beginning January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2014. During the study period a total of 706 accidents involving 711 fatalities were investigated by the NTSB. This study included 633 of these accidents, involving 646 fatalities. Of these pilots, 42.1% had drugs in their biological samples. The prevalence of prescription drugs, controlled drugs, OTC drugs, opioids, and potentially impairing drugs in the fatally injured pilot population over the study period was 28.9%, 15.0%, 20.1%, 5.1%, and 25.5%, respectively. Pilots with any drugs in their samples were significantly older than those without drugs. Medical certificate held was associated with drug use; pilots who held third class certificates had the highest prevalence at 54.1%. Pilot license was not associated with drug use. In 3.8% of the accidents, drugs were a contributing factor in the cause. Despite current FAA medical regulations, potentially impairing drugs are frequently found in biological samples of fatally injured pilots in the U.S. More education of airmen by aviation medical examiners is needed on the safety of drug use.Akparibo IY, Stolfi A. Pilot certification, age of pilot, and drug use in fatal civil aviation accidents. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(10):931-936.

  5. Features of fatal injuries in older cyclists in vehicle-bicycle accidents in Japan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsui, Yasuhiro; Oikawa, Shoko; Hitosugi, Masahito

    2018-01-02

    The purpose of this study was to identify and better understand the features of fatal injuries in cyclists aged 75 years and over involved in collisions with either hood- or van-type vehicles. This study investigated the fatal injuries of cyclists aged 75 years old and over by analyzing accident data. We focused on the body regions to which the fatal injury occurred using vehicle-bicycle accident data from the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) in Japan. Using data from 2009 to 2013, we examined the frequency of fatally injured body region by gender, age, and actual vehicle travel speed. We investigated any significant differences in distributions of fatal injuries by body region for cyclists aged 75 years and over using chi-square tests to compare with cyclists in other age groups. We also investigated the cause of fatal head injuries, such as impact with a road surface or vehicle. The results indicated that head injuries were the most common cause of fatalities among the study group. At low vehicle travel speeds for both hood- and van-type vehicles, fatalities were most likely to be the result of head impacts against the road surface. The percentage of fatalities following hip injuries was significantly higher for cyclists aged 75 years and over than for those aged 65-74 or 13-59 in impacts with hood-type vehicles. It was also higher for women than men in the over-75 age group in impacts with these vehicles. For cyclists aged 75 years and over, wearing a helmet may be helpful to prevent head injuries in vehicle-to-cyclist accidents. It may also be helpful to introduce some safety measures to prevent hip injuries, given the higher level of fatalities following hip injury among all cyclists aged 75 and over, particularly women.

  6. Estimating the Influence of Accident Related Factors on Motorcycle Fatal Accidents using Logistic Regression (Case Study: Denpasar-Bali

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wedagama D.M.P.

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available In Denpasar the capital of Bali Province, motorcycle accident contributes to about 80% of total road accidents. Out of those motorcycle accidents, 32% are fatal accidents. This study investigates the influence of accident related factors on motorcycle fatal accidents in the city of Denpasar during period 2006-2008 using a logistic regression model. The study found that the fatality of collision with pedestrians and right angle accidents were respectively about 0.44 and 0.40 times lower than collision with other vehicles and accidents due to other factors. In contrast, the odds that a motorcycle accident will be fatal due to collision with heavy and light vehicles were 1.67 times more likely than with other motorcycles. Collision with pedestrians, right angle accidents, and heavy and light vehicles were respectively accounted for 31%, 29%, and 63% of motorcycle fatal accidents.

  7. A review of fatal accident incidence rate trends in fishing international

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Olaf; Pétursdóttir, G; Abrahamsen, Annbjørg

    2014-01-01

    Background. Injury prevention in fishing is one of the most important occupational health challenges. The aim was to describe and compare internationally the trends of the fatal injury incidence rates and to discuss the impact of the implemented safety programs. Methods. The review is based...... on journal articles and reports from the maritime authorities in Poland, UK, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, US and Alaska and Canada. The original incidence rates were recalculated as per 1000 person-years for international comparison of the trends. Results. The risk of fatal accidents in fishing in the northern...... countries has been reduced by around 50% to an average of about 1 per 1000 person-years. Norway and Canada keep the lowest rates with around 0.5 and 0.25 per 1000 person-years. About half of the fatal injuries are related to vessel disasters and drowning. The safety programs seem to have good effects still...

  8. Fatal connections--socioeconomic determinants of road accident risk and drunk driving in Sweden.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krüger, Niclas A

    2013-09-01

    In recent years a considerable number of papers have examined socioeconomic factors influencing the number and the outcome of traffic accidents. There is however more research needed to confirm the previous results in order to generalize them and a need to examine additional factors that might have an impact. This paper uses both regional panel data and national time series data combined with filtering techniques to determine what factors influence the number of accidents, the accident outcome and detected drunk driving. Using time series data, it is found that the number of traffic fatalities increases for both per capita and per person kilometer travelled during economic booms. This indicates that the death risk rises not only because of increased mileage or motorization during booms. Using panel data, it is found that traffic fatalities decrease with unemployment, whereas personal injuries increase on a per capita basis with youth and the number of cars. In contrast to property crimes and other types of crime, drunk driving in Sweden decreases during economic contractions. The main policy conclusion from our results is that resources for safety measures should not be spend uniformly across time and space. Instead, safety measures should be concentrated to areas with a high share of young people and to periods with low unemployment. The results of the time series analysis suggest that factors other than increased mileage during booms contribute to the higher rate of fatalities during good times. Increased risk taking, such as drunk driving, might be an explanatory factor. The results might be interesting for safety-oriented car and truck producers as well for developers of traffic safety products, since the results indicate in what regional markets and under what market conditions their products are most needed. Copyright © 2013 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Trucks involved in fatal accidents factbook 2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-01

    This document presents aggregate statistics on trucks involved in traffic accidents in 2008. The : statistics are derived from the Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) file, compiled by the : University of Michigan Transportation Research Instit...

  10. Buses involved in fatal accidents factbook 2007

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-01

    This document presents aggregate statistics on buses involved in traffic accidents in 2007. The : statistics are derived from the Buses Involved in Fatal Accidents (BIFA) file, compiled by the : University of Michigan Transportation Research Institut...

  11. Trucks involved in fatal accidents factbook 2007.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    This document presents aggregate statistics on trucks involved in traffic accidents in 2007. The : statistics are derived from the Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents (TIFA) file, compiled by the : University of Michigan Transportation Research Instit...

  12. Buses involved in fatal accidents codebook 2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-01

    This report provides documentation for UMTRIs file of Buses Involved in Fatal Accidents (BIFA), 2008, : including distributions of the code values for each variable in the file. The 2008 BIFA file is a census of all : buses involved in a fatal acc...

  13. Buses involved in fatal accidents codebook 2007.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-12-01

    This report provides documentation for UMTRIs file of Buses Involved in Fatal Accidents (BIFA), 2007, : including distributions of the code values for each variable in the file. The 2007 BIFA file is a census of all : buses involved in a fatal acc...

  14. The Relationship between Safety Climate with Fatalism and Perceived Helplessness among Workers: Implication for Health Promotion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fariba Kiani

    2013-10-01

    Conclusion: The perception of fatalism and helplessness in work environments can be obstacles to prevent occupational accidents. Promoting safety climate can be associated with fatalism culture change and also perceived helplessness reduction among workers.

  15. Fatal motorcycle accidents and alcohol

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, C F; Hardt-Madsen, M

    1987-01-01

    A series of fatal motorcycle accidents from a 7-year period (1977-1983) has been analyzed. Of the fatalities 30 were operators of the motorcycle, 11 pillion passengers and 8 counterparts. Of 41 operators 37% were sober at the time of accident, 66% had measurable blood alcohol concentration (BAC......); 59% above 0.08%. In all cases where a pillion passenger was killed, the operator of the motorcycle had a BAC greater than 0.08%. Of the killed counterparts 2 were non-intoxicated, 2 had a BAC greater than 0.08%, and 4 were not tested. The results advocate that the law should restrict alcohol...... consumption by pillion passengers as well as by the motorcycle operator. Suggestions made to extend the data base needed for developing appropriate alcohol countermeasures by collecting sociodemographic data on drivers killed or seriously injured should be supported....

  16. Factors associated with the severity of fatal accidents in construction workers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khodabandeh, Farideh; Kabir-Mokamelkhah, Elaheh; Kahani, Mahsa

    2016-01-01

    Background: Construction work (building houses, roads, workplaces, and repairing and maintaining infrastructures) is a dangerous land-based job. This includes many hazardous tasks and conditions such as working at the following conditions: Height, excavation, noise, dust, power tools and equipment. Construction work has been increased in developed and underdeveloped countries over the past few years. Occupational fatalities have increased with an increase in this type of work. Occupational fatalities refer to individuals who pass way while on the job or performing work related tasks. In the present study, to identify the factors, personal characteristics and work-related factors associated with fatal occupational mortality were assessed using data for Tehran, Iran, 2014-2016. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study, using 967 postmortem reports from fatal occupational injuries collected through postmortem investigations during 2014-2016. A sampling frame of 967 postmortem reports from fatal occupational injuries was used to draw a total sample of 714 fatal construction accidents for this cross-sectional study. Pearson χ2 test and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: Based on the results of this study, male gender (n=714; 100%), age range of 30-39 years (n=183; 25.6%), secondary educational level (n=273; 38.2%), being married (317; 44.4%), causal employee (n=389; 54.5%), unskilled performance (389; 54.5%), no insurance coverage (472; 66.1%), and daytime duty work (287; 40.2%) were identified as risk factors for fatality in the event of construction fatal injury. A significant relationship was found between the type of injury and sociodemographic and work related variables. Conclusion: Workers' characteristics such as age, gender, experience, and educational background, and work related variables such as skill training, safety measurement, and close monitoring could be used to discriminate among different severity levels of

  17. [Fatal occupational accidents: estimates based on more data sources].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baldasseroni, A; Chellini, E; Zoppi, O; Giovannetti, L

    2001-01-01

    The data reported by INAIL (Istituto Nazionale Assicurazione Infortuni sul Lavoro) on fatal occupational injuries have always been considered complete and reliable. The authors of this article verified the completeness of this information source crossing it with data bases existing in different registration systems (Regional Mortality Registry of Tuscany--RMR; registers and data of the Operative Units of Prevention, Hygiene and Safety in the Workplace--UOPISLL) for the period between 1992 and 1996. In the five years concerned, a total of 458 cases were reported. These cases could be considered fatal injuries at work without taking into account traffic accidents, which were not included in the present study. The results show that the most complete information source was RMR, reporting 80% of the total data, while INAIL reports only 62.2% of the total cases. On the contrary, the UOPISLL source is the least reliable. Using the capture/recapture method, the estimate of events in the period concerned (1992-1996) amounts to nearly 500 (499.8 LC 475.9-523.7), while the three sources systematically explored for the whole period (INAIL, RMR, UOSPILL) report 458 cases. An additional information source, the daily press, which could be systematically tested only two months for each of the five years, reports 10 additional cases, which were ignored by the 3 other sources, indirectly confirming in this way how reliable the performed estimate was. The main cases among the 157 fatal accidents reported by RMR, but not by INAIL, occurred among farmers (70), most of them already retired, but there were several fatal accidents reported in the construction sector (30). Other categories were included only in the RMR data because, in the period concerned, they were not covered by INAIL insurance (18 cases in the Army and Police, 7 on the railways). The survey that was carried out confirms the essential importance of INAIL data for the surveillance system applied to this phenomenon. This

  18. Causes of fatal accidents for instrument-certified and non-certified private pilots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shao, Bob Siyuan; Guindani, Michele; Boyd, Douglas D

    2014-11-01

    Instrument certification (IFR) enhances a pilot's skills in precisely controlling the aircraft and requires a higher level of standards in maintaining heading and altitude compared with the less stringent private pilot certificate. However, there have been no prior studies to compare fatal accident causes for airmen with, and without, this rating, The NTSB accident database was queried for general aviation fatal accidents for private pilots with, and without IFR certification. Exact Poisson tests were used to calculate whether two rate parameters were equal (ratio of 1), normalized to the number of IFR-rated pilots and flight hours in the given time period. Proportion tests were used to determine whether there were significant differences in fatal accident causes between IFR-certified and non-certified pilots. A logistic regression for log-odds success was used in determining the trend and effect of age on fatal accident rates. IFR certification was associated with a reduced risk of accidents due to failure to maintain obstacle/terrain clearance and spatial disorientation for day and night operations respectively. In contrast, the likelihood of fatal accident due to equipment malfunction during day operations was higher for IFR-certified pilots. The fatal accident rate decreased over the last decade for IFR-certified but not for non-IFR-certified private pilots. However, the overall accident rate for IFR-certified private pilots was more than double that of the cohort lacking this certification. Finally, we found a trend for an increased fatality rate with advancing age for both group of pilots. Our findings informs on where training and/or technology should be focused. Both training for aerodynamic stalls, which causes over a quarter of all fatal accidents, should be intensified for both IFR-certified and non-certified private pilots. Similarly, adherence to minimum safe altitudes for both groups of pilots should be encouraged toward reducing the fatal accidents

  19. Risk factors affecting fatal bus accident severity: Their impact on different types of bus drivers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Shumin; Li, Zhenning; Ci, Yusheng; Zhang, Guohui

    2016-01-01

    While the bus is generally considered to be a relatively safe means of transportation, the property losses and casualties caused by bus accidents, especially fatal ones, are far from negligible. The reasons for a driver to incur fatalities are different in each case, and it is essential to discover the underlying risk factors of bus fatality severity for different types of drivers in order to improve bus safety. The current study investigates the underlying risk factors of fatal bus accident severity to different types of drivers in the U.S. by estimating an ordered logistic model. Data for the analysis are retrieved from the Buses Involved in Fatal Accidents (BIFA) database from the USA for the years 2006-2010. Accidents are divided into three levels by counting their equivalent fatalities, and the drivers are classified into three clusters by the K-means cluster analysis. The analysis shows that some risk factors have the same impact on different types of drivers, they are: (a) season; (b) day of week; (c) time period; (d) number of vehicles involved; (e) land use; (f) manner of collision; (g) speed limit; (h) snow or ice surface condition; (i) school bus; (j) bus type and seating capacity; (k) driver's age; (l) driver's gender; (m) risky behaviors; and (n) restraint system. Results also show that some risk factors only have impact on the "young and elder drivers with history of traffic violations", they are: (a) section type; (b) number of lanes per direction; (c) roadway profile; (d) wet road surface; and (e) cyclist-bus accident. Notably, history of traffic violations has different impact on different types of bus drivers. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. An application of probabilistic safety assessment methods to model aircraft systems and accidents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Martinez-Guridi, G.; Hall, R.E.; Fullwood, R.R.

    1998-08-01

    A case study modeling the thrust reverser system (TRS) in the context of the fatal accident of a Boeing 767 is presented to illustrate the application of Probabilistic Safety Assessment methods. A simplified risk model consisting of an event tree with supporting fault trees was developed to represent the progression of the accident, taking into account the interaction between the TRS and the operating crew during the accident, and the findings of the accident investigation. A feasible sequence of events leading to the fatal accident was identified. Several insights about the TRS and the accident were obtained by applying PSA methods. Changes proposed for the TRS also are discussed.

  1. Analysis of accidents in uranium mines and suggestions on safety in production

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xue Shiqian.

    1989-01-01

    The serious and fatal accidents happening in the uranium mines in China are descibed and analysed based on the classification, cause, age of the dead and economic losses brought by the accidents. The suggestions on safety in production are also presented

  2. Analysis of National Major Work Safety Accidents in China, 2003-2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ye, Yunfeng; Zhang, Siheng; Rao, Jiaming; Wang, Haiqing; Li, Yang; Wang, Shengyong; Dong, Xiaomei

    2016-01-01

    This study provides a national profile of major work safety accidents in China, which cause more than 10 fatalities per accident, intended to provide scientific basis for prevention measures and strategies to reduce major work safety accidents and deaths. Data from 2003-2012 Census of major work safety accidents were collected from State Administration of Work Safety System (SAWS). Published literature and statistical yearbook were also included to implement information. We analyzed the frequency of accidents and deaths, trend, geographic distribution and injury types. Additionally, we discussed the severity and urgency of emergency rescue by types of accidents. A total of 877 major work safety accidents were reported, resulting in 16,795 deaths and 9,183 injuries. The numbers of accidents and deaths, mortality rate and incidence of major accidents have declined in recent years. The mortality rate and incidence was 0.71 and 1.20 per 10(6) populations in 2012, respectively. Transportation and mining contributed to the highest number of major accidents and deaths. Major aviation and railway accidents caused more casualties per incident, while collapse, machinery, electrical shock accidents and tailing dam accidents were the most severe situation that resulted in bigger proportion of death. Ten years' major work safety accident data indicate that the frequency of accidents and number of eaths was declined and several safety concerns persist in some segments.

  3. Substance use and social, health and safety-related factors among fatally injured drivers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karjalainen, Karoliina; Blencowe, Tom; Lillsunde, Pirjo

    2012-03-01

    The aim of this study was to examine different socio-demographic, health and safety-related factors, and psychoactive substance use among fatally injured drivers in road traffic accidents in Finland during 2006-2008. An accident information register maintained by the Traffic Safety Committee of Insurance Companies (VALT) of the Finnish Motor Insurers' Centre was used as basic data, and the basic data were complemented with further toxicological analytical information retrieved from autopsy reports from the Department of Forensic Medicine, Helsinki University. The data included all the drivers (n=556) who were driving a motor vehicle and who died in a road traffic accident in Finland during 2006-2008. Of all the 556 fatally injured drivers 43% (n=238) had psychoactive substance findings. 51% (n=121) of substance positive drivers had a finding for alcohol only, the rest had a finding for one or more illicit/medicinal drugs impairing driving ability, and possibly also alcohol. Fatally injured drivers with alcohol findings were significantly younger (mean age 34 years) than sober drivers (mean age 44 years) or drivers with findings for drugs (mean age 45 years). Socio-demographic background did not differ substantially among drunken/drugged and sober drivers, although drivers with alcohol findings had a slightly lower education and socioeconomic position. Previous substance abuse problems were highly prevalent among drivers with substance findings and mental or both mental and physical health problems were more common among drivers with drug findings. The non-use of safety equipment and driving at a high speed were more common among fatally injured drivers with substance findings. Substance abuse and mental health problems, as well as reckless driving behavior were more pronounced among fatally injured drivers with substance findings when compared to sober drivers. Thus, prevention and early intervention concerning substance abuse, mental health problems and DUI are

  4. Urban violence is the biggest cause of fatal work-related accidents in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordeiro, Ricardo; Luz, Verônica Gronau; Hennington, Élida Azevedo; Martins, Ana Cláudia Alves; Tófoli, Luís Fernando

    2017-12-11

    To quantify the occurrence of deaths directly associated with urban violence among fatal work-related accidents. Verbal autopsies were performed with the relatives and coworkers of residents of Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil, who died from external causes in 2015. We have also analyzed police reports and reports of the Legal Medical Institute related to these deaths. We have identified 82 fatal work-related accidents in Campinas in 2015, of which 25 were murders, 35 were traffic accidents not directly related to work activities, and three were suicides at work. The proportional mortality rate for homicides, traffic accidents, and suicides among fatal work-related accidents was estimated at 30.5%, 42.7%, and 3.7%, respectively. Urban violence accounted for three-fourths of the fatal work-related accidents recorded in the period studied.

  5. Fatal accidents at work in agriculture associated with alcohol intoxication in Lower Silesia in Poland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jurek, Tomasz; Rorat, Marta

    2017-02-28

    Determining the prevalence of alcohol intoxication and the level of intoxication in victims of fatal occupational accidents is necessary to improve work safety. The circumstances of the accident and the time between alcohol consumption and death are important factors. A retrospective review of 18 935 medico-legal autopsy reports and toxicological reports performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Wroclaw Medical University, Poland, in the years 1991-2014. The study protocol included circumstances, time and cause of death, injuries, quantitative testing for the presence of ethyl alcohol, gender and age. There were 98 farm-related fatalities. There were 41.8% (N = 41) of victims who had been intoxicated - 95.1% (N = 39) of them were males aged 19-70 years old, 4,9% (N = 2) were females aged 37-65 years old. In 8 cases the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 50-150 mg/dl; in 15 cases it was 150-250 mg/dl and in 18 cases it was > 250 mg/dl. In 21 cases, the BAC was determined using alternative material and 76% (N = 16) victims were in the alcohol elimination phase with 19% (N = 4) victims in the alcohol absorption phase. The most common causes of death were traffic accidents, drowning and deaths resulting from being caught in or hit by moving parts of machinery or equipment. Alcohol consumption is a crucial risk factor in fatal agricultural accidents. In order to establish the time of alcohol consumption, all victims of agricultural accidents should be tested for alcohol concentration in their blood and urine or vitreous. Improving safety at work requires that the sobriety of employees should be monitored before and during work. Med Pr 2017;68(1):23-30. This work is available in Open Access model and licensed under a CC BY-NC 3.0 PL license.

  6. Fatal accidents at work in agriculture associated with alcohol intoxication in Lower Silesia in Poland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Jurek

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Background: Determining the prevalence of alcohol intoxication and the level of intoxication in victims of fatal occupational accidents is necessary to improve work safety. The circumstances of the accident and the time between alcohol consumption and death are important factors. Material and Methods: A retrospective review of 18 935 medico-legal autopsy reports and toxicological reports performed in the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Wroclaw Medical University, Poland, in the years 1991–2014. The study protocol included circumstances, time and cause of death, injuries, quantitative testing for the presence of ethyl alcohol, gender and age. Results: There were 98 farm-related fatalities. There were 41.8% (N = 41 of victims who had been intoxicated – 95.1% (N = 39 of them were males aged 19–70 years old, 4,9% (N = 2 were females aged 37–65 years old. In 8 cases the blood alcohol concentration (BAC was 50–150 mg/dl; in 15 cases it was 150–250 mg/dl and in 18 cases it was > 250 mg/dl. In 21 cases, the BAC was determined using alternative material and 76% (N = 16 victims were in the alcohol elimination phase with 19% (N = 4 victims in the alcohol absorption phase. The most common causes of death were traffic accidents, drowning and deaths resulting from being caught in or hit by moving parts of machinery or equipment. Conclusions: Alcohol consumption is a crucial risk factor in fatal agricultural accidents. In order to establish the time of alcohol consumption, all victims of agricultural accidents should be tested for alcohol concentration in their blood and urine or vitreous. Improving safety at work requires that the sobriety of employees should be monitored before and during work. Med Pr 2017;68(1:23–30

  7. Mapping patterns of pedestrian fatal accidents in Israel

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prato, Carlo Giacomo; Gitelman, Victoria; Bekhor, Shlomo

    2012-01-01

    This study intends to provide insight into pedestrian accidents by uncovering their patterns in order to design preventive measures and to allocate resources for identified problems. Kohonen neural networks are applied to a database of pedestrian fatal accidents occurred during the four-year peri...

  8. Factors associated with urban non-fatal road-accident severity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Potoglou, Dimitris; Carlucci, Fabio; Cirà, Andrea; Restaino, Marialuisa

    2018-02-05

    This paper reports on the factors associated with non-fatal urban-road accident severity. Data on accidents were gathered from the local traffic police in the City of Palermo, one of the six most populated cities in Italy. Findings from a mixed-effects logistic-regression model suggest that accident severity increases when two young drivers are involved, road traffic conditions are light/normal and when vehicles crash on a two-way road or carriageway. Speeding is more likely to cause slight or serious injury even when compared to a vehicle moving towards the opposite direction of traffic. An accident during the summer is more likely to result in a slight or serious injury than an accident during the winter, which is in line with evidence from Southern Europe and the Middle East. Finally, the severity of non-fatal accident injuries in an urban area of Southern Europe was significantly associated with speeding, the age of the driver and seasonality.

  9. The incidence of multiple fatality accidents in the U.K

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Griffiths, R.F.; Fryer, L.S.

    1978-03-01

    The report presents a compilation of available data showing the frequency of occurrence of accidents resulting in multiple fatalities in the United Kingdom (or Great Britain, as the data permits). Frequency vs. number-of-fatalities graphs are plotted for the following five classes of fatalities:- persons killed in fires in the UK; crew members of UK registered ships; railway passengers in Great Britain; passengers of aircraft on the British register; occupants of Public Service Vehicles in Great Britain. The information needed to compile a more comprehensive set of graphs was found to be unobtainable. The report concludes with the suggestion that procedures for reporting and recording details of fatal accidents should be reviewed. (author)

  10. Substance use among Iranian drivers involved in fatal road accidents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shervin eAssari

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Although the problem of substance use among drivers is not limited to a special part of the world, most published epidemiological reports on this topic is from industrial world.Aim: To determine drug use among Iranian adults who were imprisoned for vehicle accidents with fatality. Methods: This study enrolled 51 Iranian adults who were imprisoned for vehicle accidents with fatality. This sample came from a national survey of prisoners. Data was collected at entry to prisons during the last 4 months of 2008 in 7 prisons in different parts of the country. Self reported drug use was registered. Commercial substance use screening tests were also done. Results: Drug test was positive for opioids, cannabis and both in 37.3%, 2.0% and 13.7%, respectively. 29.4% tested positive for benzodiazepines. Using test introduced 23.5% of our sample as drug users, who had declined to report any drug use. Conclusion: Opioids are the most used illicit drug in the case of vehicle accidents with fatality, however, 20% of users do not declare their use. This high rate of drug use in vehicle accidents with fatality reflects the importance of drug use control as a part of injury prevention in Iran. There might be a need for drug screening after severe car accidents.

  11. Analysis of National Major Work Safety Accidents in China, 2003–2012

    Science.gov (United States)

    YE, Yunfeng; ZHANG, Siheng; RAO, Jiaming; WANG, Haiqing; LI, Yang; WANG, Shengyong; DONG, Xiaomei

    2016-01-01

    Background: This study provides a national profile of major work safety accidents in China, which cause more than 10 fatalities per accident, intended to provide scientific basis for prevention measures and strategies to reduce major work safety accidents and deaths. Methods: Data from 2003–2012 Census of major work safety accidents were collected from State Administration of Work Safety System (SAWS). Published literature and statistical yearbook were also included to implement information. We analyzed the frequency of accidents and deaths, trend, geographic distribution and injury types. Additionally, we discussed the severity and urgency of emergency rescue by types of accidents. Results: A total of 877 major work safety accidents were reported, resulting in 16,795 deaths and 9,183 injuries. The numbers of accidents and deaths, mortality rate and incidence of major accidents have declined in recent years. The mortality rate and incidence was 0.71 and 1.20 per 106 populations in 2012, respectively. Transportation and mining contributed to the highest number of major accidents and deaths. Major aviation and railway accidents caused more casualties per incident, while collapse, machinery, electrical shock accidents and tailing dam accidents were the most severe situation that resulted in bigger proportion of death. Conclusion: Ten years’ major work safety accident data indicate that the frequency of accidents and number of eaths was declined and several safety concerns persist in some segments. PMID:27057515

  12. Duty of Notification and Aviation Safety—A Study of Fatal Aviation Accidents in the United States in 2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alpo Vuorio

    2018-06-01

    Full Text Available After the Germanwings accident, the French Safety Investigation Authority (BEA recommended that the World Health Organization (WHO and European Community (EC develop clear rules for the duty of notification process. Aeromedical practitioners (AMEs face a dilemma when considering the duty of notification and conflicts between pilot privacy and public and third-party safety. When balancing accountability, knowledge of the duty of notification process, legislation and the clarification of a doctor’s own set of values should be assessed a priori. Relatively little is known of the magnitude of this problem in aviation safety. To address this, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB database was searched to identify fatal accidents during 2015 in the United States in which a deceased pilot used a prescribed medication or had a disease that potentially reduced pilot performance and was not reported to the AME. Altogether, 202 finalized accident reports with toxicology were available from (the year 2015. In 5% (10/202 of these reports, the pilot had either a medication or a disease not reported to an AME which according to the accident investigation was causal to the fatal accident. In addition, the various approaches to duty of notification in aviation in New Zealand, Finland and Norway are discussed. The process of notification of authorities without a pilot’s express permission needs to be carried out by using a guidance protocol that works within legislation and professional responsibilities to address the pilot and the public, as well as the healthcare provider. Professional guidance defining this duty of notification is urgently needed.

  13. Trucks involved in fatal accidents codebook 2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    This report provides documentation for UMTRIs file of Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents : (TIFA), 2008, including distributions of the code values for each variable in the file. The 2008 : TIFA file is a census of all medium and heavy trucks invo...

  14. Studying the Epidemiology of Fatal Traffic Accidents in the Khuzestan Province

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rajaei Behbahani

    2016-03-01

    laborers, it seems essential to develop plans not only to train the road users but also to evaluate the safety of vehicles and roads and post-accident care programs, and consequently, implement special programs fully and strictly in order to reduce traffic fatalities.

  15. A Tool for Safety Officers Investigating " simple" Accidents

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Kirsten

    2010-01-01

    Most workplace accidents that happen in enterprises are simple and seldom result in serious injuries. Very often these kinds of workplace accidents are not investigated, and if they are, then the investigation is very brief, with comments such as that it was the victim’s own fault or just...... accidents normally caused by apparent banalities occur much more frequently and with a higher rate of fatalities, disablements and other serious injuries than the ostensibly most dangerous kinds of accidents. In 1999 a practical tool for use by safety officers was developed; this tool is based...... on the investigation methods applied in major accidents, but comprises a simpler and more user-friendly presentation. The tool involves three steps: Mapping the facts, analysing the events, and developing preventive solutions. Practical application of the tool has shown that it affords managers and workers...

  16. Fatal motorcycle accidents in the county of Funen (Denmark)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Larsen, C F; Hardt-Madsen, M

    1988-01-01

    A study of motorcycle fatalities in the period 1977-1983 in the county of Funen, Denmark was compared with an analysis of data obtained from the Accident Register at the Odense University Hospital. Among the operators killed one fifth were illegally operating the motorcycle. A remarkable statisti......A study of motorcycle fatalities in the period 1977-1983 in the county of Funen, Denmark was compared with an analysis of data obtained from the Accident Register at the Odense University Hospital. Among the operators killed one fifth were illegally operating the motorcycle. A remarkable...... statistical difference in distribution of accidents involved motorcycles and the total distribution of motorcycles in the county was reported, thus finding an over-representation of heavy motorcycles in the present study. No important differences were found in the distribution of type of accidents compared...... to other studies. In the present study all but one victim were tested for blood-alcohol concentration (BAC). The results differ from previous studies in as much as 50% of the killed operators of an accident involving motorcycles had a BAC above 0.08%. The reported distribution by age, licensing experience...

  17. Causes of Fatal Accidents Involving Cranes in the Australian Construction Industry

    OpenAIRE

    Gharaie, Ehsan; Lingard, Helen; Cooke, Tracy

    2015-01-01

    In ten years from 2004 to 2013, 359 workers died in the Australian construction industry because of work related causes. This paper investigates crane-related fatalities in order to find the upstream causation of such accidents. The National Coroners’ Information System (NCIS) database was searched to identify fatal accidents in the construction industry involving the use of a crane.  The narrative description of the cases provided in the coroners’ findings and associated documents were conte...

  18. Analysis of fatal accidents with tractors in the Centre of Portugal: Ten years analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Antunes, Soraia M; Cordeiro, Cristina; Teixeira, Helena M

    2018-06-01

    Tractors have been described as one of the deadliest farming implements concerning agricultural activity. In Portugal, the scientific investigations about this problem are practically non-existent, with only statistical studies performed by entities related to road traffic safety, not in accordance to the study now performed, pinpointing the possibility of an underreporting of these accidents. This work aims to characterize the fatal tractor accidents in Portugal, autopsied at the Forensic Pathology Department of the Centre Branch of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Portugal, analysing several variables: gender, age, occupation, survival time, the victim position in the tractor, cause of death, toxicological and histological exams, year/month/day of the week, type of agricultural machine, existence of rollover protective structures (ROPS), type of accident, ground conditions, circumstantial information and geographic distribution of the accidents. All the autopsies between 2005 and 2014 were analysed. The victim profile corresponded to a man (89.5%), between 61 and 70 years old (33.3%), retired (43.9%), being the tractor driver (45.6%). In most of the cases, death occurred in less than 24h after the accident. These fatalities arose mainly in May and October. Rollover in sloping land was the most common type of accident, and cranioencephalic, thoracic and abdominal traumatic injuries were the main cause of death. In 16.2% of the cases, blood alcohol concentration was above the lower limit established in our road traffic law (accidents, and the corresponding circumstances that contributed to the death. Many barriers remain about this matter, but the Portuguese government begin to design several laws to prevent this type of accidents. Future investigations should be performed to understand the real dimension of tractor accidents in Portugal, and to comprehend the efficiency of laws implemented by the government. Copyright © 2018

  19. Methodological development for selection of significant predictors explaining fatal road accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadashova, Bahar; Arenas-Ramírez, Blanca; Mira-McWilliams, José; Aparicio-Izquierdo, Francisco

    2016-05-01

    Identification of the most relevant factors for explaining road accident occurrence is an important issue in road safety research, particularly for future decision-making processes in transport policy. However model selection for this particular purpose is still an ongoing research. In this paper we propose a methodological development for model selection which addresses both explanatory variable and adequate model selection issues. A variable selection procedure, TIM (two-input model) method is carried out by combining neural network design and statistical approaches. The error structure of the fitted model is assumed to follow an autoregressive process. All models are estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo method where the model parameters are assigned non-informative prior distributions. The final model is built using the results of the variable selection. For the application of the proposed methodology the number of fatal accidents in Spain during 2000-2011 was used. This indicator has experienced the maximum reduction internationally during the indicated years thus making it an interesting time series from a road safety policy perspective. Hence the identification of the variables that have affected this reduction is of particular interest for future decision making. The results of the variable selection process show that the selected variables are main subjects of road safety policy measures. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  20. Causes and risk factors for fatal accidents in non-commercial twin engine piston general aviation aircraft.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, Douglas D

    2015-04-01

    Accidents in twin-engine aircraft carry a higher risk of fatality compared with single engine aircraft and constitute 9% of all general aviation accidents. The different flight profile (higher airspeed, service ceiling, increased fuel load, and aircraft yaw in engine failure) may make comparable studies on single-engine aircraft accident causes less relevant. The objective of this study was to identify the accident causes for non-commercial operations in twin engine aircraft. A NTSB accident database query for accidents in twin piston engine airplanes of 4-8 seat capacity with a maximum certified weight of 3000-8000lbs. operating under 14CFR Part 91 for the period spanning 2002 and 2012 returned 376 accidents. Accident causes and contributing factors were as per the NTSB final report categories. Total annual flight hour data for the twin engine piston aircraft fleet were obtained from the FAA. Statistical analyses employed Chi Square, Fisher's Exact and logistic regression analysis. Neither the combined fatal/non-fatal accident nor the fatal accident rate declined over the period spanning 2002-2012. Under visual weather conditions, the largest number, n=27, (27%) of fatal accidents was attributed to malfunction with a failure to follow single engine procedures representing the most common contributing factor. In degraded visibility, poor instrument approach procedures resulted in the greatest proportion of fatal crashes. Encountering thunderstorms was the most lethal of all accident causes with all occupants sustaining fatal injuries. At night, a failure to maintain obstacle/terrain clearance was the most common accident cause leading to 36% of fatal crashes. The results of logistic regression showed that operations at night (OR 3.7), off airport landings (OR 14.8) and post-impact fire (OR 7.2) all carried an excess risk of a fatal flight. This study indicates training areas that should receive increased emphasis for twin-engine training/recency. First, increased

  1. Fatal accidents due to train surfing in Berlin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strauch, H; Wirth, I; Geserick, G

    1998-06-08

    This study was undertaken for the purpose of analysing under the aspect of legal medicine, fatal accidents due to train surfing in the local transport system of Berlin (S-Bahn and underground). The period of investigation was from 1989 through 1995, with 41 train surfing accidents, among them 18 with fatal outcome. Evaluation included those 14 deaths which were forensically autopsied. It was based on autopsy records of Berlin-based university institutes (Humboldt University and Free University) as well as the Brandenburg State Institute of Legal Medicine. Also used were data obtained from the Berlin Transport Police Record. The casualties were aged between 13 and 25 years, most of them between 16 and 20. The male-female gender ratio was 13:1. Accidents occurred above all in the warmer season of the year, most of them between 20:00 h and midnight. More than 50% of all cases were affected by alcohol, but centrally acting medicaments or other addictive drugs were not noticed at all. Most of the fatal accidents occurred to users of the Berlin S-Bahn network. Older train models were the preferred surfing objects due to their structural peculiarities. Collision with close-to-track obstacles and slipping from the train proved to be the major sources of danger. An analysis of injuries revealed polytraumatisation but for one exception, with craniocerebral injuries being the most common and severest events. The longest survival time amounted to 24 h. As the psychosocial causes of high-risk behaviour of adolescents will hardly be controllable, withdrawal of technical, that is structural design possibilities appears to be the most important approach to prevention of accidents in the future. This demand is met by the new series of the Berlin S-Bahn. The model of the old series, suitable for surfing, still accounts for about 10% of the rolling stock and is to be decommissioned in 1998.

  2. Traumatic asphyxia--fatal accident in an automatic revolving door.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cortis, J; Falk, J; Rothschild, M A

    2015-09-01

    Due to continuing modernisation, the number of automatic doors in routine use, including powered revolving doors, has increased in recent years. Automatic revolving doors are found mostly in department stores, airports, railway stations and hospitals. Although safety arrangements and guidelines concerning the installation of automatic doors are in existence, their disregard in conjunction with obsolete or incorrect installation can lead to fatal accidents. In this report, a 19-month-old boy is described whose right arm was caught between the elements of an automatic revolving door. As a direct result of rescue attempts, the child's body was drawn further into the narrow gap between elements of the door. To get the boy's body out of the 4-cm-wide gap between the fixed outer wall of the revolving door and the revolving inner, back-up batteries had to be disconnected so as to stop the electrical motor powering the door. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was begun immediately after the rescue but was unsuccessful; the child was declared dead at the hospital he was taken to. The cause of death was a combination of compression-related skull and brain injury together with thoracic compression. This case shows an outstanding example of the preventive aspect as a special task of forensic medicine. Additionally, it serves as a warning for the correct installation and use of automatic revolving doors. Even so, small children should not use these doors on their own, but only with an alert companion, so as to prevent further fatal accidents of this sort.

  3. Fatal accidents following changes in daylight savings time: the American experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Varughese; Allen

    2001-01-01

    Objective: This study examines specific hypotheses that both sleep loss and behavioral changes occurring with the time shifts for Daylight Savings Time (DST) significantly effect the number of fatal traffic accidents in the United States of America.Background: It has been reported that there is a significant increase in the number of automobile accidents in the spring shift to DST due to the loss of 1 h of sleep. But the extra hour gained at night with the shift from DST in the fall has been variably reported to be associated with increases and decreases in the number of automobile accidents which may reflect either behavioral anticipation with an extended late night prior to the change or the benefit of extra sleep after the change.Methods: Data from 21 years of United States' fatal automobile accidents were gathered. The mean number of accidents on the days at the time of the shifts (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) was compared to the average of the corresponding mean number of accidents on the matching day of the weeks preceding and following the shift. This was repeated for each DST shift. The number of accidents for a particular shift was also correlated with the year of the accidents.Results: There was a significant increase in accidents for the Monday immediately following the spring shift to DST (t=1.92, P=0.034). There was also a significant increase in number of accidents on the Sunday of the fall shift from DST (P<0.002). No significant changes were observed for the other days. A significant negative correlation with the year was found between the number of accidents on the Saturdays and Sundays but not Mondays.Conclusions: The sleep deprivation on the Monday following shift to DST in the spring results in a small increase in fatal accidents. The behavioral adaptation anticipating the longer day on Sunday of the shift from DST in the fall leads to an increased number of accidents suggesting an increase in late night (early Sunday morning) driving when

  4. Toxicological findings in fatally injured pilots of 979 amateur-built aircraft accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-01

    "Biological samples collected from fatally injured pilots in aviation accidents involving all types of aircraft, including : amateur-built aircraft, are submitted to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) for accident investigation. : These sam...

  5. Epidemiological characteristics of fatal pedestrian ac-cidents in Fars Province of Iran: a community-based

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peymani Payam

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available 【Abstract】Objective: To determine the epidemio-logical characteristics of fatal pedestrian accidents in Fars Province of Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Fars Province of Iran during a 29-month period from March 2009 to July 2011. The data were from the Fars Forensic Medi-cine Registry. In 4 923 recorded road traffic accident fatalities, 971 deaths were due to pedestrian accidents. The demographic and accident-related information were analyzed by SPSS ver-sion 11.5. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean age of decedents was (47.2±26.2 years, ranging from 6 months to 103 years old. Males ac-counted for 69.8% of all deaths. Fatal accidents were most common in September; 56.1% of the fatal injuries occurred on intracity roads and 33.1% on extracity roads. Fatal head injuries were present in 60.54% of cases. Evaluation of the injury site and the cause of death found that they were significantly associated with age, interval between injury and death. Besides, the type of roads played an important role in mortality. Conclusion: Although the clinical management of trauma patients has been improved in our country in the recent decade, decreasing the burden of injuries needs co-ordination among trauma system organizations. Key words: Accidents, traffic; Epidemiologic studies; Mortality; Iran

  6. Prevalence of Chlorpheniramine in Aviation Accident Pilot Fatalities, 1991-1996

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Soper, John

    1999-01-01

    .... During fatal aircraft accident investigations, postmortem samples collected from the pilots at autopsy are submitted to the Civil Aeromedical Institute for toxicological evaluation, and the findings...

  7. DISTRIBUTION OF FATAL ACCIDENT TRANSPORT BETWEEN STATE WORKERS OF BAHIA AND BRAZIL

    OpenAIRE

    Jéssica de Jesus dos Santos; Kionna Oliveira Bernardes Santos

    2016-01-01

    Studies on the situation of mortality from traffic accidents among workers are still insufficient. This study aimed to describe the mortality rates for traffic accidents / path between state workers of Bahia and Brazil. This is a quantitative, descriptive study of fatal work accidents related to traffic accidents / path with the Mortality Information System data in the period from 2009 to 2011. The results show 317 reported deaths from traffic accidents in Bahia and...

  8. Road accident rates: strategies and programmes for improving road traffic safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goniewicz, K; Goniewicz, M; Pawłowski, W; Fiedor, P

    2016-08-01

    Nowadays, the problem of road accident rates is one of the most important health and social policy issues concerning the countries in all continents. Each year, nearly 1.3 million people worldwide lose their life on roads, and 20-50 million sustain severe injuries, the majority of which require long-term treatment. The objective of the study was to identify the most frequent, constantly occurring causes of road accidents, as well as outline actions constituting a basis for the strategies and programmes aiming at improving traffic safety on local and global levels. Comparative analysis of literature concerning road safety was performed, confirming that although road accidents had a varied and frequently complex background, their causes have changed only to a small degree over the years. The causes include: lack of control and enforcement concerning implementation of traffic regulation (primarily driving at excessive speed, driving under the influence of alcohol, and not respecting the rights of other road users (mainly pedestrians and cyclists), lack of appropriate infrastructure and unroadworthy vehicles. The number of fatal accidents and severe injuries, resulting from road accidents, may be reduced through applying an integrated approach to safety on roads. The strategies and programmes for improving road traffic should include the following measures: reducing the risk of exposure to an accident, prevention of accidents, reduction in bodily injuries sustained in accidents, and reduction of the effects of injuries by improvement of post-accident medical care.

  9. Time analysis of fatal traffic accidents in Fars Province of Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heydari Seyed Taghi

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available 【Abstract】 Objective: To analyze the time factor in road traffic accidents (RTAs in Fars Province of Iran. Methods: This study was conducted in Fars Province, Iran from November 22, 2009 to November 21, 2011. Victims’ information consisted of age, sex, death toll involving dri-vers or passengers of cars, motorcycles and pedestrians, and site of injury etc. Accidents were analyzed in relation to hour of the day, season of the year, lighting condition in-cluding sunrise, sunset, daytime and nighttime. Results: A total of 3 642 deaths (78.3% were males, and the ratio of males to females was about 3.6:1 were studied regarding their autopsy records. There was a steady in-crease in fatal accidents occurring at midnight to 15:59. The risk of being involved in a fatal traffic accident was higher for those injured between 4:00 to 7:59 than at other times (OR=2.13, 95% CI 1.85-2.44. The greatest number of fatal RTAs took place in summer. Mortalities due to RTA during spring and summer were more pronounced at 20:00 to 23:59 and midnight to 3:59, whereas mortalities in fall and winter were more pronounced from 12:00 to 15:59. Conclusion: The high mortality rate of RTA is a major public health problem in Fars Province. Our results indicate that the time is an important factor which contributes to road traffic deaths. Key words: Accidents, traffic; Epidemiology; Mortality; Iran

  10. Big nuclear accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marshall, W.

    1983-01-01

    Much of the debate on the safety of nuclear power focuses on the large number of fatalities that could, in theory, be caused by extremely unlikely but imaginable reactor accidents. This, along with the nuclear industry's inappropriate use of vocabulary during public debate, has given the general public a distorted impression of the safety of nuclear power. The way in which the probability and consequences of big nuclear accidents have been presented in the past is reviewed and recommendations for the future are made including the presentation of the long-term consequences of such accidents in terms of 'reduction in life expectancy', 'increased chance of fatal cancer' and the equivalent pattern of compulsory cigarette smoking. (author)

  11. Urban violence is the biggest cause of fatal work-related accidents in Brazil

    OpenAIRE

    Cordeiro, Ricardo; Luz, Verônica Gronau; Hennington, Élida Azevedo; Martins, Ana Cláudia Alves; Tófoli, Luís Fernando

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To quantify the occurrence of deaths directly associated with urban violence among fatal work-related accidents. METHODS Verbal autopsies were performed with the relatives and coworkers of residents of Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil, who died from external causes in 2015. We have also analyzed police reports and reports of the Legal Medical Institute related to these deaths. RESULTS We have identified 82 fatal work-related accidents in Campinas in 2015, of which 25...

  12. Causes of Fatal Accidents Involving Cranes in the Australian Construction Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ehsan Gharaie

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available In ten years from 2004 to 2013, 359 workers died in the Australian construction industry because of work related causes. This paper investigates crane-related fatalities in order to find the upstream causation of such accidents. The National Coroners’ Information System (NCIS database was searched to identify fatal accidents in the construction industry involving the use of a crane.  The narrative description of the cases provided in the coroners’ findings and associated documents were content analysed to identify the contributing causal factors within the context of each case. The findings show that the most frequent crane-related accident types were those that were struck by load, and electrocution. The most prevalent immediate circumstance causes were layout of the site and restricted space. The two most commonly identified shaping factors were physical site constraints and design of construction process. Inadequate risk management system was identified as the main originating influence on the accidents. This paper demonstrates that a systemic causation model can provide considerable insight into how originating influences, shaping factors, and immediate circumstances combine to produce accidents. This information is extremely useful in informing the development of prevention strategies, particularly in the case of commonly occurring accident types.

  13. Road accidents and business cycles in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodríguez-López, Jesús; Marrero, Gustavo A; González, Rosa Marina; Leal-Linares, Teresa

    2016-11-01

    This paper explores the causes behind the downturn in road accidents in Spain across the last decade. Possible causes are grouped into three categories: Institutional factors (a Penalty Point System, PPS, dating from 2006), technological factors (active safety and passive safety of vehicles), and macroeconomic factors (the Great recession starting in 2008, and an increase in fuel prices during the spring of 2008). The PPS has been blessed by incumbent authorities as responsible for the decline of road fatalities in Spain. Using cointegration techniques, the GDP growth rate, the fuel price, the PPS, and technological items embedded in motor vehicles appear to be statistically significantly related with accidents. Importantly, PPS is found to be significant in reducing fatal accidents. However, PPS is not significant for non-fatal accidents. In view of these results, we conclude that road accidents in Spain are very sensitive to the business cycle, and that the PPS influenced the severity (fatality) rather than the quantity of accidents in Spain. Importantly, technological items help explain a sizable fraction in accidents downturn, their effects dating back from the end of the nineties. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Subway train-related fatalities in New York City: accident versus suicide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Peter T; Gill, James R

    2009-11-01

    We examined the characteristics of subway train-related fatalities in New York City between Jan. 1, 2003 and May 31, 2007 in order to determine which factors are useful in differentiating accident from suicide. Subway train-related deaths with homicide and undetermined manners also are included. During this period, there were 211 subway train-related fatalities. The manners of death were: suicide (n = 111), accident (n = 76), undetermined (n = 20), and homicide (n = 4). The causes of death were blunt trauma (n = 206) and electrocution (n = 5). Torso transection and extremity amputation were more frequent in suicides. Antidepressant medications were more frequently detected in suicides, whereas cocaine and ethanol were more frequent in accidents. However, autopsy findings should be weighed in the context of the entire evaluation along with other circumstantial and investigative findings. In unwitnessed deaths where additional information is unavailable or discrepant, the most appropriate manner of death usually is undetermined.

  15. Safety Performance Indicator for alcohol in road accidents--international comparison, validity and data quality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assum, Terje; Sørensen, Michael

    2010-03-01

    Safety Performance Indicators, SPIs, are developed for various areas within road safety such as speed, car occupant protection, alcohol and drugs, vehicle safety, etc. SPIs can be used to indicate the road safety situation and to compare road safety performance between countries and over time and to understand the process leading to accidents, helping to select the measures to reduce them. This article describes an alcohol SPI defined as the percentage of fatalities resulting from accidents involving at least one driver impaired by alcohol. The calculation of the alcohol SPI for 26 European countries shows that the SPI varies from 4.4% in Bulgaria to 72.2% in Italy. These results raise the question if the results reflect the real situation or if there is a methodological explanation. To answer this question three different studies were carried out: comparison with other alcohol SPIs, in-depth studies of data quality in seven selected countries, and a study of correlations between the SPI and influencing factors. These studies indicate clearly that there is a need to improve quality of the data used for the alcohol SPI. Most importantly, the total number of drivers involved in fatal accidents, the number tested for alcohol and the number not tested, should be reported, in addition to the number of alcohol positive and negative drivers among those tested. Until these improvements are made, the validity of this SPI seems poor and comparison of the alcohol SPI results across countries should be made with caution. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Do Blue Laws Save Lives? The Effect of Sunday Alcohol Sales Bans on Fatal Vehicle Accidents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovenheim, Michael F.; Steefel, Daniel P.

    2011-01-01

    This paper analyzes the effect of state-level Sunday alcohol sales restrictions ("blue laws") on fatal vehicle accidents, which is an important parameter in assessing the desirability of these laws. Using a panel data set of all fatal vehicle accidents in the U.S. between 1990 and 2009 combined with 15 state repeals of blue laws, we show that…

  17. Pilot Domain Task Experience in Night Fatal Helicopter Emergency Medical Service Accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aherne, Bryan B; Zhang, Chrystal; Newman, David G

    2016-06-01

    In the United States, accident and fatality rates in helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) operations increase significantly under nighttime environmentally hazardous operational conditions. Other studies have found pilots' total flight hours unrelated to HEMS accident outcomes. Many factors affect pilots' decision making, including their experience. This study seeks to investigate whether pilot domain task experience (DTE) in HEMS plays a role against likelihood of accidents at night when hazardous operational conditions are entered. There were 32 flights with single pilot nighttime fatal HEMS accidents between 1995 and 2013 with findings of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and loss of control (LCTRL) due to spatial disorientation (SD) identified. The HEMS DTE of the pilots were compared with industry survey data. Of the pilots, 56% had ≤2 yr of HEMS experience and 9% had >10 yr of HEMS experience. There were 21 (66%) accidents that occurred in non-visual flight rules (VFR) conditions despite all flights being required to be conducted under VFR. There was a statistically significant increase in accident rates in pilots with pilots with >10 yr HEMS DTE. HEMS DTE plays a preventive role against the likelihood of a night operational accident. Pilots with limited HEMS DTE are more likely to make a poor assessment of hazardous conditions at night, and this will place HEMS flight crew at high risk in the VFR night domain.

  18. Pedestrian fatality risk as a function of car impact speed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosén, Erik; Sander, Ulrich

    2009-05-01

    Knowledge of the amount of violence tolerated by the human body is essential when developing and implementing pedestrian safety strategies. When estimating the potential benefits of new countermeasures, the pedestrian fatality risk as a function of impact speed is of particular importance. Although this function has been analysed previously, we state that a proper understanding does not exist. Based on the largest in-depth, pedestrian accident study undertaken to date, we derive an improved risk function for adult pedestrians hit by the front of passenger cars. Our results show far lower fatality risks than generally reported in the traffic safety literature. This discrepancy is primarily explained by sample bias towards severe injury accidents in earlier studies. Nevertheless, a strong dependence on impact speed is found, with the fatality risk at 50 km/h being more than twice as high as the risk at 40 km/h and more than five times higher than the risk at 30 km/h. Our findings should have important implications for the development of pedestrian accident countermeasures worldwide. In particular, the scope of future pedestrian safety policies and research should be broadened to include accidents with impact speeds exceeding 50 km/h.

  19. Intervention strategies to eliminate truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining in West Virginia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Meng; Kecojevic, Vladislav

    2016-01-01

    The main objective of this review was to build upon a previous study on the root causes of truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining operations in West Virginia, and to develop intervention strategies to eliminate these fatalities. This review considers a two-pronged approach to accident prevention: one that is fundamental and traditional (safety regulations, training and education, and engineering of the work environment); and one that is innovative and creative (e.g., applying technological advances to better control and eliminate the root causes of accidents). Suggestions for improving current training and education system are proposed, and recommendations are provided on improving the safety of mine working conditions, specifically safety conditions on haul roads, dump sites, and loading areas. We also discuss various currently available technologies that can help prevent haul truck-related fatal accidents. The results of this review should be used by mine personnel to help create safer working conditions and decrease truck-related fatalities in surface coal mining.

  20. Spatial and temporal analysis of fatal off-piste and backcountry avalanche accidents in Austria with a comparison of results in Switzerland, France, Italy and the US

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pfeifer, Christian; Höller, Peter; Zeileis, Achim

    2018-02-01

    In this article we analyzed spatial and temporal patterns of fatal Austrian avalanche accidents caused by backcountry and off-piste skiers and snowboarders within the winter periods 1967/1968-2015/2016. The data were based on reports of the Austrian Board for Alpine Safety and reports of the information services of the federal states. Using the date and the location of the recorded avalanche accidents, we were able to carry out spatial and temporal analyses applying generalized additive models and Markov random-field models. As a result of the trend analysis we noticed an increasing trend of backcountry and off-piste avalanche fatalities within the winter periods 1967/1968-2015/2016 (although slightly decreasing in recent years), which is in contradiction to the widespread opinion in Austria that the number of fatalities is constant over time. Additionally, we compared Austrian results with results of Switzerland, France, Italy and the US based on data from the International Commission of Alpine Rescue (ICAR). As a result of the spatial analysis, we noticed two hot spots of avalanche fatalities (Arlberg-Silvretta and Sölden). Because of the increasing trend and the rather narrow regional distribution of the fatalities, initiatives aimed at preventing avalanche accidents were highly recommended.

  1. Early morning awakening and nonrestorative sleep are associated with increased minor non-fatal accidents during work and leisure time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiu, Hsiao-Yean; Wang, Mei-Yeh; Chang, Cheng-Kuei; Chen, Ching-Min; Chou, Kuei-Ru; Tsai, Jen-Chen; Tsai, Pei-Shan

    2014-10-01

    The relationship between a composite measure of insomnia and occupational or fatal accidents has been investigated previously; however, little is known regarding the effect of various insomnia symptoms on minor non-fatal accidents during work and leisure time. We investigated the predicting role of insomnia symptoms on minor non-fatal accidents during work and leisure time. Data from the 2005 Taiwan Social Development Trend Survey of 36,473 Taiwanese aged ≥18 years were analyzed in 2013. Insomnia symptoms, including difficulty in initiating sleep (DIS), difficulty in maintaining sleep (DMS), early morning awakening (EMA), and nonrestorative sleep (NRS) were investigated. A minor non-fatal accident was defined as any mishap such as forgetting to turn off the gas or faucets, accidental falls, and abrasions or cuts occurring during work and leisure time in the past month that do not require immediate medical attention. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to assess the odds ratios (ORs) and associated 95% confidence interval (CI) of minor non-fatal accidents (as a binary variable) for each insomnia symptom compared with those of people presenting no symptoms, while controlling for possible confounders. EMA and NRS increased the odds of minor non-fatal accidents occurring during work and leisure time (adjusted OR=1.19, 95% CI=1.08-1.32 and adjusted OR=1.27, 95% CI=1.17-1.37, respectively). EMA and NRS are two symptoms that are significantly associated with an increased likelihood of minor non-fatal accidents during work and leisure time after adjusting for of a range of covariates. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Fatal road traffic accidents in Mauritius (2006 – 2011) – A ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Arun Kumar Agnihotri

    2016-01-13

    Jan 13, 2016 ... seven hundred and seventy seven (777) fatal road traffic accidents were reported during ... the influence of alcohol, riding without restraint, poor vehicle maintenance ..... emphasize on the road posters signal rules and regular ...

  3. Effect of Occupational Health and Safety Management System on Work-Related Accident Rate and Differences of Occupational Health and Safety Management System Awareness between Managers in South Korea's Construction Industry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoon, Seok J; Lin, Hsing K; Chen, Gang; Yi, Shinjea; Choi, Jeawook; Rui, Zhenhua

    2013-12-01

    The study was conducted to investigate the current status of the occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) in the construction industry and the effect of OHSMS on accident rates. Differences of awareness levels on safety issues among site general managers and occupational health and safety (OHS) managers are identified through surveys. The accident rates for the OHSMS-certified construction companies from 2006 to 2011, when the construction OHSMS became widely available, were analyzed to understand the effect of OHSMS on the work-related injury rates in the construction industry. The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency 18001 is the certification to these companies performing OHSMS in South Korea. The questionnaire was created to analyze the differences of OHSMS awareness between site general managers and OHS managers of construction companies. The implementation of OHSMS among the top 100 construction companies in South Korea shows that the accident rate decreased by 67% and the fatal accident rate decreased by 10.3% during the period from 2006 to 2011. The survey in this study shows different OHSMS awareness levels between site general managers and OHS managers. The differences were motivation for developing OHSMS, external support needed for implementing OHSMS, problems and effectiveness of implementing OHSMS. Both work-related accident and fatal accident rates were found to be significantly reduced by implementing OHSMS in this study. The differences of OHSMS awareness between site general managers and OHS managers were identified through a survey. The effect of these differences on safety and other benefits warrants further research with proper data collection.

  4. A human factors analysis of fatal and serious injury accidents in Alaska, 2004-2009.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-01

    "This report summarizes the analysis of 97 general aviation accidents in Alaska that resulted in a fatality or serious : injury to one or more aircraft occupants for the years 2004-2009. The accidents were analyzed using the Human : Factors Analysis ...

  5. Fatal occupational injuries in the Malaysian construction sector–causes and accidental agents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ayob, A.; Shaari, A. A.; Zaki, M. F. M.; Munaaim, M. A. C.

    2018-04-01

    The construction sector is associated with various accidents and fatal injuries. These occupational accidents are caused by numerous factors, such as lack of supervision; lack of adherence to safe work technique; failure to wear personal protective equipment; and failure to comply with the safe use of tools, vehicles, and machines. Using 2013–2016 secondary data from the Department of Occupational Safety and Health and Social Security Organization, this study conducted a descriptive exploration survey to identify common fatal occupational injuries associated with the Malaysian construction sector, as well as their causes and accidental agents. Results indicated that construction, followed by manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, logging, and fishery, are the riskiest job sectors in Malaysia. The highest incidences of occupational casualties were reported in Sarawak, Johor, and Selangor. These states accounted for approximately 13.33% to 18.18% of all cases of fatal occupational accidents. In these states, the lack of safety and health regulations and poor execution of risk management increased the risk of occupational accidents. Falls from heights accounted for 46.28% of fatal occupational injuries. Furthermore, being crushed by objects, materials, or vehicles accounted for 9.09% to 17.36% of fatal occupational injuries. Substandard work environment and transportation and lifting equipment, such as scaffolds, are primary accidental agents. Results of this study could enhance the knowledge and awareness of construction workers and management of job-related injuries to decrease the incidence of fatal occupational accidents.

  6. Trucks involved in fatal accidents codebook 2010 (Version October 22, 2012).

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-11-01

    This report provides documentation for UMTRIs file of Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents : (TIFA), 2010, including distributions of the code values for each variable in the file. The 2010 : TIFA file is a census of all medium and heavy trucks invo...

  7. Epidemiology of Fatal Traffic Accidents in Sari, Iran in 2014

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jamshid Yazdani Charati

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Introduction and purpose: Road traffic injuries are one of the most important health problems in recent communities that annually takes the lives of more than 12,000 people around the world. The present study examined the epidemiology of fatal traffic accidents in Sari, Mazandaran province, Iran, in  2014. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted using the information about the people who died due to traffic accidents during early April 2014-March 2015. This information was taken from the Mazandaran Legal Medicine Center. All the required information was collected using the checklist. The age and gender of the population were obtained from the Statistical Center of Iran, which was collected in the population census carried out in 2014. Data analysis was performed using Excel 2013.Results: According to the results, a total of 112 individuals had died due to traffic accidents in Sari, 76 cases of whom were male (68%. The highest number of deaths was found to be between the ages of 15 and 24 years old. Sari-Kaiser and Sari-Juybar road had the maximum (19 cases and minimum (two cases numbers of death, respectively. In addition, the spring and winter with 35 and 19 killed had the most and least numbers of death in Sari in 2014. Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, Sari has a high rate of accidents, particularly among the young people. Regarding this, some measures such as ratifying strict rules, increasing vehicle safety, as well as improving culture and education, especially among the children and adolescents should be taken to reduce this rate.

  8. Effect of Occupational Health and Safety Management System on Work-Related Accident Rate and Differences of Occupational Health and Safety Management System Awareness between Managers in South Korea's Construction Industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seok J. Yoon

    2013-12-01

    Conclusion: Both work-related accident and fatal accident rates were found to be significantly reduced by implementing OHSMS in this study. The differences of OHSMS awareness between site general managers and OHS managers were identified through a survey. The effect of these differences on safety and other benefits warrants further research with proper data collection.

  9. Mapping patterns of pedestrian fatal accidents in Israel

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prato, Carlo Giacomo; Gitelman, Victoria; Bekhor, Shlomo

    2010-01-01

    This study intends to provide insight into pedestrian accidents by uncovering their patterns in order to design preventive measures and to allocate resources for identifiable problems. Kohonen neural networks are applied to a database of pedestrian fatal accidents occurred during the four-year pe......, results suggest the necessity of designing education campaigns for parents, promoting information campaigns for road users and allocating resources for infrastructural interventions and law enforcement in order to address the identified major problems.......-year period between 2003 and 2006. Results show the existence of five pedestrian accident patterns: (i) elderly pedestrians crossing on crosswalks far from intersection in metropolitan areas; (ii) pedestrians crossing suddenly or from hidden places and colliding with two-wheel vehicles on urban road sections......; (iii) male pedestrians crossing at night and being hit by four-wheel vehicles on rural road sections; (iv) young male pedestrians crossing at night wide road sections in both urban and rural areas; (v) children and teenagers crossing road sections in small rural communities. From the policy perspective...

  10. Fatal drink-driving accidents of young adult and middle-aged males--a risky driving style or risky lifestyle?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laapotti, Sirkku; Keskinen, Esko

    2008-01-01

    A range of situational and lifestyle-related factors in drink-driving fatal accidents were studied involving young adult and middle-aged male drivers in Finland. Fatal drink-driving accidents were compared to fatal accidents in which the driver had been sober. The study included all 18-to 59-year-old male drivers' fatal car and van accidents investigated by the Road Accident Investigation Teams in Finland between 2000 and 2002 (n = 366 accidents). The variables describing the situation included the time of the accident, the road condition, the speed, possession of a valid licence, seat-belt usage, and the presence of passengers. The study found that among young adult males most of the studied situational factors bore no relation to the state of the driver (sober or drink driver). Only the time of day, seat-belt, usage, and possession of a valid licence were related to the state of the driver. Among middle-aged male drivers, drink-driving and sober driving accidents differed more clearly. Further, when the social situation in the car was examined, it was found that accidents of sober and drink drivers differed from each other within the group of middle-aged drivers but not within the group of young adult drivers. Heavy alcohol usage was found to characterize the lifestyle of the studied middle-aged drink drivers. It was concluded that for young adult males drink-driving was a part of a more general risky driving style. Among middle-aged males drink-driving was more related to a risky lifestyle with drinking problems. Possible countermeasures are discussed with regard to drink-driving among young adult and middle-aged males.

  11. Pattern Recognition and Classification of Fatal Traffic Accidents in Israel A Neural Network Approach

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prato, Carlo Giacomo; Gitelman, Victoria; Bekhor, Shlomo

    2011-01-01

    on 1,793 fatal traffic accidents occurred during the period between 2003 and 2006 and applies Kohonen and feed-forward back-propagation neural networks with the objective of extracting from the data typical patterns and relevant factors. Kohonen neural networks reveal five compelling accident patterns....... Feed-forward back-propagation neural networks indicate that sociodemographic characteristics of drivers and victims, accident location, and period of the day are extremely relevant factors. Accident patterns suggest that countermeasures are necessary for identified problems concerning mainly vulnerable...

  12. Safety climate and accidents at work

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ajslev, Jeppe; Dastjerdi, Efat Lali; Dyreborg, Johnny

    2017-01-01

    Aim: Occupational safety climate is utilized as a way to measure the risk of accidents and injuries at work. This study investigates which factors are associated with safety climate and accidents at work. Methods: In the 2012 round of the Danish Work Environment and Health Study, 15,144 workers...... from the general working population of Denmark replied to questions about safety climate and accidents at work. Mutually adjusted logistic regression analyses determined the association between variables. Results: Within the last year, 5.7% had experienced an accident resulting in sickness absence....... The number of safety climate problems was progressively associated with the odds ratio (OR) for accidents. For one safety climate problem the OR for accidents was 2.01 (95% CI 1.67–2.42), for four or more safety climate problems the OR was 4.57 (95% CI 3.64–5.74). Young workers (18–24 years) had higher odds...

  13. Fatal motorcycle accidents in Fars Province, Iran: a com-munity-based survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Heydari Seyed Taghi

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available 【Abstract】Objective: To identify the main character-istics of victims of motorcycle accidents in Fars Province, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Fars Province which has the fourth largest population of all 31 provinces in Iran from March 2009 to June 2010. We included data from all 542 recorded cases of fatalities due to motor vehicle accidents. Data were recorded from the foren-sic medicine registry consisting of demographic and acci-dent-related information. Demographic information con-sisted of name, age, sex, status of fatal victim (motorcycle driver vs passenger and educational level. Results: Of the 2 345 autopsy records from the foren-sic medicine archives, 542 (23.1% gave the cause of death as motor vehicle accidents. Mean age of these victims was (31.4±16.5 years, and the male to female ratio was 28. Head injury was the most common cause of death in these victims, and overall they tended to have a low level of education. Motorcycle accidents frequently involved younger age groups (15-35 years, and head trauma related with non-use of a helmet was the most common cause of death. Conclusions: Head injury is frequent among victims in the province we studied. This situation may be related to the victims’ low socioeconomic status and little education regarding traffic laws leading to speeding and disregard of these laws along with their weak enforcement. Key words: Accidents, traffic; Motorcycles; Iran

  14. Analysis of construction accidents in Spain, 2003-2008.

    Science.gov (United States)

    López Arquillos, Antonio; Rubio Romero, Juan Carlos; Gibb, Alistair

    2012-12-01

    The research objective for this paper is to obtain a new extended and updated insight to the likely causes of construction accidents in Spain, in order to identify suitable mitigating actions. The paper analyzes all construction sector accidents in Spain between 2003 and 2008. Ten variables were chosen and the influence of each variable is evaluated with respect to the severity of the accident. The descriptive analysis is based on a total of 1,163,178 accidents. Results showed that the severity of accidents was related to variables including age, CNAE (National Classification of Economic Activities) code, size of company, length of service, location of accident, day of the week, days of absence, deviation, injury, and climatic zones. According to data analyzed, a large company is not always necessarily safer than a small company in the aspect of fatal accidents, experienced workers do not have the best accident fatality rates, and accidents occurring away from the usual workplace had more severe consequences. Results obtained in this paper can be used by companies in their occupational safety strategies, and in their safety training programs. Copyright © 2012 National Safety Council and Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Analyses of non-fatal accidents in an opencast mine by logistic regression model - a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Onder, Seyhan; Mutlu, Mert

    2017-09-01

    Accidents cause major damage for both workers and enterprises in the mining industry. To reduce the number of occupational accidents, these incidents should be properly registered and carefully analysed. This study efficiently examines the Aegean Lignite Enterprise (ELI) of Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKI) in Soma between 2006 and 2011, and opencast coal mine occupational accident records were used for statistical analyses. A total of 231 occupational accidents were analysed for this study. The accident records were categorized into seven groups: area, reason, occupation, part of body, age, shift hour and lost days. The SPSS package program was used in this study for logistic regression analyses, which predicted the probability of accidents resulting in greater or less than 3 lost workdays for non-fatal injuries. Social facilities-area of surface installations, workshops and opencast mining areas are the areas with the highest probability for accidents with greater than 3 lost workdays for non-fatal injuries, while the reasons with the highest probability for these types of accidents are transporting and manual handling. Additionally, the model was tested for such reported accidents that occurred in 2012 for the ELI in Soma and estimated the probability of exposure to accidents with lost workdays correctly by 70%.

  16. Causation of severe and fatal accidents in the manufacturing sector.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carrillo-Castrillo, Jesús A; Rubio-Romero, Juan C; Onieva, Luis

    2013-01-01

    The main purpose of this paper is to identify the most frequent causes of accidents in the manufacturing sector in Andalusia, Spain, to help safety practitioners in the task of prioritizing preventive actions. Official accident investigation reports are analyzed. A causation pattern is identified with the proportion of causes of each of the different possible groups of causes. We found evidence of a differential causation between slight and nonslight accidents. We have also found significant differences in accident causation depending on the mechanism of the accident. These results can be used to prioritize preventive actions to combat the most likely causes of each accident mechanism. We have also done research on the associations of certain latent causes with specific active (immediate) causes. These relationships show how organizational and safety management can contribute to the prevention of active failures.

  17. [Incidence of non-fatal work-related accidents in Southeast Brazil].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordeiro, Ricardo; Prestes, Simone Cristina Chiodi; Clemente, Ana Paula Grotti; Diniz, Cíntia Ségre; Sakate, Mirian; Donalisio, Maria Rita

    2006-02-01

    Incidence of work-related accidents in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil, was estimated according to gender, age, employment status, occupation, and type of work. A household survey was conducted by systematic random group sampling (195 census tracts). Information was collected from all residents 10 years or older in each household. Of those who had worked during the 90 days prior to the interview, we obtained information on occupation, job position, and employment contract. The study included 9,626 households (sample fraction 0.26). The proportion of non-fatal work accidents in the municipal area was 3.3% (95%CI: 2.7-3.9), higher for men 4.5% (95%CI: 3.6-5.5) and varying with type of employment contract and occupation. Compared to results from previous studies, we observed a decline in work-related accident risk.

  18. Alcohol-related road traffic accidents before and after the passing of the Road Traffic Safety Act in Croatia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Missoni, Eduard; Bozić, Boris; Missoni, Ivan

    2012-12-01

    The aim of this study was to gather enough data in order to formulate theory- and research-based recommendations to policy makers with the intention of decreasing the number of alcohol-related accidents and victims on Croatian roads. The data on the injured traffic participants and the share of participants under the influence of alcohol were collected from the police reports of the Traffic Police Department, Ministry of the Interior, written at the scene of the respective accidents. This documentation was then processed by descriptive epidemiology and analysed through a four-year period, before and after the passing of the New Road Traffic Safety Act in the Republic of Croatia, on 20 August 2004. In the first six months of 2005, after the passing of the Act, there were 3,275 accidents caused by the motorists under the influence of alcohol (12.5% of all the accidents), with 64 persons killed. Only 5 fatalities (8%) were caused by the drivers with measured blood alcohol concentration of up to 0.5 per thousand. As much as 27 fatalities (42%) were caused by the drivers with measured more than 1.5 per thousand, while half of the fatalities, 32 (50%), were caused by drivers with 0.5-1.5 per thousand. In this period, more than 451,000 violations were recorded, whereas in the same period of the previous year, the number of violations was about 519,000. A reduction of the total number of accidents is the result of the new regulation provision, according to which the incidents without human victims do not have to be reported to the police. The number of traffic accidents caused by drivers under the influence of alcohol had increased by some dozen per cents, namely: 2005 - 6,219 persons, 2006- 6,590 persons, noting that in 2006 one less person was killed (123) compared to 2005. In 2005, drivers with alcohol concentration of 0-0.5 per thousand caused 1,096 accidents, with 14 fatalities, whereas in 2006 there were 1,164 accidents with 9 fatalities. A total of 2,314 accidents

  19. Epidemiological characteristics of fatal traffic accidents in Fars province, Iran: a community-based survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heydari, S T; Hoseinzadeh, A; Ghaffarpasand, F; Hedjazi, A; Zarenezhad, M; Moafian, G; Aghabeigi, M R; Foroutan, A; Sarikhani, Y; Peymani, P; Ahmadi, S M; Joulaei, H; Dehghankhalili, M; Lankarani, K B

    2013-08-01

    To determine the epidemiological characteristics of fatal traffic accidents in Fars province, Iran. This cross-sectional study included 3642 traffic accident deaths in Fars province, Iran between November 2009 and November 2011. The data source was the Fars Forensic Medicine Registry, which covers the entire province. According to Iranian law, all deaths resulting from injuries or accidents must be investigated to determine the exact cause of death by autopsy. All such deaths are referred to forensic medicine centres in each city, and all data are sent to the main centre in Shiraz, the capital city of Fars province. Males accounted for 78.3% of the decedents (sex ratio of almost 3.6:1), and the mean ± standard deviation age of all decedents was 32.2 ± 20.3 years. Autopsy reports indicated that head trauma was the most common cause of death. Most collisions were vehicle-vehicle crashes (52.3%), with cars and motorcycles being the most prevalent modes of transport (39.6% and 24.6%, respectively). Fatal accidents were most common during the summer. Most fatal injuries (61.4%) occurred on outer-city roads and 27.4% occurred on inner-city roads. Significant associations were found between decedent's status (car driver, motorcycle driver or passenger, pedestrian or passenger) and interval between injury and death, light conditions at the scene of the accident, place of death, site of injury and cause of death. Although the clinical management of trauma patients has improved in Iran, coordination between trauma system organizations is required to decrease the burden of injuries. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Big nuclear accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marshall, W.; Billingon, D.E.; Cameron, R.F.; Curl, S.J.

    1983-09-01

    Much of the debate on the safety of nuclear power focuses on the large number of fatalities that could, in theory, be caused by extremely unlikely but just imaginable reactor accidents. This, along with the nuclear industry's inappropriate use of vocabulary during public debate, has given the general public a distorted impression of the risks of nuclear power. The paper reviews the way in which the probability and consequences of big nuclear accidents have been presented in the past and makes recommendations for the future, including the presentation of the long-term consequences of such accidents in terms of 'loss of life expectancy', 'increased chance of fatal cancer' and 'equivalent pattern of compulsory cigarette smoking'. The paper presents mathematical arguments, which show the derivation and validity of the proposed methods of presenting the consequences of imaginable big nuclear accidents. (author)

  1. Casebook on electric safety accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-09-01

    This book gives concentration on electric safety accidents in domestic and abroad, which introduces general electrical safety with property of electricity, safe equipment and maintenance and protection of electric shock. It lists the cases of accident caused of electricity in domestic like accident in power substation, utilization equipment, load system and another accident by electricity like death in electric shock another by electricity like death in electric shock in new building construction, the cases caused of electricity in abroad like damage in electric shock by high voltage electric transformer, electric shock in summer and earth fault accident by fault cooling tower.

  2. Overview of main accident parameters in car-to-cyclist accidents for use in AEB-system test protocol

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Uittenbogaard, J.; Camp, O.M.G.C. op den; Montfort, S. van

    2016-01-01

    The number of fatalities in road traffic accidents in Europe is decreasing. Unfortunately, the number of fatalities among cyclists does not follow this trend with the same rate [1]. The au-tomotive industry is making a significant effort in the development and implementation of safety systems in

  3. Accident statistics and the human-factor element.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shuckburgh, J S

    1975-01-01

    The number of fatal accidents involving public transport aircraft has increased significantly in recent years and, because more and more "wide-bodied" aircraft have been coming into service, this has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of fatalities. A combined attack on the problem by all concerned with flight safety is required to improve the situation. The collection and analysis of aircraft accident data can contribute to safety in two ways; by giving an indication of where to concentrate future effort and by showing how successful past efforts have been. An analysis of worldwide accident statistics by phase of flight and causal factor show that the largest percentage of accidents occurs in the approach and landing phase and are caused by "pilot error". Further research is needed to find out why pilots make errors and how such errors can be eliminated.

  4. Police recording of road accident in-patients : investigation into the completeness, representativity, and reliability of police records of hospitalized traffic victims. Article published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, 1984/06. 16(3) pp167-184.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maas, M.W. & Harris, S.

    1984-01-01

    Many road safety research projects make use of the official police road accident data. Their use is often restricted to the data of fatal accidents and fatalities because it is the only complete registration, and the extent of underreporting of injury accidents is unknown. The need to extend the use

  5. [Implementation of safety devices: biological accident prevention].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catalán Gómez, M Teresa; Sol Vidiella, Josep; Castellà Castellà, Manel; Castells Bo, Carolina; Losada Pla, Nuria; Espuny, Javier Lluís

    2010-04-01

    Accidental exposures to blood and biological material were the most frequent and potentially serious accidents in healthcare workers, reported in the Prevention of Occupational Risks Unit within 2002. Evaluate the biological percutaneous accidents decrease after a progressive introduction of safety devices. Biological accidents produced between 2.002 and 2.006 were analyzed and reported by the injured healthcare workers to the Level 2b Hospital Prevention of Occupational Risk Unit with 238 beds and 750 employees. The key of the study was the safety devices (peripheral i.v. catheter, needleless i.v. access device and capillary blood collection lancet). Within 2002, 54 percutaneous biological accidents were registered and 19 in 2006, that represents a 64.8% decreased. There has been no safety devices accident reported involving these material. Accidents registered during the implantation period occurred because safety devices were not used at that time. Safety devices have proven to be effective in reducing needle stick percutaneous accidents, so that they are a good choice in the primary prevention of biological accidents contact.

  6. New innovative educational method to prevent accidents involving young road users (aged 15-24 – European Road Safety Tunes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jankowska-Karpa Dagmara

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The article presents a new teaching method designed to improve road safety among young road users. Developed under “European Road Safety Tunes”, this international project was cofunded by EU DG MOVE. Its main aim is to improve road safety and minimize the number of road accidents, injuries and fatalities among road users who are 15-24 years old. The Safety Tunes method contains a series of workshops addressed to young vocational school students: cyclists, moped and motor riders and car drivers. The workshops incorporate peer and emotive education, and delivery of road safety related messages through different types of artistic forms. The topics tackled during class address awareness of possible risks and risk-behaviour, prevention of distraction and reduction in young fatalities and serious injuries on the road. All actions within the project are evaluated, both in terms of the impact of the workshops on students’ attitudes towards road safety problems and in terms of process assessment.

  7. Civilian Helicopter Search and Rescue Accidents in the United States: 1980 Through 2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Worley, Gordon H

    2015-12-01

    Helicopters are commonly used in search and rescue operations, and accidents have occurred during helicopter search and rescue (HSAR) missions. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether the HSAR accident rate in the United States could be determined and whether any common contributing factors or trends could be identified. Searches were conducted of the National Transportation Safety Board aviation accident database, the records of the major search and rescue and air medical organizations, and the medical and professional literature for reports of HSAR accidents. A total of 47 civilian HSAR accidents were identified during the study. Of these, 43% involved fatal injuries, compared with a 19% fatality rate for US helicopter general aviation accidents during the same time period and a 40% rate for helicopter emergency medical services. The HSAR accidents carried a significantly higher risk of fatal outcomes when compared with helicopter general aviation accidents (2-tailed Fisher's exact test, P .05). The number of HSAR missions conducted annually could not be established, so an overall accident rate could not be calculated. Although the overall number of HSAR accidents is small, the percentage of fatal outcomes from HSAR accidents is significantly higher than that from general helicopter aviation accidents and is comparable to that seen for helicopter emergency medical services operations. Further study could help to improve the safety of HSAR flights. Copyright © 2015 Wilderness Medical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. [Spatial analysis of road traffic accidents with fatalities in Spain, 2008-2011].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gómez-Barroso, Diana; López-Cuadrado, Teresa; Llácer, Alicia; Palmera Suárez, Rocío; Fernández-Cuenca, Rafael

    2015-09-01

    To estimate the areas of greatest density of road traffic accidents with fatalities at 24 hours per km(2)/year in Spain from 2008 to 2011, using a geographic information system. Accidents were geocodified using the road and kilometer points where they occurred. The average nearest neighbor was calculated to detect possible clusters and to obtain the bandwidth for kernel density estimation. A total of 4775 accidents were analyzed, of which 73.3% occurred on conventional roads. The estimated average distance between accidents was 1,242 meters, and the average expected distance was 10,738 meters. The nearest neighbor index was 0.11, indicating that there were aggregations of accidents in space. A map showing the kernel density was obtained with a resolution of 1 km(2), which identified the areas of highest density. This methodology allowed a better approximation to locating accident risks by taking into account kilometer points. The map shows areas where there was a greater density of accidents. This could be an advantage in decision-making by the relevant authorities. Copyright © 2014 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

  9. Epidemiology & preventive aspects of railway suicides and fatalities related to trespassing accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Sachil; Verma, Anoop K; Bhattacharya, Sandeep; Singh, Uma Shankar

    2013-11-01

    Suicide and trespass are major contributors to risk on the railway, resulting in around 170-180 fatalities per year in Lucknow region, as well as associated major disruption to the rail network. Lucknow is the capital city of the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. The analysis included train-pedestrian fatalities during 2007-2012. The data for 2007-2012 were collected from the autopsy reports of the university, case sheets from the hospital, the general prosecutor's investigations report and the inquest reports from police. The results show that the majority of victims were males. Half of the suicide victims were 20-39 years old. Accidents happened most frequently in situations when a person was walking on the tracks/in front of train (22.7%) or were crossing the tracks illegally (20.9%). Among all train-pedestrian fatalities, about half of the victims (42.8%) were intoxicated by alcohol. Female suicide victims suffered from mental health problems more frequently (55.8%) than male suicide victims. Overall, there is no reason to believe that train-pedestrian fatalities are unavoidable. By contrast, the effective prevention of railway suicides and accidents should be based on a systems approach involving effective measures introduces by several organisations such as government, railway organisations, various authorities (such as public health, education, enforcement, urban planning) and communities. Same measures can often be used to prevent both trespassing and suicides, even though their effectiveness may depend on the target group. In addition, there are measures specifically targeted to prevent either trespassing or suicides. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

  10. Analysis on relation between safety input and accidents

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    YAO Qing-guo; ZHANG Xue-mu; LI Chun-hui

    2007-01-01

    The number of safety input directly determines the level of safety, and there exists dialectical and unified relations between safety input and accidents. Based on the field investigation and reliable data, this paper deeply studied the dialectical relationship between safety input and accidents, and acquired the conclusions. The security situation of the coal enterprises was related to the security input rate, being effected little by the security input scale, and build the relationship model between safety input and accidents on this basis, that is the accident model.

  11. Frequency of Specific Categories of Aviation Accidents and Incidents During 2001-2010

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evans, Joni K.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the types of accidents or incidents that are most important to the aviation safety risk. All accidents and incidents from 2001-2010 were assigned occurrence categories based on the taxonomy developed by the Commercial Aviation Safety Team/International Civil Aviation Organization (CAST/ICAO) Common Taxonomy Team (CICTT). The most frequently recorded categories were selected within each of five metrics: total accidents, fatal accidents, total injuries, fatal injuries and total incidents. This analysis was done separately for events within Part 121, Scheduled Part 135, Non-Scheduled Part 135 and Part 91. Combining those five sets of categories resulted in groups of between seven and eleven occurrence categories, depending on the flight operation. These groups represent 65-85% of all accidents and 68-81% of incidents.

  12. Characteristics of worker accidents on NYSDOT construction projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohan, Satish; Zech, Wesley C

    2005-01-01

    This paper aims at providing cost-effective safety measures to protect construction workers in highway work zones, based on real data. Two types of accidents that occur in work zones were: (a) construction work area accidents, and (b) traffic accidents involving construction worker(s). A detailed analysis of work zone accidents involving 36 fatalities and 3,055 severe injuries to construction workers on New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) construction projects from 1990 to 2001 established that five accident types: (a) Struck/Pinned by Large Equipment, (b) Trip or Fall (elevated), (c) Contact w/Electrical or Gas Utility, (d) Struck-by Moving/Falling Load, and (e) Crane/Lift Device Failure accounted for nearly 96% of the fatal accidents, nearly 63% of the hospital-level injury accidents, and nearly 91% of the total costs. These construction work area accidents had a total cost of $133.8 million. Traffic accidents that involve contractors' employees were also examined. Statistical analyses of the traffic accidents established that five traffic accident types: (a) Work Space Intrusion, (b) Worker Struck-by Vehicle Inside Work Space, (c) Flagger Struck-by Vehicle, (d) Worker Struck-by Vehicle Entering/Exiting Work Space, and (e) Construction Equipment Struck-by Vehicle Inside Work Space accounted for nearly 86% of the fatal, nearly 70% of the hospital-level injury and minor injury traffic accidents, and $45.4 million (79.4%) of the total traffic accident costs. The results of this paper provide real statistics on construction worker related accidents reported on construction work zones. Potential preventions based on real statistics have also been suggested. The ranking of accident types, both within the work area as well as in traffic, will guide the heavy highway contractor and owner agencies in identifying the most cost effective safety preventions.

  13. Alcohol-control public service announcements (PSAs) and drunk-driving fatal accidents in the United States, 1996-2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niederdeppe, Jeff; Avery, Rosemary; Miller, Emily N

    2017-06-01

    Widespread concern regarding the detrimental effects of excessive alcohol consumption (especially by minors) and associated social problems (particularly drunk driving) continues to exist among policymakers, law enforcement officers, and the general public. Alcohol consumption is a leading contributor to death from injuries, which itself is one of the main causes of death for people under 21years of age in the United States. This study examines the relationship between the volume and timing of alcohol-control public service announcements (PSAs) and rates of drunk-driving fatal accidents in the U.S. We estimate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models to predict rates of drunk-driving fatal accidents by state and month as a function of the volume of alcohol-control PSAs aired during the previous 8months. Models include controls for state anti-drunk-driving laws and regulations, state demographic characteristics, state taxes on alcohol, calendar year, and seasonality. Results indicate that higher volumes of anti-drunk driving PSAs airing in the preceding 2 to 3months are associated, albeit modest in magnitude, with reduced rates of drunk-driving fatal accidents. The regression coefficients are largest for adults (relative to underage drunk drivers) and when the PSAs air during prime time (relative to daytime or nighttime). We conclude that PSAs could play an important contributing role in reducing drunk-driving fatal accidents, although levels of exposure and potential effects likely remain modest due to reliance on donated air time. Well-funded anti-drunk driving campaigns could achieve higher levels of exposure and have a larger impact. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Management of construction safety at RR site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pathak, B.C.; Khatsuriya, J.R.

    2016-01-01

    Construction industries are one of the most hazardous industries and hence, promotion of safety remains one of the greatest challenges facing construction industry today. According to ILO estimates: Each year at least 60,000 fatal accidents occur on construction sites around the world or one fatal accident every ten minutes. One in six fatal accidents at work occurs on a construction site. In industrialized countries, as many as 25-40 per cent of work related deaths occur on construction sites, even though the sector employs only 6-10 per cent of the workforce. The number of fatalities occurring from construction work in India is also quite disturbing. Though, the fall of person from height and through openings were the major causes for fatal /serious accidents, the risk of fatal accident involving material handling equipment, either during handling or its maintenance is also significantly high due to use of large number of material handling equipments during construction work. (author)

  15. Demonstrating a correlation between the maturity of road safety practices and road safety incidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amador, Luis; Willis, Christopher Joseph

    2014-01-01

    The objective of this study is to demonstrate a correlation between the maturity of a country's road safety practices and road safety incidents. Firstly, data on a number of road injuries and fatalities for 129 countries were extracted from the United Nations Global Status on Road Safety database. These data were subdivided according to road safety incident and accident causation factors and normalized based on vehicular fleet (per 1000 vehicles) and road network (per meter of paved road). Secondly, a road safety maturity model was developed based on an adaptation of the concept of process maturity modeling. The maturity of countries with respect to 10 road safety practices was determined through the identification of indicators recorded in the United Nations Global Status of Road Safety Database. Plots of normalized road safety performance of the 129 countries against their maturity scores for each road safety practice as well as an aggregation of the road safety practices were developed. An analysis of variance was done to determine the extent of the correlation between the road safety maturity of the countries and their performance. In addition, a full Bayesian analysis was done to confirm the correlation of each of the road safety practices with injuries and fatalities. Regression analysis for fatalities, injuries, and combined accidents identified maturity with respect to road safety practices associated with speed limits and use of alternative modes as being the most significant predictors of traffic fatalities. A full Bayesian regression confirms that there is a correlation between the maturity of road safety practices and road safety incidents. Road safety practices associated with enforcement of speed limits and promotion of alternative modes are the most significant road safety practices toward which mature countries have concentrated their efforts, resulting in a lower frequency of fatalities, injury rates, and property damage accidents. The authors

  16. An epidemiological study on pattern of thoraco-abdominal injuries sustained in fatal road traffic accidents of Bangalore: Autopsy-based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reddy, N Bayapa; Hanumantha; Madithati, Pallavi; Reddy, N Nagarjuna; Reddy, C Sainarasimha

    2014-04-01

    The statistical profile reflects a global estimate of 5.1 million deaths in 2000, which was due to injuries that accounted for 10% of deaths due to all causes. Out of this, a quarter of injury-related deaths occurred in the South-East Asian region. Road Traffic Accident (RTA) is one among the top 5 causes of morbidity and mortality in South-East Asian countries. Most common cause of blunt abdominal trauma in India is road traffic accident followed by pedestrian accidents, abdominal blows, and fall from heights. To analyze the epidemiology and pattern of fatal thoraco-abdominal injuries in road traffic accidents. An autopsy-based cross-sectional study conducted. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select the study sample of 100 post-mortems of road traffic accident between November 2008 and May 2010 subjected to medico-legal autopsy at the department of Forensic Medicine, KIMS Hospital Bangalore. The majority of the victims were aged 21 to 40 years, 50 (50.0%), most of the victims were male 92 (92.0%); and male/female ratio was 11.5:1. Commonest offending agents in heavy motor vehicles were 54 (54.0%). Bony cage sustained injuries were observed in 71; out of this, fractures of ribs were observed in 45 (63.3%) victims, clavicle in 14 (19.7%), sternum was 6 (8.4%), and vertebrae 6 (8.4%) of fatal road traffic accidents. Internal thoracic injuries were observed in 26 cases. Among internal thoracic injuries, lungs were the most commonly involved organ 24 (92.3%) followed by the heart 2 (7.6%). Lung sustained more lacerations 19 (79.1%) than contusions 5 (20.8%). Internal abdominal injuries were observed in 49 cases. In road traffic accidents, the most commonly injured abdominal organs were solid organs such as liver 16 (32.6%) followed by spleen 9 (18.3%). Majority of the times in road traffic accidents, young and productive males were injured or lost their life. This study may help the planners to take safety measures, to implement strict traffic rules, to

  17. Safety related studies on the accident behaviour of the HTR-100

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wolters, J.; Mertens, J.; Altes, J.; Bongartz, R.; Breitbach, G.; David, P.H.; Degen, G.; Ehrlich, H.G.; Escherich, K.H.; Frank, E.; Hennings, W.; Jahn, W.; Koschmieder, R.; Marx, J.; Meister, G.; Moormann, R.; Rehm, W.; Verfondern, K.

    1991-10-01

    The aim of investigations was to verify the safety concept of the plant for balance and to quantify the radiological risk to be expected in operating an HTR-100 double unit system. Moreover, aspects of the investment risk were considered. The spectrum of initiating events ranged from so-called transients to leaks in the primary circuit and steam generator and even included earthquakes. Some of the event trees derived were highly complex and extensive due to the situation of the steam generator above the core and with regard to the double unit plant concept with increased possibilities of accident control, but also with respect to potential accident propagation. Correspondingly sophisticated analyses were required to identify risk-relevant event sequences. Environmental exposure for all risk-relevant accidents is so low that accident consequence calculations do not reveal any lethal radiation doses and practically no stochastic fatal injuries. These calculations neither assumed acute protective measures nor long-term resettlement or decontamination. The radiological risk caused by an HTR-100 plant is therefore to be classified as very low. The initiating events selected as representative and the event sequences studied in detail cover the risk-relevant event spectrum well into the hypothetical range. (orig./HP) [de

  18. Assessing flight safety differences between the United States regional and major airlines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharp, Broderick H.

    During 2008, the U.S. domestic airline departures exceeded 28,000 flights per day. Thirty-nine or less than 0.2 of 1% of these flights resulted in operational incidents or accidents. However, even a low percentage of airline accidents and incidents continue to cause human suffering and property loss. The charge of this study was the comparison of U.S. major and regional airline safety histories. The study spans safety events from January 1982 through December 2008. In this quantitative analysis, domestic major and regional airlines were statistically tested for their flight safety differences. Four major airlines and thirty-seven regional airlines qualified for the safety study which compared the airline groups' fatal accidents, incidents, non-fatal accidents, pilot errors, and the remaining six safety event probable cause types. The six other probable cause types are mechanical failure, weather, air traffic control, maintenance, other, and unknown causes. The National Transportation Safety Board investigated each airline safety event, and assigned a probable cause to each event. A sample of 500 events was randomly selected from the 1,391 airlines' accident and incident population. The airline groups' safety event probabilities were estimated using the least squares linear regression. A probability significance level of 5% was chosen to conclude the appropriate research question hypothesis. The airline fatal accidents and incidents probability levels were 1.2% and 0.05% respectively. These two research questions did not reach the 5% significance level threshold. Therefore, the airline groups' fatal accidents and non-destructive incidents probabilities favored the airline groups' safety differences hypothesis. The linear progression estimates for the remaining three research questions were 71.5% for non-fatal accidents, 21.8% for the pilot errors, and 7.4% significance level for the six probable causes. These research questions' linear regressions are greater than

  19. International comparisons of road safety using Singular Value Decomposition.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oppe, S.

    2001-01-01

    There is a general interest in the comparison of road safety developments in different countries. Comparisons have been made, based on absolute levels of accident or fatality risk or on the rate of change of functions regarding risk, the number of accidents, fatalities or injuries over time. Such

  20. Serious injuries: an additional indicator to fatalities for road safety benchmarking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shen, Yongjun; Hermans, Elke; Bao, Qiong; Brijs, Tom; Wets, Geert

    2015-01-01

    Almost all of the current road safety benchmarking studies focus entirely on fatalities, which, however, represent only one measure of the magnitude of the road safety problem. The main objective of this article was to investigate the possibility of including the number of serious injuries in addition to the number of fatalities for road safety benchmarking and to further illuminate its impact on the countries' rankings. We introduced the technique of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the road safety domain and developed a DEA-based road safety model (DEA-RS) in this study. Moreover, we outlined different types of possible weight restrictions and adopted 2 of them to indicate the relationship between road fatalities and serious injuries for the sake of rational benchmarking. One was a relative weight restriction based on the information of their shadow price, and the other was a virtual weight restriction using a priori knowledge about the importance level of these 2 aspects. By computing the most optimal road safety risk scores of 10 European countries based on the different models, we found that United Kingdom was the only best-performing country no matter which model was utilized. However, countries such as The Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland were no longer best-performing when the serious injuries were integrated. On the contrary, Spain, which ranked almost at the bottom among all of the countries when only the number of road fatalities was considered, became a relatively well-performing country when integrating its number of serious injuries in the evaluation. In general, no matter whether the country's road safety ranking was improved or deteriorated, most of the countries achieved a higher risk score when the number of serious injuries was included, which implied that compared to the road fatalities, more policy attention has to be paid to improve the situation of serious injuries in most countries. Given the importance of considering the serious

  1. Profile of non-fatal injuries due to road traffic accidents from a industrial town in India.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayan, Pankaj; Bhawalkar, J S; Jadhav, S L; Banerjee, Amitav

    2013-01-01

    India has one of the highest road traffic accident rates in the world. To lessen this burden, information on the contributing factors is necessary. We studied a series of cases of non-fatal road traffic accidents in two tertiary care hospitals in Pimpri, Pune, India. A total of 212 non-fatal road traffic accidents admitted over a period of one year in these two hospitals constituted the study sample. The study variables were, the gender of the accident victims, mode of accident, days of week on which the accident took place, time of day when the injury was sustained, part of the body injured, nature of injury, and self-reported reasons for the accident. data were summarized using percentages. The Chi-square test for goodness of fit was applied, to see whether there was any association between the different weekdays or time of day and the accidents. MALE : female ratio was almost 5 : 1, which was statistically significant (Chi-Square for goodness of fit = 95.11, df = 1, P accidents occurred on Sundays and Mondays and the least around midweek (Wednesday). This pattern was also statistically significant (Chi-square for goodness of fit = 30.09, df = 6, P road users contributed to almost 80% of the cases of Road Traffic Injuries (RTIs). Accidents were more likely in the time zone of 8 pm to midnight, followed by 4 pm to 8 pm (Chi-square for goodness of fit = 89.58, df = 5, P accident. Almost half (46.22%) of the injured admitted to drinking alcohol on a regular basis. Wide pavements and safe zebra crossings should be provided for pedestrians, as the highest casualty in this study were pedestrians. More accidents occurred on Sundays and Mondays and in the late evenings. Extra supervision by traffic police may be considered on Sundays / Holidays and the day following. Roads should be well lit to improve visibility after sunset.

  2. Accident rates and types among self-employed private forest owners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindroos, Ola; Burström, Lage

    2010-11-01

    Half of all Swedish forests are owned by private individuals, and at least 215,000 people work in these privately owned forest holdings. However, only lethal accidents are systematically monitored among self-employed forest workers. Therefore, data from the registries of the Swedish Work Environment Authority, the Labor Insurance Organization and the regional University Hospital in Umeå were gathered to allow us to perform a more in-depth assessment of the rate and types of accidents that occurred among private forest owners. We found large differences between the registries in the type and number of accidents that were reported. We encountered difficulties in defining "self-employed forest worker" and also in determining whether the accidents that did occur happened during work or leisure time. Consequently, the estimates for the accident rate that we obtained varied from 32 to > or = 4300 injured persons per year in Sweden, depending on the registry that was consulted, the definition of the sample population that was used, and the accident severity definition that was employed. Nevertheless, the different registries gave a consistent picture of the types of accidents that occur while individuals are participating in self-employed forestry work. Severe accidents were relatively common, as self-employed forestry work fatalities constituted 7% of the total number of fatalities in the work authority registry. Falling trees were associated with many of these fatal accidents as well as with accidents that resulted in severe non-fatal injuries. Thus, unsafe work methods appeared more related to the occurrence of an accident than the equipment that was being used at the time of the accident (e.g., a chainsaw). Improvement of the workers' skills should therefore be considered to be an important prevention measure that should be undertaken in this field. The challenges in improving the safety in these smallest of companies, which fall somewhere between the purview of

  3. Roadside design in The Netherlands for enhancing safety : contribution to the conference `Traffic safety on Two Continents', Lisbon, Portugal, September 22-24, 1997.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Schoon, C.C.

    1998-01-01

    Safety barriers are often used on motorways. Accident figures, however, show that a safety barrier is involved in approximately 20% of all fatal accidents. This paper considers safety barriers within the context of safe designs for shoulders on motorways. This research is related to the European

  4. FACTORS AFFECTING ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN BENGHAZI, LIBYA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Ghaweel, Ibrahim; Mursi, Saleh A.; Jack, Joel P.; Joel, Irene

    2009-01-01

    Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate the factors responsible for road traffic accidents in Benghazi. Material and Methods: Retrospective and descriptive studies were done in the years 2006-2007. The data was collected from Traffic and License Department, Benghazi. The data were analyzed, based on fatalities, the severely handicapped, hit and run victims and were correlated with age, sex, time, environmental factors, type of roads, etc. Results: One-Thousand-Two-Hundred-Sixty-Five accidents occurred between the years 2006-2007 within the Benghazi city limits; 11.14% of the injuries were fatal; 67.35% of the victims had severe injuries and 21.51% escaped with minor injuries. Table 1 shows that 73.04% lost their lives within the city limits, 13.47% on the fly-over, and 2.12% on minor roads connected to main roads within the city limits. The mean of the accidents and its standard deviation were 16.66± 25.67 with a variance of fatality of 1.54. Conclusion: It is concluded from the studies that major road traffic accidents occur because of environmental stress factors. In addition, fatalities and the seriousness of the accidents depend on a number of factors such as the age of the vehicle, safety measures, human error and time and place of accident. PMID:23012183

  5. Design and implementation of an identification system in construction site safety for proactive accident prevention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Huanjia; Chew, David A S; Wu, Weiwei; Zhou, Zhipeng; Li, Qiming

    2012-09-01

    Identifying accident precursors using real-time identity information has great potential to improve safety performance in construction industry, which is still suffering from day to day records of accident fatality and injury. Based on the requirements analysis for identifying precursor and the discussion of enabling technology solutions for acquiring and sharing real-time automatic identification information on construction site, this paper proposes an identification system design for proactive accident prevention to improve construction site safety. Firstly, a case study is conducted to analyze the automatic identification requirements for identifying accident precursors in construction site. Results show that it mainly consists of three aspects, namely access control, training and inspection information and operation authority. The system is then designed to fulfill these requirements based on ZigBee enabled wireless sensor network (WSN), radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and an integrated ZigBee RFID sensor network structure. At the same time, an information database is also designed and implemented, which includes 15 tables, 54 queries and several reports and forms. In the end, a demonstration system based on the proposed system design is developed as a proof of concept prototype. The contributions of this study include the requirement analysis and technical design of a real-time identity information tracking solution for proactive accident prevention on construction sites. The technical solution proposed in this paper has a significant importance in improving safety performance on construction sites. Moreover, this study can serve as a reference design for future system integrations where more functions, such as environment monitoring and location tracking, can be added. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Reactor Safety Gap Evaluation of Accident Tolerant Components and Severe Accident Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Farmer, Mitchell T.; Bunt, R.; Corradini, M.; Ellison, Paul B.; Francis, M.; Gabor, John D.; Gauntt, R.; Henry, C.; Linthicum, R.; Luangdilok, W.; Lutz, R.; Paik, C.; Plys, M.; Rabiti, Cristian; Rempe, J.; Robb, K.; Wachowiak, R.

    2015-01-01

    The overall objective of this study was to conduct a technology gap evaluation on accident tolerant components and severe accident analysis methodologies with the goal of identifying any data and/or knowledge gaps that may exist, given the current state of light water reactor (LWR) severe accident research, and additionally augmented by insights obtained from the Fukushima accident. The ultimate benefit of this activity is that the results can be used to refine the Department of Energy's (DOE) Reactor Safety Technology (RST) research and development (R&D) program plan to address key knowledge gaps in severe accident phenomena and analyses that affect reactor safety and that are not currently being addressed by the industry or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

  7. Reactor Safety Gap Evaluation of Accident Tolerant Components and Severe Accident Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Farmer, Mitchell T. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Bunt, R. [Southern Nuclear, Atlanta, GA (United States); Corradini, M. [Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Ellison, Paul B. [GE Power and Water, Duluth, GA (United States); Francis, M. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Gabor, John D. [Erin Engineering, Walnut Creek, CA (United States); Gauntt, R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Henry, C. [Fauske and Associates, Burr Ridge, IL (United States); Linthicum, R. [Exelon Corp., Chicago, IL (United States); Luangdilok, W. [Fauske and Associates, Burr Ridge, IL (United States); Lutz, R. [PWR Owners Group (PWROG); Paik, C. [Fauske and Associates, Burr Ridge, IL (United States); Plys, M. [Fauske and Associates, Burr Ridge, IL (United States); Rabiti, Cristian [Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Rempe, J. [Rempe and Associates LLC, Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Robb, K. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Wachowiak, R. [Electric Power Research Inst. (EPRI), Knovville, TN (United States)

    2015-01-31

    The overall objective of this study was to conduct a technology gap evaluation on accident tolerant components and severe accident analysis methodologies with the goal of identifying any data and/or knowledge gaps that may exist, given the current state of light water reactor (LWR) severe accident research, and additionally augmented by insights obtained from the Fukushima accident. The ultimate benefit of this activity is that the results can be used to refine the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Reactor Safety Technology (RST) research and development (R&D) program plan to address key knowledge gaps in severe accident phenomena and analyses that affect reactor safety and that are not currently being addressed by the industry or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

  8. Reducing health care hazards: lessons from the commercial aviation safety team.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pronovost, Peter J; Goeschel, Christine A; Olsen, Kyle L; Pham, Julius C; Miller, Marlene R; Berenholtz, Sean M; Sexton, J Bryan; Marsteller, Jill A; Morlock, Laura L; Wu, Albert W; Loeb, Jerod M; Clancy, Carolyn M

    2009-01-01

    The movement to improve quality of care and patient safety has grown, but examples of measurable and sustained progress are rare. The slow progress made in health care contrasts with the success of aviation safety. After a tragic 1995 plane crash, the aviation industry and government created the Commercial Aviation Safety Team to reduce fatal accidents. This public-private partnership of safety officials and technical experts is responsible for the decreased average rate of fatal aviation accidents. We propose a similar partnership in the health care community to coordinate national efforts and move patient safety and quality forward.

  9. An epidemiological study on pattern of thoraco-abdominal injuries sustained in fatal road traffic accidents of Bangalore: Autopsy-based study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    N Bayapa Reddy

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: The statistical profile reflects a global estimate of 5.1 million deaths in 2000, which was due to injuries that accounted for 10% of deaths due to all causes. Out of this, a quarter of injury-related deaths occurred in the South-East Asian region. Road Traffic Accident (RTA is one among the top 5 causes of morbidity and mortality in South-East Asian countries. Most common cause of blunt abdominal trauma in India is road traffic accident followed by pedestrian accidents, abdominal blows, and fall from heights. Aims: To analyze the epidemiology and pattern of fatal thoraco-abdominal injuries in road traffic accidents. Materials and Methods: An autopsy-based cross-sectional study conducted. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select the study sample of 100 post-mortems of road traffic accident between November 2008 and May 2010 subjected to medico-legal autopsy at the department of Forensic Medicine, KIMS Hospital Bangalore. Results: The majority of the victims were aged 21 to 40 years, 50 (50.0%, most of the victims were male 92 (92.0%; and male/female ratio was 11.5:1. Commonest offending agents in heavy motor vehicles were 54 (54.0%. Bony cage sustained injuries were observed in 71; out of this, fractures of ribs were observed in 45 (63.3% victims, clavicle in 14 (19.7%, sternum was 6 (8.4%, and vertebrae 6 (8.4% of fatal road traffic accidents. Internal thoracic injuries were observed in 26 cases. Among internal thoracic injuries, lungs were the most commonly involved organ 24 (92.3% followed by the heart 2 (7.6%. Lung sustained more lacerations 19 (79.1% than contusions 5 (20.8%. Internal abdominal injuries were observed in 49 cases. In road traffic accidents, the most commonly injured abdominal organs were solid organs such as liver 16 (32.6% followed by spleen 9 (18.3%. Conclusions: Majority of the times in road traffic accidents, young and productive males were injured or lost their life. This study may help the

  10. Les accidents de la route : un problème mondial qui peut être abordé avec succès ! = Road accidents : worldwide a problem that can be tackled successfully !

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wegman, F.C.M. Holló, P. Lundebeye, S. Smith, G. & Werring, L.

    1996-01-01

    The present road safety situation is reviewed for Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan, and the developing countries. Every year, there are about 500,000 road accident fatalities worldwide. Although increasing traffic would lead to an increase in fatalities and injuries, in the absence of effective road

  11. Swedish REGULATORY APPROACH TO SAFETY Assessment AND SEVERE ACCIDENT MANAGEMENT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frid, W.; Sandervaag, O.

    1997-01-01

    The Swedish regulatory approach to safety assessment and severe accident management is briefly described. The safety assessment program, which focuses on prevention of incidents and accidents, has three main components: periodic safety reviews, probabilistic safety analysis, and analysis of postulated disturbances and accident progression sequences. Management and man-technology-organisation issues, as well as inspections, play a key role in safety assessment. Basis for severe accident management were established by the Government decisions in 1981 and 1986. By the end of 1988, the severe accident mitigation systems and emergency operating procedures were implemented at all Swedish reactors. The severe accident research has continued after 1988 for further verification of the protection provided by the systems and reduction of remaining uncertainties in risk dominant phenomena

  12. Gas-cooled reactor safety and accident analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1985-12-01

    The Specialists' Meeting on Gas-Cooled Reactor Safety and Accident Analysis was convened by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Oak Ridge on the invitation of the Department of Energy in Washington, USA. The meeting was hosted by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity to compare and discuss results of safety and accident analysis of gas-cooled reactors under development, construction or in operation, to review their lay-out, design, and their operational performance, and to identify areas in which additional research and development are needed. The meeting emphasized the high safety margins of gas-cooled reactors and gave particular attention to the inherent safety features of small reactor units. The meeting was subdivided into four technical sessions: Safety and Related Experience with Operating Gas-Cooled Reactors (4 papers); Risk and Safety Analysis (11 papers); Accident Analysis (9 papers); Miscellaneous Related Topics (5 papers). A separate abstract was prepared for each of these papers

  13. Tools for improving safety management in the Norwegian Fishing Fleet occupational accidents analysis period of 1998-2006.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aasjord, Halvard L

    2006-01-01

    Reporting of human accidents in the Norwegian Fishing Fleet has always been very difficult because there has been no tradition in making reports on all types of working accidents among fishermen, if the accident does not seem to be very serious or there is no economical incentive to report. Therefore reports are only written when the accidents are serious or if the fisherman is reported sick. Reports about an accident are sent to the insurance company, but another report should also be sent to the Norwegian Maritime Directorate (NMD). Comparing of data from one former insurance company and NMD shows that the real numbers of injuries or serious accidents among Norwegian fishermen could be up to two times more than the numbers reported to NMD. Special analyses of 1690 accidents from the so called PUS-database (NMD) for the period 1998-2002, show that the calculated risk was 23.6 accidents per 1000 man-years. This is quite a high risk level, and most of the accidents in the fishing fleet were rather serious. The calculated risks are highest for fishermen on board the deep sea fleet of trawlers (28.6 accidents per 1000 man-years) and also on the deep sea fleet of purse seiners (28.9 accidents per 1000 man-years). Fatal accidents over a longer period of 51.5 years from 1955 to 2006 are also roughly analysed. These data from SINTEF's own database show that the numbers of fatal accidents have been decreasing over this long period, except for the two periods 1980-84 and 1990-94 where we had some casualties with total losses of larger vessels with the loss of most of the crew, but also many others typical work accidents on smaller vessels. The total numbers of registered Norwegian fishermen and also the numbers of man-years have been drastically reduced over the 51.5 years from 1955 to 2006. The risks of fatal accidents have been very steady over time at a high level, although there has been a marked risk reduction since 1990-94. For the last 8.5-year period of January 1998

  14. Survival in fatal road crashes: body mass index, gender, and safety belt use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sivak, Michael; Schoettle, Brandon; Rupp, Jonathan

    2010-02-01

    This study evaluated the associations of body mass index (BMI), gender, and use of safety belts with the survival of drivers involved in fatal road crashes. The census data of all U.S. fatal crashes that did not involve pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists were examined for an 11-year period. If involved in a crash with one or more fatalities, the odds of female drivers being among the fatalities are 1.28 times higher than those of male drivers, and the odds of unbelted drivers being among the fatalities are 5.43 times higher than those of belted drivers. The relationship of survivability to BMI depends on the gender and safety belt use of the driver. For male drivers, increased BMI appears beneficial when safety belts are used but detrimental when not used. For belted female drivers, normal BMI is associated with the lowest odds of being killed, and both increased and decreased BMIs increase the odds. For unbelted female drivers, no reliable trends were present among the BMI categories.

  15. Bayesian data analysis of severe fatal accident risk in the oil chain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eckle, Petrissa; Burgherr, Peter

    2013-01-01

    We analyze the risk of severe fatal accidents causing five or more fatalities and for nine different activities covering the entire oil chain. Included are exploration and extraction, transport by different modes, refining and final end use in power plants, heating or gas stations. The risks are quantified separately for OECD and non-OECD countries and trends are calculated. Risk is analyzed by employing a Bayesian hierarchical model yielding analytical functions for both frequency (Poisson) and severity distributions (Generalized Pareto) as well as frequency trends. This approach addresses a key problem in risk estimation-namely the scarcity of data resulting in high uncertainties in particular for the risk of extreme events, where the risk is extrapolated beyond the historically most severe accidents. Bayesian data analysis allows the pooling of information from different data sets covering, for example, the different stages of the energy chains or different modes of transportation. In addition, it also inherently delivers a measure of uncertainty. This approach provides a framework, which comprehensively covers risk throughout the oil chain, allowing the allocation of risk in sustainability assessments. It also permits the progressive addition of new data to refine the risk estimates. Frequency, severity, and trends show substantial differences between the activities, emphasizing the need for detailed risk analysis. © 2012 Paul Scherrer Institut.

  16. Safety regulations regarding to accident monitoring and accident sampling at Russian NPPs with VVER type reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sharafutdinov, Rachet; Lankin, Michail; Kharitonova, Nataliya

    2014-01-01

    The paper describes a tendency by development of regulatory document requirements related to accident monitoring and accident sampling at Russia's NPPs. Lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident pointed at the importance and necessary to carry out an additional safety check at Russia's nuclear power plants in the preparedness for management of severe accidents at NPPs. Planned measures for improvement of severe accidents management include development and implementation of the accident instrumentation systems, providing, monitoring, management and storage of information in a severe accident conditions. The draft of Safety Guidelines <accident monitoring system of nuclear power plants with VVER reactors' prepared by Scientific and Engineering Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (SEC NRS) established the main criteria for accident monitoring instrumentation that can monitor relevant plant parameters in the reactor and inside containment during and after a severe accident in nuclear power plants. Development of these safety guidelines is in line with the recommendations of IAEA Action Plan on Nuclear Safety in response to the Fukushima Daiichi event and recommendations of the IAEA Nuclear Energy series Report <<Accident Monitoring Systems for Nuclear Power Plants' (Draft V 2.7). The paper presents the principles, which are used as the basis for selection of plant parameters for accident monitoring and for establishing of accident monitoring instrumentation. The recommendations to the accident sampling system capable to obtain the representative reactor coolant and containment air and fluid samples that support accurate analytical results for the parameters of interest are considered. The radiological and chemistry parameters to be monitored for primary coolant and sump and for containment air are specified. (author)

  17. Macro Data Analysis of Traffic Accidents in Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Annisa Jusuf

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a macro data analysis of Indonesian road accidents in the form of statistical data. Traffic accidents and their subsequent fatalities bring enormous social and economic consequences. A good understanding of the problem is expected to initiate major action toward the improvement of road and vehicle safety. One important milestone is the collection and analysis of road accident data. The results from this study portray the ‘tangled threads’ problem of traffic in Indonesia. The population number and number of vehicles have increased steadily, as has been accurately predicted by experts. Meanwhile, there is not enough infrastructure growth. Motorcycles are the main contributor to traffic accidents and fatalities due to their popularity as an effective vehicle to jump traffic jams. The ‘tangled threads’ need an extremely creative and comprehensive solution.

  18. Gasoline Prices and Their Relationship to Rising Motorcycle Fatalities, 1990–2007

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stimpson, Jim P.; Hilsenrath, Peter E.

    2009-01-01

    Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among young adults. Although automobile fatalities have declined in recent years, motorcycle fatalities are rapidly increasing. The purpose of our research was to quantify the relationship between changing fuel prices and motorcycle fatalities. Our findings suggest that people increasingly rely on motorcycles to reduce their fuel costs in response to rising gasoline prices. We estimate that use of motorcycles and scooters instead of 4-wheeled vehicles results in over 1500 additional motorcycle fatalities annually for each dollar increase in gas prices. Motorcycle safety should receive more attention as a leading public health issue. PMID:19696374

  19. Occupational safety of different industrial sectors in Khartoum State, Sudan. Part 1: Safety performance evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaki, Gehan R; El-Marakby, Fadia A; H Deign El-Nor, Yasser; Nofal, Faten H; Zakaria, Adel M

    2012-12-01

    Safety performance evaluation enables decision makers improve safety acts. In Sudan, accident records, statistics, and safety performance were not evaluated before maintenance of accident records became mandatory in 2005. This study aimed at evaluating and comparing safety performance by accident records among different cities and industrial sectors in Khartoum state, Sudan, during the period from 2005 to 2007. This was a retrospective study, the sample in which represented all industrial enterprises in Khartoum state employing 50 workers or more. All industrial accident records of the Ministry of Manpower and Health and those of different enterprises during the period from 2005 to 2007 were reviewed. The safety performance indicators used within this study were the frequency-severity index (FSI) and fatal and disabling accident frequency rates (DAFR). In Khartoum city, the FSI [0.10 (0.17)] was lower than that in Bahari [0.11 (0.21)] and Omdurman [0.84 (0.34)]. It was the maximum in the chemical sector [0.33 (0.64)] and minimum in the metallurgic sector [0.09 (0.19)]. The highest DAFR was observed in Omdurman [5.6 (3.5)] and in the chemical sector [2.5 (4.0)]. The fatal accident frequency rate in the mechanical and electrical engineering industry was the highest [0.0 (0.69)]. Male workers who were older, divorced, and had lower levels of education had the lowest safety performance indicators. The safety performance of the industrial enterprises in Khartoum city was the best. The safety performance in the chemical sector was the worst with regard to FSI and DAFR. The age, sex, and educational level of injured workers greatly affect safety performance.

  20. Safety culture and accident analysis-A socio-management approach based on organizational safety social capital

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao, Suman

    2007-01-01

    One of the biggest challenges for organizations in today's competitive business environment is to create and preserve a self-sustaining safety culture. Typically, Key drivers of safety culture in many organizations are regulation, audits, safety training, various types of employee exhortations to comply with safety norms, etc. However, less evident factors like networking relationships and social trust amongst employees, as also extended networking relationships and social trust of organizations with external stakeholders like government, suppliers, regulators, etc., which constitute the safety social capital in the Organization-seem to also influence the sustenance of organizational safety culture. Can erosion in safety social capital cause deterioration in safety culture and contribute to accidents? If so, how does it contribute? As existing accident analysis models do not provide answers to these questions, CAMSoC (Curtailing Accidents by Managing Social Capital), an accident analysis model, is proposed. As an illustration, five accidents: Bhopal (India), Hyatt Regency (USA), Tenerife (Canary Islands), Westray (Canada) and Exxon Valdez (USA) have been analyzed using CAMSoC. This limited cross-industry analysis provides two key socio-management insights: the biggest source of motivation that causes deviant behavior leading to accidents is 'Faulty Value Systems'. The second biggest source is 'Enforceable Trust'. From a management control perspective, deterioration in safety culture and resultant accidents is more due to the 'action controls' rather than explicit 'cultural controls'. Future research directions to enhance the model's utility through layering are addressed briefly

  1. Lessons learned from accidents in industrial irradiation facilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-01-01

    Use of ionizing radiation in medicine, industry and research for technical development continues to increase throughout the world. One application with a high growth rate is irradiation suing high energy gamma photons and electron beams. There are currently more than 160 gamma irradiation facilities and over 600 electron beam facilities in operation in almost all IAEA Member States. The most common uses of these facilities are to sterilize medical and pharmaceutical products, to preserve foodstuffs, to synthesize polymers and to eradicate insects. Although this industry has a good safety record, there is a potential for accidents with serious consequences to human health because of the high dose rates produced by these sources. Fatal accidents have occurred at installations in both developed and developing countries. Such accidents have prompted a review of several accidents, including five with fatalities, by a team of manufacturers, regulatory authorities and operating organizations. Having looked closely at the circumstances of each accident and the apparent deficiencies in design, safety and regulatory systems and personnel performance, the team made a number of recommendations on the ways in which the safety of irradiators can be improved. The findings of extensive research pertaining to the lessons that can be learned from irradiator accidents are presented. This publication is intended for manufacturers, regulatory authorities and operating organizations dealing with industrial irradiators. It was drafted by J.E. Glen, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, United States of America, and P. Zuniga-Bello, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Technologia, Mexico

  2. Risk of Fatal Cerebrovascular Accidents after External Beam Radiation Therapy for Early Stage Glottic Larynx Cancer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swisher-McClure, Samuel; Mitra, Nandita; Lin, Alexander; Ahn, Peter; Wan, Fei; O’Malley, Bert; Weinstein, Gregory S.; Bekelman, Justin E.

    2013-01-01

    Background This study compared the risk of fatal cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) in patients with early stage glottic larynx cancer receiving surgery or external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Methods and Materials Using a competing risks survival analysis, we compared the risk of death due to CVA among patients with early stage glottic larynx cancer receiving surgery or EBRT in the SEER database. Results The cumulative incidence of fatal CVA at 15 years was higher in patients receiving EBRT (2.8 %; 95% CI 2.3%–3.4%) compared to surgery (1.5 %; 95% CI 0.8 %–2.3%, p= 0.024). In multivariable competing risks regression models, EBRT remained associated with an increased risk of fatal CVA compared to surgery (adjusted HR 1.75; 95% CI 1.04–2.96, p= 0.037). Conclusion Treatment of early stage glottic larynx cancer with EBRT was associated with a small increase in the risk of late fatal CVA events relative to surgery. PMID:23595858

  3. Construction Project Administration and Management for Mitigating Work Zone Accidents and Fatalities: An Integrated Risk Management Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-10-01

    The goal of this research is to mitigate the risk of highway accidents (crashes) and fatalities in work zones. The approach of this research has been to address the mitigation of work zone crashes through the creation of a formal risk management mode...

  4. Can we reduce workplace fatalities by half?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koh, David Soo Quee

    2012-06-01

    Singapore, an island republic of over 5 million inhabitants, has 3.1 million workers. Most are employed in the service, finance and tourist/transport industry. Significant numbers work in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry. Following a series of construction and shipyard accidents with multiple deaths in 2004, the government announced its intention to reduce workplace fatalities from 4.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 by 2015. There was strong political will to achieve this target. The strategic approaches were to build workplace safety and health (WSH) capabilities; implement legislative changes with enforcement; promote benefits of WSH and recognize best practices, and enhance partnership with stakeholders. The anticipated outcomes were to reduce workplace fatality and injury rates; have WSH as an integral part of business; and establish a progressive and pervasive WSH culture. With these measures, the workplace fatality rate declined from 4.9/100,000 in 2004, to 2.2/100,000 in 2010. However, other confounding factors could also account for this decline, and have to be considered. The next target, announced by Singapore's Prime Minister in 2008, is to further reduce the workplace fatality rate to 1.8/100,000 by 2018, and to have "one of the best workplace safety records in the world".

  5. Can We Reduce Workplace Fatalities by Half?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Soo Quee Koh

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Singapore, an island republic of over 5 million inhabitants, has 3.1 million workers. Most are employed in the service, finance and tourist/transport industry. Significant numbers work in manufacturing, construction and heavy industry. Following a series of construction and shipyard accidents with multiple deaths in 2004, the government announced its intention to reduce workplace fatalities from 4.9 to 2.5 per 100,000 by 2015. There was strong political will to achieve this target. The strategic approaches were to build workplace safety and health (WSH capabilities; implement legislative changes with enforcement; promote benefits of WSH and recognize best practices, and enhance partnership with stakeholders. The anticipated outcomes were to reduce workplace fatality and injury rates; have WSH as an integral part of business; and establish a progressive and pervasive WSH culture. With these measures, the workplace fatality rate declined from 4.9/100,000 in 2004, to 2.2/100,000 in 2010. However, other confounding factors could also account for this decline, and have to be considered. The next target, announced by Singapore’s Prime Minister in 2008, is to further reduce the workplace fatality rate to 1.8/100,000 by 2018, and to have “one of the best workplace safety records in the world”.

  6. Safety culture and accident analysis-A socio-management approach based on organizational safety social capital

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rao, Suman [Risk Analyst (India)]. E-mail: sumanashokrao@yahoo.co.in

    2007-04-11

    One of the biggest challenges for organizations in today's competitive business environment is to create and preserve a self-sustaining safety culture. Typically, Key drivers of safety culture in many organizations are regulation, audits, safety training, various types of employee exhortations to comply with safety norms, etc. However, less evident factors like networking relationships and social trust amongst employees, as also extended networking relationships and social trust of organizations with external stakeholders like government, suppliers, regulators, etc., which constitute the safety social capital in the Organization-seem to also influence the sustenance of organizational safety culture. Can erosion in safety social capital cause deterioration in safety culture and contribute to accidents? If so, how does it contribute? As existing accident analysis models do not provide answers to these questions, CAMSoC (Curtailing Accidents by Managing Social Capital), an accident analysis model, is proposed. As an illustration, five accidents: Bhopal (India), Hyatt Regency (USA), Tenerife (Canary Islands), Westray (Canada) and Exxon Valdez (USA) have been analyzed using CAMSoC. This limited cross-industry analysis provides two key socio-management insights: the biggest source of motivation that causes deviant behavior leading to accidents is 'Faulty Value Systems'. The second biggest source is 'Enforceable Trust'. From a management control perspective, deterioration in safety culture and resultant accidents is more due to the 'action controls' rather than explicit 'cultural controls'. Future research directions to enhance the model's utility through layering are addressed briefly.

  7. Road safety effects of roundabouts: A meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elvik, Rune

    2017-02-01

    This paper presents a meta-analysis of the road safety effects of converting junctions to roundabouts. 44 studies containing a total of 154 estimates of effect were included. Based on a meta-regression analysis, converting junctions to roundabouts is associated with a reduction of fatal accidents of about 65% and a reduction of injury accidents of about 40%. The mean effect on property-damage-only accidents is ambiguous. Summary estimates of effect are robust for fatal and injury accidents, but vary depending on the model of meta-analysis and the treatment of outlying data points for property-damage-only accidents. A trim-and-fill analysis suggests a weak tendency for publication bias, with modest influence on summary estimates of effect. It is concluded that roundabouts are very effective in reducing traffic fatalities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Work-related injuries and fatalities in the geotechnical site works.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akboğa Kale, Özge; Eskişar, Tuğba

    2018-05-19

    Geotechnical site works are comprehensive, and they constitute the first step of the construction process. This study performs data mining of geotechnical works and analyzes the database for the root causes of accidents. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was chosen for the 1984-2013 time frame with 247 cases. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed to discuss variables such as the end use of the work, project type and cost, soil type and condition, type and degree of injury, cause and type of accident, unsafe acts, and occupation and union status of the victim. The results showed that these accidents have a high frequency of recurrence and have a high severity level (54.3% fatalities). In addition, a total of 838 violations were recorded with penalties reaching 5 million US dollars. This study emphasizes that project-specific countermeasures should be taken regarding the root causes of accidents, leading to vigorous strategies to develop safety measures.

  9. Diffuse vascular injury in fatal road traffic accident victims: its relationship to diffuse axonal injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pittella, José E H; Gusmão, Sebastião N S

    2003-05-01

    The authors have reported a macro- and microscopic study of brain lesions in 120 victims of fatal road traffic accidents, independent of the survival time. Diffuse vascular injury (DVI) was found in 14 patients (11.7%). All patients with DVI died within 24 h after the accident. The 14 patients with DVI also showed severe (Grade 2 or 3) diffuse axonal injury (DAI). Since DVI is restricted to road traffic accidents and incompatible with life, the high frequency observed in our series could be explained by the fact that all 120 patients were victims of road traffic accidents, and 69.2% had died within 24 h after the accident. The association between DVI and severe DAI (Grades 2 and 3) suggests that both lesions depend on the same mechanism, with the degree of axonal and vascular damage being determined by the intensity of the head acceleration. Our results show a relationship between DVI and DAI that suggest there may be a spectrum or at least a continuum between these entities as distinct from DVI being a separate entity.

  10. Accidents Preventive Practice for High-Rise Construction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Goh Kai Chen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The demand of high-rise projects continues to grow due to the reducing of usable land area in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The rapidly development of high-rise projects has leaded to the rise of fatalities and accidents. An accident that happened in a construction site can cause serious physical injury. The accidents such as people falling from height and struck by falling object were the most frequent accidents happened in Malaysian construction industry. The continuous growth of high-rise buildings indicates that there is a need of an effective safety and health management. Hence, this research aims to identify the causes of accidents and the ways to prevent accidents that occur at high-rise building construction site. Qualitative method was employed in this research. Interview surveying with safety officers who are involved in highrise building project in Kuala Lumpur were conducted in this research. Accidents were caused by man-made factors, environment factors or machinery factors. The accidents prevention methods were provide sufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPE, have a good housekeeping, execute safety inspection, provide safety training and execute accidents investigation. In the meanwhile, interviewees have suggested the new prevention methods that were develop a proper site layout planning and de-merit and merit system among sub-contractors, suppliers and even employees regarding safety at workplace matters. This research helps in explaining the causes of accidents and identifying area where prevention action should be implemented, so that workers and top management will increase awareness in preventing site accidents.

  11. Assessing injury severity in bicyclists involved in traffic accidents to more effectively prevent fatal bicycle injuries in Japan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gomei, Sayaka; Hitosugi, Masahito; Ikegami, Keiichi; Tokudome, Shogo

    2013-10-01

    The objective of this study was to clarify the relationship between injury severity in bicyclists involved in traffic accidents and patient outcome or type of vehicle involved in order to propose effective measures to prevent fatal bicycle injuries. Hospital records were reviewed for all patients from 2007 to 2010 who had been involved in a traffic accident while riding a bicycle and were subsequently transferred to the Shock Trauma Center of Dokkyo Medical University Koshigaya Hospital. Patient outcomes and type of vehicle that caused the injury were examined. The mechanism of injury, Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) score, and Injury Severity Score (ISS) of the patient were determined. A total of 115 patients' records were reviewed. The mean patient age was 47.1 ± 27.4 years. The average ISS was 23.9, with an average maximum AIS (MAIS) score of 3.7. The ISS, MAIS score, head AIS score, and chest AIS score were well correlated with patient outcome. The head AIS score was significantly higher in patients who had died (mean of 4.4); however, the ISS, MAIS score, and head AIS score did not differ significantly according to the type of vehicle involved in the accident. The mean head AIS scores were as high as 2.4 or more for accidents involving any type of vehicle. This study provides useful information for forensic pathologists who suspect head injuries in bicyclists involved in traffic accidents. To effectively reduce bicyclist fatalities from traffic accidents, helmet use should be required for all bicyclists.

  12. Preliminary safety analysis of the PWR with accident-tolerant fuels during severe accident conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, Xiaoli; Li, Wei; Wang, Yang; Zhang, Yapei; Tian, Wenxi; Su, Guanghui; Qiu, Suizheng; Liu, Tong; Deng, Yongjun; Huang, Heng

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Analysis of severe accident scenarios for a PWR fueled with ATF system is performed. • A large-break LOCA without ECCS is analyzed for the PWR fueled with ATF system. • Extended SBO cases are discussed for the PWR fueled with ATF system. • The accident-tolerance of ATF system for application in PWR is illustrated. - Abstract: Experience gained in decades of nuclear safety research and previous nuclear accidents direct to the investigation of passive safety system design and accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) system which is now becoming a hot research point in the nuclear energy field. The ATF system is aimed at upgrading safety characteristics of the nuclear fuel and cladding in a reactor core where active cooling has been lost, and is preferable or comparable to the current UO 2 –Zr system when the reactor is in normal operation. By virtue of advanced materials with improved properties, the ATF system will obviously slow down the progression of accidents, allowing wider margin of time for the mitigation measures to work. Specifically, the simulation and analysis of a large break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) without ECCS and extended station blackout (SBO) severe accident are performed for a pressurized water reactor (PWR) loaded with ATF candidates, to reflect the accident-tolerance of ATF

  13. Licensing decisions and safety research related to LMFBR accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Denise, R.P.; Speis, T.P.; Kelber, C.N.; Curtis, R.T.

    1977-01-01

    The licensing approach which ensures adequate protection of the public health and safety against serious accidents is described. This paper describes the role of core melt and core disruptive accidents in the design, safety research, and licensing processes, using the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) as a focal point. Major design attention is placed on the prevention of these accidents so that the probability of core melt accidents is reduced to a sufficiently low level that they are not treated as design basis accidents. Additional requirements are placed upon the design to further reduce residual risk. This licensing process is supported by a confirmatory research program designed to provide an independent basis for licensing judgements. It has as a goal the resolution of generic safety issues prior to the establishment of a commercial LMFBR industry. The program includes accident analysis, experiments in materials interactions, aerosol transport and system integrity and planning for new safety test facilities. The problems are approached in a multi-disciplinary functional manner that identifies key safety issues and centralizes efforts to resolve them. The near term objectives of the program support the licensing of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) and the proposed Prototype Large Breeder Reactor (PLBR). The long term objectives of the program support the licensing of commercial LMFBRs during the late 1980's and beyond. This safety research is designed to provide an independent basis for the licensing judgements which must be made by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

  14. Analysis of Child-related Road Traffic Accidents in Vietnam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vu, Anh Tuan; Nguyen, Dinh Vinh Man

    2018-04-01

    In recent years, the number of road traffic accidents, fatalities and injuries have been decreasing, but the figures of children road traffic accidents have been increasing in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam. This fact strongly calls for implementing effective solutions to improve traffic safety for children by the local government. This paper presents the trends, patterns and causes of road traffic accidents involving children based on the analysis of road traffic accident data over the period 2010-2015 and the video-based observations of road traffic law violations at 15 typical school gates and 10 typical roads. The results could be useful for the city government to formulate solutions to effectively improve traffic safety for children in Ho Chi Minh City and other cities in Vietnam.

  15. Occupational accidents in Russia and the Russian Arctic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dudarev, Alexey A; Karnachev, Igor P; Odland, Jon Øyvind

    2013-01-01

    According to official statistics, the rate of occupational accidents (OAs) and fatal injuries in Russia decreased about 5-fold and 2-fold, respectively, from 1975 to 2010, but working conditions during this period had the opposite trend; for example, the number of people who work in unfavourable and hazardous conditions (particularly since 1991) has increased significantly. This review summarises the results of a search of the relevant peer-reviewed literature published in Russia and official statistics on OAs and occupational safety in Russia and the Russian Arctic in 1980-2010. The occupational safety system in Russia has severely deteriorated in the last 2 decades, with legislators tending to promote the interests of industry and business, resulting in the neglect of occupational safety and violation of workers' rights. The majority of workers are employed in conditions that do not meet rules of safety and hygiene. More than 60% of OAs can be attributed to management practices--violation of safety regulations, poor organisation of work, deficiency of certified occupational safety specialists and inadequate personnel training. Research aimed at improving occupational safety and health is underfunded. There is evidence of widespread under-reporting of OAs, including fatal accidents. Three federal agencies are responsible for OAs recording; their data differ from each other as they use different methodologies. The rate of fatal OAs in Russia was 3-6 times higher than in Scandinavian countries and about 2 times higher compared to United States and Canada in 2001. In some Russian Arctic regions OAs levels are much higher. Urgent improvement of occupational health and safety across Russia, especially in the Arctic regions, is needed.

  16. Occupational accidents in Russia and the Russian Arctic

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexey A. Dudarev

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Background. According to official statistics, the rate of occupational accidents (OAs and fatal injuries in Russia decreased about 5-fold and 2-fold, respectively, from 1975 to 2010, but working conditions during this period had the opposite trend; for example, the number of people who work in unfavourable and hazardous conditions (particularly since 1991 has increased significantly. Methods. This review summarises the results of a search of the relevant peer-reviewed literature published in Russia and official statistics on OAs and occupational safety in Russia and the Russian Arctic in 1980–2010. Results. The occupational safety system in Russia has severely deteriorated in the last 2 decades, with legislators tending to promote the interests of industry and business, resulting in the neglect of occupational safety and violation of workers’ rights. The majority of workers are employed in conditions that do not meet rules of safety and hygiene. More than 60% of OAs can be attributed to management practices – violation of safety regulations, poor organisation of work, deficiency of certified occupational safety specialists and inadequate personnel training. Research aimed at improving occupational safety and health is underfunded. There is evidence of widespread under-reporting of OAs, including fatal accidents. Three federal agencies are responsible for OAs recording; their data differ from each other as they use different methodologies. The rate of fatal OAs in Russia was 3–6 times higher than in Scandinavian countries and about 2 times higher compared to United States and Canada in 2001. In some Russian Arctic regions OAs levels are much higher. Conclusions. Urgent improvement of occupational health and safety across Russia, especially in the Arctic regions, is needed.

  17. The Fukushima Daiichi Accident. Technical Volume 2/5. Safety Assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2015-08-01

    Technical Volume 1 of this report has described what happened during the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP). This volume begins (Section 2.1) with a review of how the design basis of the site for external events was assessed initially and then reassessed over the life of the NPP. The section also describes the physical changes that were made to the units as a result. The remainder of the volume describes the treatment of beyond design basis events in the safety assessment of the site, the accident management provisions, the effectiveness of regulatory programmes, human and organizational factors and the safety culture, and the role of operating experience. Further background information is contained in three annexes included on the CD-ROM of this Technical Volume which describe analytical investigations of the accident along with information on topics such as system performance, defence in depth and severe accident phenomena. Section 2.2 provides an assessment of the systems that failed, resulting in a failure to maintain the fundamental safety functions in Units 1–3, which were in operation at the time of the tsunami and in which the reactor pressure vessels (RPV) and containment vessels failed. The section also describes Units 4-6, which were shut down at the time of the tsunami, and the site’s central spent fuel storage facility. Section 2.3 discusses the probabilistic and deterministic safety assessments of beyond design basis accidents (BDBAs) that had been performed for the plant and the insights from these assessments that had led to changes in the plant’s design. The section pays particular attention to the assessment of extreme natural hazards, such as the one which led to the total loss of AC power supply on the site. The additional loss of DC power supply in Units 1 and 2 played a key role in the progression of the accident because it impeded the diagnosis of plant conditions and made the operators unaware of the status of

  18. Safety analysis of accident localization system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    A complex safety analysis of accident localization system of Ignalina NPP was performed. Calculation results obtained, results of non-destruct ing testing and experimental data of reinforced concrete testing of buildings does not revealed deficiencies of buildings of accident localization system at unit 1 of Ignalina NPP. Calculations were performed using codes NEPTUNE, ALGOR, CONTAIN

  19. An analysis of the traffic safety phenomenon.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Asmussen, E. & Kranenburg, A.

    1982-01-01

    The lack of traffic safety is a combination of the critical coincidence of circumstances in the traffic of incidents (near-accidents) and accidents with unwanted (permanent) consequences, such as fatalities, injured and disabled persons and material damage. This definition covers the whole of the

  20. Investigating the Safety Culture and Costs Arising from Safety Non-Compliance on Building Sites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir Ahmad Hedayat

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available In addition to the positive effects of industrial development and technological progress, it also has adverse side effects such as increasing the quantity and quality of working and living environment pollution. Work-related accidents and occupational diseases are the consequences of the development of industry and technology and they increasingly threaten human life, especially the staff. Work-related Accidents are accidents that occur in the line of duty in the workplace and lead to fatal or non-fatal injuries. Although many activities have been done to reduce work-related, or in other words occupational accidents, the accident statistics is still high, in a way that The World Health Organization considered that as an epidemic in the area of public health, and considered that as a critical risk factor for health, economic and social issues. This paper deals with safety culture, costs arising from accidents and how to cope with the work-related accidents.

  1. The accident analysis of mobile mine machinery in Indian opencast coal mines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, R; Ghosh, A K

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents the analysis of large mining machinery related accidents in Indian opencast coal mines. The trends of coal production, share of mining methods in production, machinery deployment in open cast mines, size and population of machinery, accidents due to machinery, types and causes of accidents have been analysed from the year 1995 to 2008. The scrutiny of accidents during this period reveals that most of the responsible factors are machine reversal, haul road design, human fault, operator's fault, machine fault, visibility and dump design. Considering the types of machines, namely, dumpers, excavators, dozers and loaders together the maximum number of fatal accidents has been caused by operator's faults and human faults jointly during the period from 1995 to 2008. The novel finding of this analysis is that large machines with state-of-the-art safety system did not reduce the fatal accidents in Indian opencast coal mines.

  2. Risk of fatal cerebrovascular accidents after external beam radiation therapy for early-stage glottic laryngeal cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swisher-McClure, Samuel; Mitra, Nandita; Lin, Alexander; Ahn, Peter; Wan, Fei; O'Malley, Bert; Weinstein, Gregory S; Bekelman, Justin E

    2014-05-01

    This study compared the risk of fatal cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs) in patients with early-stage glottic laryngeal cancer receiving surgery or external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). Using a competing risks survival analysis, we compared the risk of death because of CVA among patients with early-stage glottic laryngeal cancer receiving surgery or EBRT in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The cumulative incidence of fatal CVA at 15 years was higher in patients receiving EBRT (2.8%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.3% to 3.4%) compared to surgery (1.5%; 95% CI, 0.8% to 2.3%; p = .024). In multivariable competing risks regression models, EBRT remained associated with an increased risk of fatal CVA compared to surgery (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.75; 95% CI, 1.04-2.96; p = .037). Treatment for early-stage glottic laryngeal cancer with EBRT was associated with a small increase in the risk of late fatal CVA events relative to surgery. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  3. Angra-1 probabilistic safety study-phase B

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fernandes Filho, T.L.; Gibelli, S.M.O.

    1988-05-01

    This study represents the Phase B of the Angra-1 Probabilistic Safety Study and is the the final report prepared for the IAEA under Research Contract No. 3423/R2/RB. The three main items covered in this report are the establishment of interim safety goals, analysis of Angra-1 operational experience and development of emergency procedures to address severe accidents. For establishment of interim safety goals a methodology for calculating consequences and risks associated to the Angra-1 operation was developed based on the available data and codes. The proposed safety goals refer to the individual risk of early fatality for people living in the vicinity of the plant, colective risk of cancer fatalities for people living near the plant, the propobability of core melt occurrence and the probability of dominant accident sequences. (author) [pt

  4. The Role of Seat Belt in the Prevention of Fatalities and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Background Road traffic crashes still remain a prominent cause of death worldwide but proper use of safety belts can prevent death in some of these accidents. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the role of seat beltuse I violation in Rivers State, Nigeria and to determine its relationship with fatality of road traffic ...

  5. An approach to maintenance optimization where safety issues are important

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vatn, Jorn; Aven, Terje

    2010-01-01

    The starting point for this paper is a traditional approach to maintenance optimization where an object function is used for optimizing maintenance intervals. The object function reflects maintenance cost, cost of loss of production/services, as well as safety costs, and is based on a classical cost-benefit analysis approach where a value of prevented fatality (VPF) is used to weight the importance of safety. However, the rationale for such an approach could be questioned. What is the meaning of such a VPF figure, and is it sufficient to reflect the importance of safety by calculating the expected fatality loss VPF and potential loss of lives (PLL) as being done in the cost-benefit analyses? Should the VPF be the same number for all type of accidents, or should it be increased in case of multiple fatality accidents to reflect gross accident aversion? In this paper, these issues are discussed. We conclude that we have to see beyond the expected values in situations with high safety impacts. A framework is presented which opens up for a broader decision basis, covering considerations on the potential for gross accidents, the type of uncertainties and lack of knowledge of important risk influencing factors. Decisions with a high safety impact are moved from the maintenance department to the 'Safety Board' for a broader discussion. In this way, we avoid that the object function is used in a mechanical way to optimize the maintenance and important safety-related decisions are made implicit and outside the normal arena for safety decisions, e.g. outside the traditional 'Safety Board'. A case study from the Norwegian railways is used to illustrate the discussions.

  6. An approach to maintenance optimization where safety issues are important

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vatn, Jorn, E-mail: jorn.vatn@ntnu.n [NTNU, Production and Quality Engineering, 7491 Trondheim (Norway); Aven, Terje [University of Stavanger (Norway)

    2010-01-15

    The starting point for this paper is a traditional approach to maintenance optimization where an object function is used for optimizing maintenance intervals. The object function reflects maintenance cost, cost of loss of production/services, as well as safety costs, and is based on a classical cost-benefit analysis approach where a value of prevented fatality (VPF) is used to weight the importance of safety. However, the rationale for such an approach could be questioned. What is the meaning of such a VPF figure, and is it sufficient to reflect the importance of safety by calculating the expected fatality loss VPF and potential loss of lives (PLL) as being done in the cost-benefit analyses? Should the VPF be the same number for all type of accidents, or should it be increased in case of multiple fatality accidents to reflect gross accident aversion? In this paper, these issues are discussed. We conclude that we have to see beyond the expected values in situations with high safety impacts. A framework is presented which opens up for a broader decision basis, covering considerations on the potential for gross accidents, the type of uncertainties and lack of knowledge of important risk influencing factors. Decisions with a high safety impact are moved from the maintenance department to the 'Safety Board' for a broader discussion. In this way, we avoid that the object function is used in a mechanical way to optimize the maintenance and important safety-related decisions are made implicit and outside the normal arena for safety decisions, e.g. outside the traditional 'Safety Board'. A case study from the Norwegian railways is used to illustrate the discussions.

  7. The prevalence of alcohol and psychotropic drugs in fatalities of road-traffic accidents in Jordan during 2008-2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Abdallat, Imad M; Al Ali, Rayyan; Hudaib, Arwa A; Salameh, Ghada A M; Salameh, Rakiz J M; Idhair, Ahmed K F

    2016-04-01

    Several studies confirmed alcohol and psychotropic drug consumption as important risk factors underlying fatal accidents. This paper presents updated toxicological findings in the fatalities of road traffic accidents of Amman district, in order to have an overall picture of the occurrence of these substances in these victims in Jordan. Over a seven-year period (2008-2014), 2743, autopsies were conducted at Jordan University Hospital in which the sum of n = 311 (11.38%) were victims of road traffic accidents. Blood samples from these victims were collected. Toxicology screening for psychotropic drugs and alcohol was conducted on these samples, and the results were analyzed according to age, sex and victim's status. This study revealed that Alcohol and psychotropic drugs were positive in 36.5%, (n = 58) of the cases, and for alcohol alone (n = 13, 37.1%). The majority of the victims were pedestrians (n = 155, 49.8%). Additionally, 29.6% (n = 92) of the cases were of ages 19-29. Detected psychotropic drugs were benzodiazepines, barbiturates. None of the collected specimens were positive for illicit cocaine, amphetamines or cannabis. The results from this study proved the existence of alcohol and psychotropic drugs in the victims of road traffic accidents; Indicating an association between the uses of these substances in accident involvement. Though having some limitations, other conclusions require further data collection, cooperation with related parties in Jordan, and utilizing simple extended toxicological screens. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine. All rights reserved.

  8. Implications of Functional Capacity Loss and Fatality for Vehicle Safety Prioritization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMurry, Timothy L; Sherwood, Chris; Poplin, Gerald S; Seguí-Gómez, María; Crandall, Jeff

    2015-01-01

    We investigate the use of the Functional Capacity Index (FCI) as a tool for establishing vehicle safety priorities by comparing the life year burden of injuries to the burden of fatality in frontal and side automotive crashes. We demonstrate FCI's utility by investigating in detail the resulting disabling injuries and their life year costs. We selected occupants in the 2000-2013 NASS-CDS database involved in frontal and side crashes, merged their injuries with FCI, and then used the merged data to estimate each occupant's overall functional loss. Lifetime functional loss was assessed by combining this measure of impairment with the occupants' expected future life spans, estimated from the Social Security Administration's Actuarial Life Table. Frontal crashes produce a large number of disabling injuries, particularly to the lower extremities. In our population, these crashes are estimated to account for approximately 400,000 life years lost to disability in comparison with 500,000 life years lost to fatality. Victims of side crashes experienced a higher rate of fatality but a significantly lower rate of disabling injury (0.3 vs. 1.0%), resulting in approximately 370,000 life years lost to fatality versus 50,000 life years lost to disability. The burden of disabling injuries to car crash survivors should be considered when setting vehicle safety design priorities. In frontal crashes this burden in life years is similar to the burden attributable to fatality.

  9. Industrial safety management with emphasis on construction safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bhattacharya, R.

    2016-01-01

    Safety professionals, line managers, team leaders and concerned workers today eagerly discuss to find out the best safety approach for their workplace. Some research suggested that behaviour based and comprehensive ergonomics approaches lead in average reduction of injuries. This article discusses 'the science and engineering' behind improvement in industrial safety aspects particularly at construction sites through various safety approaches. A high degree of commitment to safety by the project management and rigorous and proactive measures are essential to prevent accidents at construction sites particularly in DAE units because of its sensitivity. Persistent efforts by the project management are needed for sustainable and committed safety at work place. The number of fatalities occurring from construction work in DAE units is sometimes disturbing and fall of person from height and through openings are the major causes for serious accidents

  10. Prevention of "simple accidents at work" with major consequences

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørgensen, Kirsten

    2016-01-01

    broadly. This review identifies gaps in the prevention of simple accidents, relating to safety barriers for risk control and the management processes that need to be in place to deliver those risk controls in a continuingly effective state. The article introduces the ‘‘INFO cards’’ as a tool......The concept ‘‘simple accidents’’ is understood as traumatic events with one victim. In the last 10 years many European countries have seen a decline in the number of fatalities, but there still remain many severe accidents at work. In the years 2009–2010 in European countries 2.0–2.4 million...... occupational accidents a year were notified leading to 4500 fatalities and 90,000 permanent disabilities each year. The article looks at the concept ‘‘accident’’ to find similarities and distinctions between major and simple accident characteristics. The purpose is to find to what extent the same kinds...

  11. Safety assurance logic techniques for evaluation of accident prevention and mitigation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McWethy, L.M.; Hagan, J.W.

    1976-01-01

    Safety assurance methods have been developed and applied in reactor safety assessments of FFTF. These methods promote visibility of the total safety provided by the plant, both in prevention of off-normal or accident conditions as well as provision of various features which terminate conditions within acceptable bounds if such conditions should occur. One of the primary techniques applied in safety assurance is the development of safety assurance diagrams. These diagrams explicitly identify the multiple lines of defense which prevent accident progression. The diagrams graphically demonstrate the defense-in-depth provided by the plant for each postulated occurrence. Lines of defense are shown against ever having an occurrence in the first place; thus giving appropriate emphasis on accident prevention, and visibility to the designer's role in promoting this level of safety. These diagrams, or accident process trees, also show graphically the various paths of postulated accident progression to their logical termination. Evaluation of the importance and strength of each line-of-defense assures fulfillment of the safety objectives of the overall plant system

  12. Independent accident investigation: a modern safety tool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stoop, John A.

    2004-01-01

    Historically, safety has been subjected to a fragmented approach. In the past, every department has had its own responsibility towards safety, focusing either on working conditions, internal safety, external safety, rescue and emergency, public order or security. They each issued policy documents, which in their time were leading statements for elaboration and regulation. They also addressed safety issues with tools of various nature, often specifically developed within their domain. Due to a series of major accidents and disasters, the focus of attention is shifting from complying with quantitative risk standards towards intervention in primary operational processes, coping with systemic deficiencies and a more integrated assessment of safety in its societal context. In The Netherlands recognition of the importance of independent investigations has led to an expansion of this philosophy from the transport sector to other sectors. The philosophy now covers transport, industry, defense, natural disaster, environment and health and other major occurrences such as explosions, fires, and collapse of buildings or structures. In 2003 a multi-sector covering law will establish an independent safety board in The Netherlands. At a European level, mandatory investigation agencies are recognized as indispensable safety instruments for aviation, railways and the maritime sector, for which EU Directives are in place or being progressed [Transport accident and incident investigation in the European Union, European Transport Safety Council, ISBN 90-76024-10-3, Brussel, 2001]. Due to a series of major events, attention has been drawn to the consequences of disasters, highlighting the involvement of rescue and emergency services. They also have become subjected to investigative efforts, which in return, puts demands on investigation methodology. This paper comments on an evolutionary development in safety thinking and of safety boards, highlighting some consequences for strategic

  13. Analysis of Two Electrocution Accidents in Greece that Occurred due to Unexpected Re-energization of Power Lines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aikaterini D. Baka

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Investigation and analysis of accidents are critical elements of safety management. The over-riding purpose of an organization in carrying out an accident investigation is to prevent similar accidents, as well as seek a general improvement in the management of health and safety. Hundreds of workers have suffered injuries while installing, maintaining, or servicing machinery and equipment due to sudden re-energization of power lines. This study presents and analyzes two electrical accidents (1 fatal injury and 1 serious injury that occurred because the power supply was reconnected inadvertently or by mistake.

  14. Analysis of Two Electrocution Accidents in Greece that Occurred due to Unexpected Re-energization of Power Lines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baka, Aikaterini D; Uzunoglu, Nikolaos K

    2014-09-01

    Investigation and analysis of accidents are critical elements of safety management. The over-riding purpose of an organization in carrying out an accident investigation is to prevent similar accidents, as well as seek a general improvement in the management of health and safety. Hundreds of workers have suffered injuries while installing, maintaining, or servicing machinery and equipment due to sudden re-energization of power lines. This study presents and analyzes two electrical accidents (1 fatal injury and 1 serious injury) that occurred because the power supply was reconnected inadvertently or by mistake.

  15. Safety culture and the accident at Three Mile Island

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Erp, Jan B. van

    2002-01-01

    Prior to the accident at Three Mile Island, little attention was being paid to the human role in the safe operation of civilian nuclear power plants. The investigation of the TMI accident showed that its root causes were primarily human-related. The Kemeny Report on the TMI accident does not use the term 'safety culture'; however, it fully identifies all relevant aspects of safety culture. It was only after the accident at Chernobyl that the term 'safety culture' came into widespread use. However, it should be noted that, during the years after TMI and before Chernobyl, already major changes had been instituted concerning human factors and human reliability in the civilian nuclear energy programs of many countries. Greater credit should be given to the remarkable insights developed by the Kemeny Commission as contained in the Kemeny Report. (author)

  16. Review of Regulatory Emphasis on Transportation Safety in the United States, 2002-2009: Public versus Private Modes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waycaster, Garrett C; Matsumura, Taiki; Bilotkach, Volodymyr; Haftka, Raphael T; Kim, Nam H

    2018-05-01

    The U.S. Department of Transportation is responsible for implementing new safety improvements and regulations with the goal of ensuring limited funds are distributed to where they can have the greatest impact on safety. In this work, we conduct a study of new regulations and other reactions (such as recalls) to fatal accidents in several different modes of transportation implemented from 2002 to 2009. We find that in the safest modes of commercial aviation and bus transport, the amount of spending on new regulations is high in relation to the number of fatalities compared to the regulatory attention received by less safe modes of general aviation and private automobiles. Additionally, we study two major fatal accident investigations from commercial aviation and two major automotive recalls associated with fatal accidents. We find differences in the cost per expected fatality prevented for these reactions, with the airline accident investigations being more cost effective. Overall, we observe trends in both the automotive and aviation sectors that suggest that public transportation receives more regulatory attention than private transport. We also observe that the types of safety remedies utilized, regulation versus investigation, have varying levels of effectiveness in different transport modes. We suggest that these differences are indicative of increased public demand for safety in modes where a third party may be held responsible, even for those not participating in the transportation. These findings have important implications for the transportation industry, policymakers, and for estimating the public demand for safety in new transport modes. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

  17. Occupational injury and fatality investigations: the application of forensic nursing science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris, Colin

    2013-01-01

    The forensic evaluation of trauma in occupational injuries and fatalities can provide the benefit of a more thorough analysis of incident causation. Forensic nursing science applied during workplace investigations can assist investigators to determine otherwise unknown crucial aspects of the incident circumstances that are important to event reconstruction, the enforcement of occupational health and safety requirements, and the direction of workplace prevention initiatives. Currently, a medical and forensic medical knowledge gap exists in the subject-matter expertise associated with occupational accident investigations. This gap can be bridged with the integration of forensic nursing in the investigation of workplace fatalities and serious injuries.

  18. ROAD ACCIDENT AND SAFETY STUDY IN SYLHET REGION OF BANGLADESH

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    B. K. BANIK

    2011-08-01

    Full Text Available Roads, highways and streets are fundamental infrastructure facilities to provide the transportation for passenger travel and goods movement from one place to another in Sylhet, north–eastern division of Bangladesh with rapid growth of road vehicle, being comparatively developed economic tourist prone area faces severe road traffic accident. Such severe road accidents cause harsh safety hazards on the roads of Sylhet area. This research work presents an overview of the road traffic accident and degraded road safety situation in Sylhet zone which in particular, discusses the key road accident problem characteristics identifying the hazardous roads and spots, most responsible vehicles and related components, conditions of drivers and pedestrians, most victims of accident, effects of accident on society, safety priorities and options available in Sylhet. In this regard, a comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted on the concerned groups of transportation and detailed accident data was collected from a popular local newspaper. Analysis of the study reveals that Dhaka- Sylhet highway is the most hazardous in road basis and Sylhet Sador thana is the most vulnerable in thana basis in Sylhet region.

  19. National and regional analysis of road accidents in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tolón-Becerra, A; Lastra-Bravo, X; Flores-Parra, I

    2013-01-01

    In Spain, the absolute fatality figures decreased almost 50 percent between 1998 and 2009. Despite this great effort, road mortality is still of great concern to political authorities. Further progress requires efficient road safety policy based on an optimal set of measures and targets that consider the initial conditions and characteristics in each region. This study attempts to analyze road accidents in Spain and its provinces in time and space during 1998-2009. First, we analyzed daily, monthly, and nationwide (NUTS 0) development of road accidents, the correlation between logarithmic transformations of road accidents and territorial and socioeconomic variables, the causality by simple linear regression of road accidents and territorial and socioeconomic variables, and preliminary frequency by fast Fourier transform. Then we analyzed the annual trend in accidents in the Spanish provinces (NUTS 3) and found a correlation between the logarithmic transformations of the mortality rate, fatalities per fatal accident, and accidents resulting in injuries per inhabitant variables and population, population density, gross domestic product (GDP), length of road network, and area. Finally, causality was analyzed by simple linear regression. The most outstanding results were the negative correlation between mortality rate and population density in Spanish provinces, which has increased over time, and that road accidents in Spain have an approximate periodicity of 57 days. The fast Fourier transform analysis of road accident frequency in Spain was useful in identifying the periodic, harmonic components of accidents and casualties. The periodicity observed both for the period 1998-2009 and by year showed that the highest intensity in road accidents was bimonthly, despite the lower number of accidents and casualties in the spectra of amplitude and power and efforts to reduce the intensity and concentration during off-season travel (summer and December).

  20. Safety concerns related to modular/prefabricated building construction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fard, Maryam Mirhadi; Terouhid, Seyyed Amin; Kibert, Charles J; Hakim, Hamed

    2017-03-01

    The US construction industry annually experiences a relatively high rate of fatalities and injuries; therefore, improving safety practices should be considered a top priority for this industry. Modular/prefabricated building construction is a construction strategy that involves manufacturing of the whole building or some of its components off-site. This research focuses on the safety performance of the modular/prefabricated building construction sector during both manufacturing and on-site processes. This safety evaluation can serve as the starting point for improving the safety performance of this sector. Research was conducted based on Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated accidents. The study found 125 accidents related to modular/prefabricated building construction. The details of each accident were closely examined to identify the types of injury and underlying causes. Out of 125 accidents, there were 48 fatalities (38.4%), 63 hospitalized injuries (50.4%), and 14 non-hospitalized injuries (11.2%). It was found that, the most common type of injury in modular/prefabricated construction was 'fracture', and the most common cause of accidents was 'fall'. The most frequent cause of cause (underlying and root cause) was 'unstable structure'. In this research, the accidents were also examined in terms of corresponding location, occupation, equipment as well as activities during which the accidents occurred. For improving safety records of the modular/prefabricated construction sector, this study recommends that future research be conducted on stabilizing structures during their lifting, storing, and permanent installation, securing fall protection systems during on-site assembly of components while working from heights, and developing training programmes and standards focused on modular/prefabricated construction.

  1. Safety analysis results for cryostat ingress accidents in ITER

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Merrill, B.J.; Cadwallader, L.C.; Petti, D.A.

    1996-01-01

    Accidents involving the ingress of air or water into the cryostat of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) tokamak design have been analyzed with a modified version of the MELCOR code for the ITER Non-site Specific Safety Report (NSSR-1). The air ingress accident is the result of a postulated breach of the cryostat boundary into an adjoining room. MELCOR results for this accident demonstrate that the condensed air mass and increased heat loads are not a magnet safety concern, but that the partial vacuum in the adjoining room must be accommodated in the building design. The water ingress accident is the result of a postulated magnet arc that results in melting of a Primary Heat Transport System (PHTS) coolant pipe, discharging PHTS water and PHTS water activated corrosion products and HTO into the cryostat. MELCOR results for this accident demonstrate that the condensed water mass and increased heat loads are not a magnet safety concern, that the cryostat pressure remains below design limits, and that the corrosion product and HTO releases are well within the ITER release limits

  2. Circuit board accident--organizational dimension hidden by prescribed safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Almeida, Ildeberto Muniz; Buoso, Eduardo; do Amaral Dias, Maria Dionísia; Vilela, Rodolfo Andrade Gouveia

    2012-01-01

    This study analyzes an accident in which two maintenance workers suffered severe burns while replacing a circuit breaker panel in a steel mill, following model of analysis and prevention of accidents (MAPA) developed with the objective of enlarging the perimeter of interventions and contributing to deconstruction of blame attribution practices. The study was based on materials produced by a health service team in an in-depth analysis of the accident. The analysis shows that decisions related to system modernization were taken without considering their implications in maintenance scheduling and creating conflicts of priorities and of interests between production and safety; and also reveals that the lack of a systemic perspective in safety management was its principal failure. To explain the accident as merely non-fulfillment of idealized formal safety rules feeds practices of blame attribution supported by alibi norms and inhibits possible prevention. In contrast, accident analyses undertaken in worker health surveillance services show potential to reveal origins of these events incubated in the history of the system ignored in practices guided by the traditional paradigm.

  3. Safety enhancement efforts after Fukushima accident in Korea

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, U.C., E-mail: uclee@nssc.go.kr [Nuclear Safety & Security Commission, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-07-01

    On March 11 of 2011, a massive earthquake and powerful tsunami hit the north-eastern region of Japan and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was massively damaged. Korea which is located closest to Japan was not directly affected, however, its people were shocked. They were concerned over the possibility of being exposed to radiation as well as for the safety of domestic nuclear power plants. The Korean government recognized the need to take prompt and immediate actions to alleviate these concerns. The Korean government immediately implemented special safety inspection and derived 50 long and short-term improvement action items to ensure safety of NPPs under extreme hazard conditions. At present, stage 3 of implementation strategy is being implemented, with completion of 22 items including ASTS (Automatic Seismic Trip System) as well as revision of 14 items including suitability review of action measures taken for investigation and research of maximum earthquake at NPP sites. The IAEA Integrated Regulatory Review Service (IRRS) mission was conducted for two weeks during July 10 and 22, 2011, which happened to be the very first review mission to be carried out since the Fukushima disaster. A module on the policy issues related to the actions taken after the Fukushima accident was newly added to the mission. The mission highlighted positive aspects of Korea's safety regulatory program, praising its technical competence and effectiveness. Additionally it concluded that Korea has been responding to the accident in a timely and an effective manner. The follow-up review mission is scheduled in December of this year, expanding the scope to include radiation safety as well. The most noteworthy change in Korea since the Fukushima accident is independence of the regulatory body. Not only to enhance effectiveness and independence of the regulatory body but to secure nuclear safety, the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) was established on October 26

  4. Data on the determinants of the risk of fatalities, serious injuries and light injuries in traffic accidents on interurban roads in Spain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    González, María Pilar Sánchez; Sotos, Francisco Escribano; Ponce, Ángel Tejada

    2018-06-01

    This article describes the data collection used to analyse the risk of fatalities and injuries resulting from traffic accidents on interurban roads in the provinces of Spain from 1999 to 2015. The database includes data on different factors related to accidents rates for each Spanish province. These data were used in the article entitled "Impact of provincial characteristics on the number of traffic accident victims on interurban roads in Spain" (Sánchez et al., 2018) [1].

  5. A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF PATTERN OF FATAL HEAD INJURY IN HELMETED AND NONHELMETED VICTIMS OF TWO WHEELER ACCIDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    P. A. Sheeju

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND Motor vehicle crashes are a major cause of fatality all over the world. By 2020, motor vehicle injury is projected to become the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease in the world. Motor cyclists are about 25 times more likely than car occupants to die in Road Traffic Accidents. Data on the incidence and types of crashes is required to guide safety policy. Knowledge of how injuries are caused and of what type they are of valuable instrument for identifying interventions and monitoring the effectiveness of intervention. The present study was done to find out the factors that contribute for motor cycle crashes and to study the injury pattern seen in helmeted and non-helmeted victims. MATERIAL AND METHODS Victims of two wheeler accidents brought for autopsy in a Govt. Medical College were studied from October 2010 to August 2011. Two wheelers include motor cycles, scooters and mopeds. Bicycles were excluded from the study. Accidents include all types; against all types of vehicles running on the road, collision with any object, surface or any animal or fall from vehicle. The details of the accident were collected in a printed proforma from relative/witnesses and from police officials. The injuries were entered in the specific columns of proforma. Data was analysed with MS Excel. RESULTS Death due to head injury is more in non-helmeted (52.5% compared to helmeted drivers (43.8 % whereas injury to chest and abdomen and limbs are more in helmeted. Combination of injuries (Head+Chest+Abdomen predominated in helmeted drivers (18.8% compared to 5% in non-helmeted drivers. Spinal injuries were more in helmeted than in non-helmeted. CONCLUSION The pattern of head injury was analysed in detail in helmeted and non-helmeted drivers. This will help in detailing of pattern of head injury in both groups.

  6. Nuclear Reactor RA Safety Report, Vol. 13, Causes of possible accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-11-01

    This volume includes the analysis of possible accidents on the RA research reaktor. Any unwanted action causing decrease of integrity of any of the reactor safety barriers is considered to be a reactor accident. Safety barriers are: fuel element cladding, reactor vessel, biogical shield, and reactor building. Reactor accidents can be classified in four categories: (1) accidents caused by reactivity changes; (2) accidents caused by mis function of the cooling system; (3) accidents caused by errors in fuel management and auxiliary systems; (4) accidents caused by natural or other external disasters. The analysis of possible causes of reactor accidents includes the analysis of possible impacts on the reactor itself and the environment [sr

  7. The Fukushima nuclear accident: insights on the safety aspects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Thome, Zieli D.; Vellozo, Sergio O., E-mail: zielithome@gmail.com, E-mail: vellozo@cbpf.br [Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Secao de Engenharia Nuclear; Gomes, Rogerio S., E-mail: rogeriog@cnen.gov.br [Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Silva, Fernando C., E-mail: fernando@con.ufrj.br [Coordenacao do Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia (COPPE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)

    2013-07-01

    The Fukushima nuclear accident has generated doubts and questions which need to be properly understood and addressed. This scientific attitude became necessary to allow the use of the nuclear technology for electricity generation around the world. The nuclear stakeholders are working to obtain these technical answers for the Fukushima questions. We believe that, such challenges will be, certainly, implemented in the next reactor generation, following the technological evolution. The purpose of this work is to perform a critical analysis of the Fukushima nuclear accident, focusing at the common cause failures produced by tsunami, as well as an analysis of the main redundant systems. This work also assesses the mitigative procedures and the subsequent consequences of such actions, which gave results below expectations to avoid the progression of the accident, discussing the concept of sharing of structures, systems and components at multi-unit nuclear power plants, and its eventual inappropriate use in safety-related devices which can compromise the nuclear safety, as well as its consequent impact on the Fukushima accident scenario. The lessons from Fukushima must be better learned, aiming the development of new procedures and new safety systems. Thus, the nuclear technology could reach a higher evolution level in its safety requirements. This knowledge will establish a conceptual milestone in the safety system design, becoming necessary the review of the current acceptance criteria of safety-related systems. (author)

  8. The Fukushima nuclear accident: insights on the safety aspects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thome, Zieli D.; Vellozo, Sergio O.; Silva, Fernando C.

    2013-01-01

    The Fukushima nuclear accident has generated doubts and questions which need to be properly understood and addressed. This scientific attitude became necessary to allow the use of the nuclear technology for electricity generation around the world. The nuclear stakeholders are working to obtain these technical answers for the Fukushima questions. We believe that, such challenges will be, certainly, implemented in the next reactor generation, following the technological evolution. The purpose of this work is to perform a critical analysis of the Fukushima nuclear accident, focusing at the common cause failures produced by tsunami, as well as an analysis of the main redundant systems. This work also assesses the mitigative procedures and the subsequent consequences of such actions, which gave results below expectations to avoid the progression of the accident, discussing the concept of sharing of structures, systems and components at multi-unit nuclear power plants, and its eventual inappropriate use in safety-related devices which can compromise the nuclear safety, as well as its consequent impact on the Fukushima accident scenario. The lessons from Fukushima must be better learned, aiming the development of new procedures and new safety systems. Thus, the nuclear technology could reach a higher evolution level in its safety requirements. This knowledge will establish a conceptual milestone in the safety system design, becoming necessary the review of the current acceptance criteria of safety-related systems. (author)

  9. Organizational safety climate and supervisor safety enforcement: Multilevel explorations of the causes of accident underreporting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Probst, Tahira M

    2015-11-01

    According to national surveillance statistics, over 3 million employees are injured each year; yet, research indicates that these may be substantial underestimates of the true prevalence. The purpose of the current project was to empirically test the hypothesis that organizational safety climate and transactional supervisor safety leadership would predict the extent to which accidents go unreported by employees. Using hierarchical linear modeling and survey data collected from 1,238 employees in 33 organizations, employee-level supervisor safety enforcement behaviors (and to a less consistent extent, organizational-level safety climate) predicted employee accident underreporting. There was also a significant cross-level interaction, such that the effect of supervisor enforcement on underreporting was attenuated in organizations with a positive safety climate. These results may benefit human resources and safety professionals by pinpointing methods of increasing the accuracy of accident reporting, reducing actual safety incidents, and reducing the costs to individuals and organizations that result from underreporting. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. A digest of the Nuclear Safety Division report on the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident seminar (4). Issues identified by the accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moriyama, Kumiaki; Abe, Kiyoharu

    2013-01-01

    AESJ Nuclear Safety Division published 'Report on the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident Seminar - what was wrong and what should been down in future-' which would be published as five special articles of the AESJ journal. The Fukushima Dai-ichi accident identified issues of several activities directly related with nuclear safety in the areas of safety design, severe accident management and safety regulations. PRA, operational experiences and safety research could not always contribute safety assurance of nuclear power plant so much. This article (4) summarized technical issues based on related facts of the accident as much as possible and discussed' what was wrong and what should be down in future'. Important issues were identified from defense-in-depth philosophy and lessons learned on safety design were obtained from accident progression analysis. Activities against external events and continuous improvements of safety standards based on latest knowledge were most indispensable. Strong cooperation among experts in different areas was also needed. (T. Tanaka)

  11. Analysis on Dangerous Source of Large Safety Accident in Storage Tank Area

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Tong; Li, Ying; Xie, Tiansheng; Liu, Yu; Zhu, Xueyuan

    2018-01-01

    The difference between a large safety accident and a general accident is that the consequences of a large safety accident are particularly serious. To study the tank area which factors directly or indirectly lead to the occurrence of large-sized safety accidents. According to the three kinds of hazard source theory and the consequence cause analysis of the super safety accident, this paper analyzes the dangerous source of the super safety accident in the tank area from four aspects, such as energy source, large-sized safety accident reason, management missing, environmental impact Based on the analysis of three kinds of hazard sources and environmental analysis to derive the main risk factors and the AHP evaluation model is established, and after rigorous and scientific calculation, the weights of the related factors in four kinds of risk factors and each type of risk factors are obtained. The result of analytic hierarchy process shows that management reasons is the most important one, and then the environmental factors and the direct cause and Energy source. It should be noted that although the direct cause is relatively low overall importance, the direct cause of Failure of emergency measures and Failure of prevention and control facilities in greater weight.

  12. The situation of hazardous chemical accidents in China between 2000 and 2006

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Duan Weili [Institute of Safety Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong (China); Chen Guohua, E-mail: scut.safetycenter@gmail.com [Institute of Safety Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong (China); Ye Qing; Chen Qingguang [Institute of Safety Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong (China)

    2011-02-28

    From the aspects of the total quantity of accidents, regional inequality, enterprises scale and environmental pollution accidents, this study makes an analysis of hazardous chemical accidents in China for the period spanning from 2000 to 2006. The following results are obtained: firstly, there were lots of accidents and fatalities in hazardous chemical business, i.e., the number of casualty accidents fluctuated between 200 and 600/year, the number of fatality fluctuated between 220 and 1100/year. Secondly, the accident rate in developed southeast coastal areas, e.g., Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, was far higher than that in the northwest regions, e.g., Xizang, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. Thirdly, nearly 80% of dangerous chemical accidents had occurred in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Finally, various sudden environmental pollution accidents resulted from hazardous chemicals were frequent in recent years, causing a huge damage to human and property. Then, based on the readjustment of economic structure in the last decades, the development status of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in SMEs and other factors, the paper explores the main causes, which offers valuable insight into measures that should be taken to reduce hazardous chemical accidents.

  13. The situation of hazardous chemical accidents in China between 2000 and 2006

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Duan Weili; Chen Guohua; Ye Qing; Chen Qingguang

    2011-01-01

    From the aspects of the total quantity of accidents, regional inequality, enterprises scale and environmental pollution accidents, this study makes an analysis of hazardous chemical accidents in China for the period spanning from 2000 to 2006. The following results are obtained: firstly, there were lots of accidents and fatalities in hazardous chemical business, i.e., the number of casualty accidents fluctuated between 200 and 600/year, the number of fatality fluctuated between 220 and 1100/year. Secondly, the accident rate in developed southeast coastal areas, e.g., Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, was far higher than that in the northwest regions, e.g., Xizang, Xinjiang, and Qinghai. Thirdly, nearly 80% of dangerous chemical accidents had occurred in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Finally, various sudden environmental pollution accidents resulted from hazardous chemicals were frequent in recent years, causing a huge damage to human and property. Then, based on the readjustment of economic structure in the last decades, the development status of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in SMEs and other factors, the paper explores the main causes, which offers valuable insight into measures that should be taken to reduce hazardous chemical accidents.

  14. Active and passive vehicle safety at Volkswagen accident research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jungmichel, M.; Stanzel, M.; Zobel, R. [Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg (Germany)

    2001-07-01

    Accident Analysis is an efficient means of improving vehicle passive safety and is used frequently and intensively. However, reliable data on accident causation is much more difficult to obtain. In most cases, one or more of the persons involved in an accident will face litigation and therefore are reluctant to provide the information that is essential to researchers. In addition, antilock brakes in almost every current vehicle have caused certain characteristic evidence, i.e. skid marks, to appear much less frequently than before. However, this evidence provides valuable information for assessing the reaction of the driver and his attempt to avoid the accident. In order to implement strategies of accident avoidance, accident causation must first be fully understood. Therefore, one of the assignments of the Volkswagen Accident Research Unit is to interpret global statistics, as well as to study single cases in order to come up with strategies for collision avoidance or mitigation. Currently, our primary concern is focused on active vehicle safety by researching vehicle behavior in the pre-crash phase. (orig.)

  15. Analisis Kecelakaan Kerja Pada Proyek Bangunan Gedung (Analysis of Work Accident on Building Construction Projects)

    OpenAIRE

    Ferdiansyah, Deni; Winarno, Setya; M, Faisol A

    2009-01-01

    Work accidents and fatalities often happen in construction industry, thus a study on this matter to promote safety management needs a thorough analysis of their elements. The purpose of this paper is to identify various types of accidents, cost of accident and insurance premium, and also the correlation between the types of accidents and their costs. The data was collected from thirty construction projects around Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta province and surrounding areas. These data included t...

  16. Safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jones, P.M.S.

    1987-01-01

    Aspects of fission reactors are considered - control, heat removal and containment. Brief descriptions of the reactor accidents at the SL-1 reactor (1961), Windscale (1957), Browns Ferry (1975), Three Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986) are given. The idea of inherently safe reactor designs is discussed. Safety assessment is considered under the headings of preliminary hazard analysis, failure mode analysis, event trees, fault trees, common mode failure and probabalistic risk assessments. These latter can result in a series of risk distributions linked to specific groups of fault sequences and specific consequences. A frequency-consequence diagram is shown. Fatal accident incidence rates in different countries including the United Kingdom for various industries are quoted. The incidence of fatal cancers from occupational exposure to chemicals is tabulated. Human factors and the acceptability of risk are considered. (U.K.)

  17. Improved safety for drivers and couriers of coaches

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Coo, P.J.A. de; Hazelebach, R.; Oorschot, E. van; Wessels, J.

    2001-01-01

    According to general accidents statistics a coach is the safest means of transportation with respect to fatalities per billion traveller kilometers. Reasons for this include the existing regulations related to coach safety and the self regulation of the coach building industry. Most passive safety

  18. From learning from accidents to teaching about accident causation and prevention: Multidisciplinary education and safety literacy for all engineering students

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saleh, Joseph H.; Pendley, Cynthia C.

    2012-01-01

    In this work, we argue that system accident literacy and safety competence should be an essential part of the intellectual toolkit of all engineering students. We discuss why such competence should be taught and nurtured in engineering students, and provide one example for how this can be done. We first define the class of adverse events of interest as system accidents, distinct from occupational accidents, through their (1) temporal depth of causality and (2) diversity of agency or groups and individuals who influence or contribute to the accident occurrence/prevention. We then address the question of why the interest in this class of events and their prevention, and we expand on the importance of system safety literacy and the contributions that engineering students can make in the long-term towards accident prevention. Finally, we offer one model for an introductory course on accident causation and system safety, discuss the course logistics, material and delivery, and our experience teaching this subject. The course starts with the anatomy of accidents and is grounded in various case studies; these help illustrate the multidisciplinary nature of the subject, and provide the students with the important concepts to describe the phenomenology of accidents (e.g., initiating events, accident precursor or lead indicator, and accident pathogen). More importantly, the case studies invite a deep reflection on the underlying failure mechanisms, their generalizability, and the various safety levers for accident prevention. The course then proceeds to an exposition of defense-in-depth, safety barriers and principles, essential elements for an education in accident prevention, and it concludes with a presentation of basic concepts and tools for uncertainty and risk analysis. Educators will recognize the difficulties in designing a new course on such a broad subject. It is hoped that this work will invite comments and contributions from the readers, and that the journal will

  19. Plant safety review from mass criticality accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Susanto, B.G.

    2000-01-01

    The review has been done to understand the resent status of the plant in facing postulated mass criticality accident. From the design concept of the plant all the components in the system including functional groups have been designed based on favorable mass/geometry safety principle. The criticality safety for each component is guaranteed because all the dimensions relevant to criticality of the components are smaller than dimensions of 'favorable mass/geometry'. The procedures covering all aspects affecting quality including the safety related are developed and adhered to at all times. Staff are indoctrinated periodically in short training session to warn the important of the safety in process of production. The plant is fully equipped with 6 (six) criticality detectors in strategic places to alert employees whenever the postulated mass criticality accident occur. In the event of Nuclear Emergency Preparedness, PT BATAN TEKNOLOGI has also proposed the organization structure how promptly to report the crisis to Nuclear Energy Control Board (BAPETEN) Indonesia. (author)

  20. Errors in accident data, its types, causes and methods of rectification-analysis of the literature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, Ashar; Sadullah, Ahmad Farhan Mohd; Yahya, Ahmad Shukri

    2017-07-29

    Most of the decisions taken to improve road safety are based on accident data, which makes it the back bone of any country's road safety system. Errors in this data will lead to misidentification of black spots and hazardous road segments, projection of false estimates pertinent to accidents and fatality rates, and detection of wrong parameters responsible for accident occurrence, thereby making the entire road safety exercise ineffective. Its extent varies from country to country depending upon various factors. Knowing the type of error in the accident data and the factors causing it enables the application of the correct method for its rectification. Therefore there is a need for a systematic literature review that addresses the topic at a global level. This paper fulfils the above research gap by providing a synthesis of literature for the different types of errors found in the accident data of 46 countries across the six regions of the world. The errors are classified and discussed with respect to each type and analysed with respect to income level; assessment with regard to the magnitude for each type is provided; followed by the different causes that result in their occurrence, and the various methods used to address each type of error. Among high-income countries the extent of error in reporting slight, severe, non-fatal and fatal injury accidents varied between 39-82%, 16-52%, 12-84%, and 0-31% respectively. For middle-income countries the error for the same categories varied between 93-98%, 32.5-96%, 34-99% and 0.5-89.5% respectively. The only four studies available for low-income countries showed that the error in reporting non-fatal and fatal accidents varied between 69-80% and 0-61% respectively. The logistic relation of error in accident data reporting, dichotomised at 50%, indicated that as the income level of a country increases the probability of having less error in accident data also increases. Average error in recording information related to the

  1. Serious injury and fatality investigations involving pneumatic nail guns, 1985-2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, Brian D; Albers, James T; Hudock, Stephen D; Krieg, Edward F

    2016-02-01

    This article examines serious and fatal pneumatic nail gun (PNG) injury investigations for workplace, tool design, and human factors relevant to causation and resulting OS&H authorities' responses in terms of citations and penalties. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) database of Fatality and Catastrophe Investigation Summaries (F&CIS) were reviewed (1985-2012) to identify n = 258 PNG accidents. 79.8% of investigations, and 100% of fatalities, occurred in the construction industry. Between 53-71% of injuries appear to have been preventable had a safer sequential trigger tool been used. Citations and monetary penalties were related to injury severity, body part injured, disabling of safety devices, and insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). Differences may exist between construction and other industries in investigators interpretations of PNG injury causation and resulting citations/penalties. Violations of PPE standards were penalized most severely, yet the preventive effect of PPE would likely have been less than that of a safer sequential trigger. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

  2. Injury severity and seating position in accidents with German EMS helicopters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinkelbein, Jochen; Spelten, Oliver; Neuhaus, Christopher; Hinkelbein, Mandy; Özgür, Enver; Wetsch, Wolfgang A

    2013-10-01

    Accident rates and fatality rates for Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) missions have been investigated recently, but none of these studies considered the influence of the seating position in the helicopter. The aim of the present descriptive and observational study was to analyze injury severity depending on the seating position during HEMS accidents in Germany. Data from the German Federal Agency for Flight Accident Investigation was gathered for a period of 40 years (from 1970 to 2009). The seating position in the aircraft during the accident and the resulting injury severity (i.e., 1=no; 2=slight; 3=severe; and 4=fatal) were recorded. Injury severity was compared using the Fisher's exact test. P values accidents were investigated (n=61 accidents did not lead to any injuries in the occupants, n=7 accidents resulted in minor, and n=6 in severe injuries, and lethal injuries resulted from n=15 accidents). The occupant in the "patient" position was most likely to suffer from deadly injuries (44.9%), followed by the HEMS crew member rear seat (25.0%), compared to lower lethality rates in the other seating positions (9.4-11.2%). Sitting on the HEMS crew member rear seat also was associated with the highest percentage of severe and minor injuries (12.5% each). In HEMS accidents, the patients' position and the HEMS crew member rear seat were found to be at the highest risk for fatal or severe injuries. These results support the urgent requirement of a large international data base for HEMS accidents as a basis for further studies to improve the safety in HEMS missions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Traffic safety developments in Poland : a research note.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oppe, S.

    2001-01-01

    Recently there has been an increased interest in traffic safety in Poland. There is a feeling that the rapid growth of traffic should be accompanied by additional efforts to improve traffic safety, in order to stop the corresponding increase in fatalities and serious accidents. To set realistic

  4. [Fatal hyperpyrexia in an adolescent patient with severe burns after a traffic accident].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaehn, T; Sievers, R; Junger, A; Graunke, F; Blings, A; Reichert, B

    2016-07-01

    After a motorcycle accident a 16-year-old patient suffered severe burns to 40.5 % of the total body surface area (TBSA) of which 37 % were deep subdermal burns. After tangential and partly epifascial necrosectomy, Integra® was used as a temporary dermis replacement material for the lower extremities, combined with extensive negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). In the further course of the treatment the patient developed uncontrollable hyperpyrexia with a fatal outcome. Possible influencing factors, such as the dermis replacement material combined with NPWT over large areas as well as the differential diagnoses propofol infusion syndrome, heatstroke and malignant hyperthermia are discussed.

  5. Unions, Health and Safety Committees, and Workplace Accidents in the Korean Manufacturing Sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Woo-Yung Kim

    2016-06-01

    Conclusion: Health and safety committees were found to reduce the incidence of accidents whereas unionized establishments have higher incidence of accidents than nonunionized establishments. We also found that health and safety committees can more effectively reduce accidents in nonunionized establishments. By contrast, nonexclusive joint committees can more effectively reduce accidents in unionized establishments.

  6. On applying safety archetypes to the Fukushima accident to identify nonlinear influencing factors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sousa, A.L., E-mail: alsousa@cnen.gov.br [Comissao Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN), Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Ribeiro, A.C.O., E-mail: antonio.ribeiro@bayer.com [Bayer Crop Science Brasil S.A., Belford Roxo, RJ (Brazil); Duarte, J.P., E-mail: julianapduarte@poli.ufrj.br [Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Escola Politecnica. Departamento de Engenharia Nuclear; Frutuoso e Melo, P.F., E-mail: frutuoso@nuclear.ufrj.br [Coordenacao dos Programas de Pos-Graduacao em Engenharia (COOPE/UFRJ), RJ (Brazil). Programa de Engenharia Nuclear

    2013-07-01

    Nuclear power plants are typically characterized as high reliable organizations. In other words, they are organizations defined as relatively error free over a long period of time. Another relevant characteristic of the nuclear industry is that safety efforts are credited to design. However, major accidents, like the Fukushima accident, have shown that new tools are needed to identify latent deficiencies and help improve their safety level. Safety archetypes proposed elsewhere (e. g., safety issues stalled in the face of technological advances and eroding safety) consonant with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) efforts are used to examine different aspects of accidents in a systemic perspective of the interaction between individuals, technology and organizational factors. Safety archetypes can help consider nonlinear interactions. Effects are rarely proportional to causes and what happens locally in a system (near the current operating point) often does not apply to distant regions (other system states), so that one has to consider the so-called nonlinear interactions. This is the case, for instance, with human probability failure estimates and safety level identification. In this paper, we discuss the Fukushima accident in order to show how archetypes can highlight nonlinear interactions of factors that influenced it and how to maintain safety levels in order to prevent other accidents. The initial evaluation of the set of archetypes suggested in the literature showed that at least four of them are applicable to the Fukushima accident, as is inferred from official reports on the accident. These are: complacency (that is, the effects of complacency on safety), decreased safety awareness, fixing on symptoms and not the real causes and eroding safety. (author)

  7. On applying safety archetypes to the Fukushima accident to identify nonlinear influencing factors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sousa, A.L.; Ribeiro, A.C.O.; Duarte, J.P.; Frutuoso e Melo, P.F.

    2013-01-01

    Nuclear power plants are typically characterized as high reliable organizations. In other words, they are organizations defined as relatively error free over a long period of time. Another relevant characteristic of the nuclear industry is that safety efforts are credited to design. However, major accidents, like the Fukushima accident, have shown that new tools are needed to identify latent deficiencies and help improve their safety level. Safety archetypes proposed elsewhere (e. g., safety issues stalled in the face of technological advances and eroding safety) consonant with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) efforts are used to examine different aspects of accidents in a systemic perspective of the interaction between individuals, technology and organizational factors. Safety archetypes can help consider nonlinear interactions. Effects are rarely proportional to causes and what happens locally in a system (near the current operating point) often does not apply to distant regions (other system states), so that one has to consider the so-called nonlinear interactions. This is the case, for instance, with human probability failure estimates and safety level identification. In this paper, we discuss the Fukushima accident in order to show how archetypes can highlight nonlinear interactions of factors that influenced it and how to maintain safety levels in order to prevent other accidents. The initial evaluation of the set of archetypes suggested in the literature showed that at least four of them are applicable to the Fukushima accident, as is inferred from official reports on the accident. These are: complacency (that is, the effects of complacency on safety), decreased safety awareness, fixing on symptoms and not the real causes and eroding safety. (author)

  8. Application of the DOE Nuclear Safety Policy goal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Coles, G.A.; Hey, B.E.; Leach, D.S.; Muhlestein, L.D.

    1992-08-01

    The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued their Nuclear Safety Policy for implementation on September 9, 1991. The statement noted that it was the DOE's policy that the general public should be protected such that no individual would bear significant additional risk to health and safety from operation of their nuclear facilities above the risks to which members of the general population were normally exposed. The intent is that from the nuclear safety policy will follow specific safety rules, orders, standards and other requirements. The DOE Nuclear Safety Policy provides general statements in the areas of management involvement and accountability, providing technically competent personnel, oversight and self-assessment, promoting a safety culture, and quantitative safety goals as aiming points for performance. In general, most DOE Management and Operating Contractors should have programs in place which address the general statements noted above. Thus, compliance with the general statements of the DOE Nuclear Safety Policy should present no significant difficulty. Consequently, the focus of this paper will be the two quantitative safety goals reproduced below from the DOE Nuclear Safety Policy. ''The risk to an average individual in the vicinity of a DOE facility for prompt fatalities that might result from accidents should not exceed one tenth of one percent (0.1 %) of the sum of prompt fatalities resulting from other accidents to which members of the population are generally exposed. For evaluation purposes, individuals are assumed to be located within one mile of the site boundary.'' ''The risk to the population in the area of a DOE nuclear facility for cancer fatalities that might result from operations should not exceed one tenth of one percent (0.1 %) of the sum of all cancer fatality risks resulting from all other causes. For evaluation purposes, individuals are assumed to be located within 10 miles of the site boundary.''

  9. Assessment of accident severity in the construction industry using the Bayesian theorem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alizadeh, Seyed Shamseddin; Mortazavi, Seyed Bagher; Mehdi Sepehri, Mohammad

    2015-01-01

    Construction is a major source of employment in many countries. In construction, workers perform a great diversity of activities, each one with a specific associated risk. The aim of this paper is to identify workers who are at risk of accidents with severe consequences and classify these workers to determine appropriate control measures. We defined 48 groups of workers and used the Bayesian theorem to estimate posterior probabilities about the severity of accidents at the level of individuals in construction sector. First, the posterior probabilities of injuries based on four variables were provided. Then the probabilities of injury for 48 groups of workers were determined. With regard to marginal frequency of injury, slight injury (0.856), fatal injury (0.086) and severe injury (0.058) had the highest probability of occurrence. It was observed that workers with severe and fatal accidents, involved workers ≥ 50 years old, married, with 1-5 years' work experience, who had no past accident experience. The findings provide a direction for more effective safety strategies and occupational accident prevention and emergency programmes.

  10. Developing a relativities approach to valuing the prevention of non-fatal work-related accidents and ill health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karnon, Jonathan; Tsuchiya, Aki; Dolan, Paul

    2005-11-01

    The aim of the current explorative study is to define and test a process for the valuation of the benefits associated with the prevention of non-fatal work-related accidents and ill health. A relativities approach is adopted, and monetary values for the prevention of three forms of work-related illness are estimated. The approach involves describing relevant attributes of alternative events (accidents or occurrences of ill health), their causes, the characteristics of the relevant working population, and the number of events that are avoidable, and asking respondents to make pair wise choices between alternatives options for prevention. Indirect monetary valuations are obtained against a peg event for which a reliable valuation exists (road deaths).A series of discussion groups were held to identify relevant factors affecting potential valuations and to test the presentation of information. The predicted magnitude of responses for three-case study events (and road deaths) was estimated in a pilot study. These preliminary stages informed the final survey instrument that described five attributes in addition to a statement of the event and occupation, and the likely intervention effect, which was administered by post. Based on a small sample, the results show that virtually all respondents passed the inserted consistency test. The median respondent altered their choice according to the number of events avoided for all three comparisons, such that the estimated valuations appear sensible. Potential amendments are suggested, but the general relativities approach warrants further investigation for the valuation of non-fatal work-related accidents and ill health.

  11. Development of the methodology and approaches to validate safety and accident management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asmolov, V.G.

    1997-01-01

    The article compares the development of the methodology and approaches to validate the nuclear power plant safety and accident management in Russia and advanced industrial countries. It demonstrates that the development of methods of safety validation is dialectically related to the accumulation of the knowledge base on processes and events during NPP normal operation, transients and emergencies, including severe accidents. The article describes the Russian severe accident research program (1987-1996), the implementation of which allowed Russia to reach the world level of the safety validation efforts, presents future high-priority study areas. Problems related to possible approaches to the methodological accident management development are discussed. (orig.)

  12. The relationships between OHS prevention costs, safety performance, employee satisfaction and accident costs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bayram, Metin; Ünğan, Mustafa C; Ardıç, Kadir

    2017-06-01

    Little is known about the costs of safety. A literature review conducted for this study indicates there is a lack of survey-based research dealing with the effects of occupational health and safety (OHS) prevention costs. To close this gap in the literature, this study investigates the interwoven relationships between OHS prevention costs, employee satisfaction, OHS performance and accident costs. Data were collected from 159 OHS management system 18001-certified firms operating in Turkey and analyzed through structural equation modeling. The findings indicate that OHS prevention costs have a significant positive effect on safety performance, employee satisfaction and accident costs savings; employee satisfaction has a significant positive effect on accident costs savings; and occupational safety performance has a significant positive effect on employee satisfaction and accident costs savings. Also, the results indicate that safety performance and employee satisfaction leverage the relationship between prevention costs and accident costs.

  13. Nuclear accidents and safety measures of domestic nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song Zurong; Che Shuwei; Pan Xiang

    2012-01-01

    Based on the design standards for the safety of nuclear and radiation in nuclear power plants, the three accidents in the history of nuclear power are analyzed. And the main factors for these accidents are found out, that is, human factors and unpredicted natural calamity. By combining the design and operation parameters of domestic nuclear plants, the same accidents are studied and some necessary preventive schemes are put forward. In the security operation technology of domestic nuclear power plants nowadays, accidents caused by human factors can by prevented completely. But the safety standards have to be reconsidered for the unpredicted neutral disasters. How to reduce the hazard of nuclear radiation and leakage to the level that can be accepted by the government and public when accidents occur under extreme conditions during construction and operation of nuclear power plants must be considered adequately. (authors)

  14. Incorporation of advanced accident analysis methodology into safety analysis reports

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-05-01

    The IAEA Safety Guide on Safety Assessment and Verification defines that the aim of the safety analysis should be by means of appropriate analytical tools to establish and confirm the design basis for the items important to safety, and to ensure that the overall plant design is capable of meeting the prescribed and acceptable limits for radiation doses and releases for each plant condition category. Practical guidance on how to perform accident analyses of nuclear power plants (NPPs) is provided by the IAEA Safety Report on Accident Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants. The safety analyses are performed both in the form of deterministic and probabilistic analyses for NPPs. It is customary to refer to deterministic safety analyses as accident analyses. This report discusses the aspects of using the advanced accident analysis methods to carry out accident analyses in order to introduce them into the Safety Analysis Reports (SARs). In relation to the SAR, purposes of deterministic safety analysis can be further specified as (1) to demonstrate compliance with specific regulatory acceptance criteria; (2) to complement other analyses and evaluations in defining a complete set of design and operating requirements; (3) to identify and quantify limiting safety system set points and limiting conditions for operation to be used in the NPP limits and conditions; (4) to justify appropriateness of the technical solutions employed in the fulfillment of predetermined safety requirements. The essential parts of accident analyses are performed by applying sophisticated computer code packages, which have been specifically developed for this purpose. These code packages include mainly thermal-hydraulic system codes and reactor dynamics codes meant for the transient and accident analyses. There are also specific codes such as those for the containment thermal-hydraulics, for the radiological consequences and for severe accident analyses. In some cases, codes of a more general nature such

  15. Classification for Safety-Critical Car-Cyclist Scenarios Using Machine Learning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Cara, I.; Gelder, E.D.

    2015-01-01

    The number of fatal car-cyclist accidents is increasing. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) can improve the safety of cyclists, but they need to be tested with realistic safety-critical car-cyclist scenarios. In order to store only relevant scenarios, an online classification algorithm is

  16. Analysis of pedestrian accident costs in Sudan using the willingness-to-pay method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mofadal, Adam I A; Kanitpong, Kunnawee; Jiwattanakulpaisarn, Piyapong

    2015-05-01

    The willingness-to-pay (WTP) with contingent valuation (CV) method has been proven to be a valid tool for the valuation of non-market goods or socio-economic costs of road traffic accidents among communities in developed and developing countries. Research on accident costing tends to estimate the value of statistical life (VOSL) for all road users by providing a principle for the evaluation of road safety interventions in cost-benefit analysis. As in many other developing countries, the economic loss of traffic accidents in Sudan is noticeable; however, analytical research to estimate the magnitude and impact of that loss is lacking. Reports have shown that pedestrians account for more than 40% of the total number of fatalities. In this study, the WTP-CV approach was used to determine the amount of money that pedestrians in Sudan are willing to pay to reduce the risk of their own death. The impact of the socioeconomic factors, risk levels, and walking behaviors of pedestrians on their WTP for fatality risk reduction was also evaluated. Data were collected from two cities-Khartoum and Nyala-using a survey questionnaire that included 1400 respondents. The WTP-CV Payment Card Questionnaire was designed to ensure that Sudan pedestrians can easily determine the amount of money that would be required to reduce the fatality risk from a pedestrian-related accident. The analysis results show that the estimated VOSL for Sudanese pedestrians ranges from US$0.019 to US$0.101 million. In addition, the willingness-to-pay by Sudanese pedestrians to reduce their fatality risk tends to increase with age, household income, educational level, safety perception, and average time spent on social activities with family and community. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Using speeding detections and numbers of fatalities to estimate relative risk of a fatality for motorcyclists and car drivers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huggins, Richard

    2013-10-01

    Precise estimation of the relative risk of motorcyclists being involved in a fatal accident compared to car drivers is difficult. Simple estimates based on the proportions of licenced drivers or riders that are killed in a fatal accident are biased as they do not take into account the exposure to risk. However, exposure is difficult to quantify. Here we adapt the ideas behind the well known induced exposure methods and use available summary data on speeding detections and fatalities for motorcycle riders and car drivers to estimate the relative risk of a fatality for motorcyclists compared to car drivers under mild assumptions. The method is applied to data on motorcycle riders and car drivers in Victoria, Australia in 2010 and a small simulation study is conducted. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Empirical Bayes methods in road safety research.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vogelesang, R.A.W.

    1997-01-01

    Road safety research is a wonderful combination of counting fatal accidents and using a toolkit containing prior, posterior, overdispersed Poisson, negative binomial and Gamma distributions, together with positive and negative regression effects, shrinkage estimators and fiercy debates concerning

  19. Parallels in safety between aviation and healthcare.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerstle, Claudia R

    2018-05-01

    Aviation and healthcare are complex industries and share many similarities: the cockpit and the operating theater, the captain and the surgeon. While North American commercial aviation currently enjoys a tremendous safety record, it was not always this way. A spike of accidents in 1973 caused 3214 aviation-related fatalities. Over the past 20years, the rate of fatal accidents per million flights fell by a factor of five, while air traffic increased by more than 86%. There have been no fatalities on a U.S. carrier for over 12years. Last year, there were 251,454 deaths in the United States owing to medical error. Pilots pioneered ways to address risks through crew resource management (CRM), and threat and error management (TEM). Both strategies, which are aimed at minimizing risk and optimizing safety, are applicable to surgery and the healthcare industry. These strategies as well as the Swiss Cheese Model, Checklists and the Normalization of Deviance will be reviewed in this article. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. CANDU safety under severe accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snell, V.G.; Howieson, J.Q.; Frescura, G.M.; King, F.; Rogers, J.T.; Tamm, H.

    1988-01-01

    The characteristics of the CANDU reactor relevant to severe accidents are set first by the inherent properties of the design, and second by the Canadian safety/licensing approach. Probabilistic safety assessment studies have been performed on operating CANDU plants, and on the 4 x 880 MW(e) Darlington station now under construction; furthermore a scoping risk assessment has been done for a CANDU 600 plant. They indicate that the summed severe core damage frequency is of the order of 5 x 10 -6 /year. CANDU nuclear plant designers and owner/operators share information and operational experience nationally and internationally through the CANDU Owners' Group (COG). The research program generally emphasizes the unique aspects of the CANDU concept, such as heat removal through the moderator, but it has also contributed significantly to areas generic to most power reactors such as hydrogen combustion, containment failure modes, fission product chemistry, and high temperature fuel behaviour. Abnormal plant operating procedures are aimed at first using event-specific emergency operating procedures, in cases where the event can be diagnosed. If this is not possible, generic procedures are followed to control Critical Safety Parameters and manage the accident. Similarly, the on-site contingency plans include a generic plan covering overall plant response strategy, and a specific plan covering each category of contingency

  1. Major accident prevention through applying safety knowledge management approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalatpour, Omid

    2016-01-01

    Many scattered resources of knowledge are available to use for chemical accident prevention purposes. The common approach to management process safety, including using databases and referring to the available knowledge has some drawbacks. The main goal of this article was to devise a new emerged knowledge base (KB) for the chemical accident prevention domain. The scattered sources of safety knowledge were identified and scanned. Then, the collected knowledge was formalized through a computerized program. The Protégé software was used to formalize and represent the stored safety knowledge. The domain knowledge retrieved as well as data and information. This optimized approach improved safety and health knowledge management (KM) process and resolved some typical problems in the KM process. Upgrading the traditional resources of safety databases into the KBs can improve the interaction between the users and knowledge repository.

  2. Design of intelligent proximity detection zones to prevent striking and pinning fatalities around continuous mining machines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bissert, P T; Carr, J L; DuCarme, J P; Smith, A K

    2016-01-01

    The continuous mining machine is a key piece of equipment used in underground coal mining operations. Over the past several decades these machines have been involved in a number of mine worker fatalities. Proximity detection systems have been developed to avert hazards associated with operating continuous mining machines. Incorporating intelligent design into proximity detection systems allows workers greater freedom to position themselves to see visual cues or avoid other hazards such as haulage equipment or unsupported roof or ribs. However, intelligent systems must be as safe as conventional proximity detection systems. An evaluation of the 39 fatal accidents for which the Mine Safety and Health Administration has published fatality investigation reports was conducted to determine whether the accident may have been prevented by conventional or intelligent proximity. Multiple zone configurations for the intelligent systems were studied to determine how system performance might be affected by the zone configuration. Researchers found that 32 of the 39 fatalities, or 82 percent, may have been prevented by both conventional and intelligent proximity systems. These results indicate that, by properly configuring the zones of an intelligent proximity detection system, equivalent protection to a conventional system is possible.

  3. Problems of probabilistic safety assessment after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sugiyama, Naoki

    2011-01-01

    Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) methodology to assure nuclear safety is had great expectations of lessons learned from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) accident and on the other hand this accident made actualized technical problems of PSA. Effectiveness of current PSA methodology for risk assessment was confirmed by comparing the accident development with accident scenario of PSA and equipment failure rate. From a viewpoint of nuclear safety objective and defense in depth approach of IAEA, technical problems of PSA were (1) extension of PSA for spent fuel pool and waste disposal system as well as level 3PSA for broader environmental contamination and (2) overlapping of accident scenario of plural unit site, balance of high quality plant management and preceding negation, treatment of uncertainty of external events, severe accident measure and human reliability analysis and reflection of disaster prevention capability to level 3PSA. In order to upgrade PSA technology, six proposals were described for nuclear safety and defense in depth, comprehensive evaluation scope and catch-up of latest technology, necessity of strategic preparation of PSA standard, human resources fostering and risk communication. (T. Tanaka)

  4. Proposal strategy and policy on nuclear safety for no-more severe accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    Following the outspoken advice saying 'scientists and engineers concerning with nuclear power promotion and safety should be responsible for clarifying how preventable or what measures should be needed to prevent severe accidents occurring at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants (NPPs)', committee on prevention of severe accidents at NPPs was established by relevant nuclear scientists and engineers involved so as to discuss basic issues to be solved from scientific and technical viewpoints. Based on the review of 'defense in depth' concept and accident analysis at Fukushima nuclear accident, four major proposals and six supplements to be established were identified such as: (1) finding mechanism of beyond imagination events for natural disaster, terrorism, and internal events, (2) reform of comprehensive safety standards and guidelines with performance basis easy to reflect latest knowledge and technology as 'back-fitting', (3) severe accidents measures, their validation, and drilling on accident management to advance procedures and develop human resources, and (4) risk communications and public disclosure of information. This article described backgrounds of committee's proposals on nuclear safety for no-more severe accidents. (T. Tanaka)

  5. Commercial truck parking and other safety issues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-10-01

    Commercial truck parking is a safety issue, since trucks are involved in approximately 10% of all fatal accidents on interstates and : parkways in Kentucky. Drivers experience schedule demands and long hours on the road, yet they cannot easily determ...

  6. [Fatal incidents by crowd crush during mass events. (Un)preventable phenomenon?].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wagner, U; Fälker, A; Wenzel, V

    2013-01-01

    Crowd crushes with dozens or even hundreds of casualties have occurred several times at the Hajj in Saudi Arabia and also in soccer stadiums in Western Europe. As fatal accidents after human stampedes during mass events occur very rarely and are usually accompanied by many years of criminal court proceedings in order to identify underlying responsible mechanisms and culprits, it is very difficult to draw conclusions and formulate precautions from an emergency medical point of view. This study analyzed a fatal crowd crush which occurred on 4 December 1999 following the "Air & Style" snowboard contest with approximately 22,000 people attending in the Bergisel stadium in Innsbruck, Austria. Firstly, focused interviews were conducted with professional rescuers, police and physicians and secondly publicly available court records dealing with this incident in the district court of Innsbruck, Austria were analyzed. During the snowboard contest 87 emergency medical technicians, 6 emergency physicians, 1 leading emergency physician, 21 policemen and 140 security personnel were present. Following the accident additionally some 100 emergency medical technicians, 36 emergency medical service vehicles and 4 physician-staffed emergency medical service vehicles responded to the scene. The deadly crowd crush resulting in 6 fatalities, 4 patients still in a vegetative state and 38 injured, was due to a severe crowd accumulation at one stadium exit, which was not recognized and dispersed in time. Construction of the exit in line with darkness, steep slope and slippery surface contributed adversely to this dangerous situation, although panic did not occur at any time. Unfortunately, there is no patent remedy to completely prevent fatal accidents by a crowd crush at mass events. If planning is initiated early, sufficient material and personnel reserves are kept in reserve and despite conflicting interests of the organizers, the host community, security, police and emergency medical

  7. [Prevention of road accidents in the road haulage field].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosso, G L; Zanelli, R; Corino, P; Bruno, S

    2007-01-01

    Every year many traffic accidents with fatal outcomes occur in our Country. According to the recent indications of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the Piedmont region has financed the plan: Prevention of road accidents in the road haulage field. The aims of the plan are to stimulate transport companies to the target of road safety and to improve and enforce sanitary surveillance, in order to improve the safety on road haulage and to prevent traffic injuries. the plan foresees, over a period of two years, a few encounters with all the interested parties (companies, police forces, labour unions etc). During those encounters we have to give a questionnaire for evaluating the companies' knowledge about the problem and we have to choose a common plan with the aim of improving road safety. The Piedmont regional plan recalls the need to increase the attention to numerous and diversified hazards for safety on road haulage. It also imposes the choice of measures that include: risk assessment, health education, technical and environmental prevention, sanitary surveillance and clinical interventions (diagnosis and rehabilitation of occupational accidents).

  8. Development of Database for Accident Analysis in Indian Mines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tripathy, Debi Prasad; Guru Raghavendra Reddy, K.

    2016-10-01

    Mining is a hazardous industry and high accident rates associated with underground mining is a cause of deep concern. Technological developments notwithstanding, rate of fatal accidents and reportable incidents have not shown corresponding levels of decline. This paper argues that adoption of appropriate safety standards by both mine management and the government may result in appreciable reduction in accident frequency. This can be achieved by using the technology in improving the working conditions, sensitising workers and managers about causes and prevention of accidents. Inputs required for a detailed analysis of an accident include information on location, time, type, cost of accident, victim, nature of injury, personal and environmental factors etc. Such information can be generated from data available in the standard coded accident report form. This paper presents a web based application for accident analysis in Indian mines during 2001-2013. An accident database (SafeStat) prototype based on Intranet of the TCP/IP agreement, as developed by the authors, is also discussed.

  9. The potential impact of rural mayday systems on vehicular crash fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evanco, W M

    1999-09-01

    Rural mayday systems can reduce the time between the occurrence of an accident and the notification of emergency medical services--called the accident notification time. Reductions in this time, in turn, may affect the numbers of fatalities. A statistical analysis is used to estimate the quantitative relationship between fatalities and the accident notification time. The elasticity of rural fatalities with respect to the accident notification time was found to be 0.14. If a rural mayday system were fully implemented (i.e. a 100% market penetration) and the service availability were 100%, then we would expect monetary benefits of about $1.83 billion per year and comprehensive benefits (which includes the monetary value attached to the lost quality of life) of $6.37 billion per year.

  10. Quality and representativity of the traffic accident data in urban areas: State of the Art

    OpenAIRE

    Chisvert Perales, Mauricio Javier; López-de-Cózar, Elena; Ballestar Tarín, María Luisa

    2007-01-01

    The reduction of the number of road accident fatalities by 50 %, by the year 2010, suggested by the EU, involves the active contribution of all the agents in charge of the road safety in Europe. Even though the accidents that happened in urban areas have a relative smaller severity, it is the place where, for the moment, in absolute terms, the major number of accidents take place in the EU countries, as well as generating serious consequences on the more vulnerable users (pe...

  11. Macroscopic models for traffic safety.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oppe, S.

    1988-01-01

    Recently there has been an increased interest in the application of macroscopic models for the description of developments in traffic safety. A discussion was started on the causes of the sudden decrease in the number of fatal and injury accidents after 1974. Before that time these numbers had

  12. Underlying causal factors associated with construction worker fatalities involving stepladders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aneurin Thomas James Grant

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Stepladders are frequently utilized on construction projects as a means of access to elevation. Stepladder heights commonly range from 4 feet (1.2 m to 14 feet (4.3 m. Since these heights are not extreme, there is a common misperception that stepladder use presents a low risk. On the contrary, extreme care must be exercised to ensure that work on stepladders is performed safely, as described in the conspicuously located recommendations and brightly-colored warnings that adorn virtually all newly-purchased equipment. Despite this, accidents involving stepladders occur on a regular basis.  This study was conducted to better understand the underlying causes of these accidents. The narrative descriptions of 180 stepladder-related fatalities were obtained from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and were analyzed to identify the at-risk behaviors that preceded the fatality incidents. The results showed that most of the incidents should have been anticipated and could have been avoided. Unsafe practices such as improper lockout-tagout of electrical equipment, loss of balance, working on a folded stepladder, over-reaching, straddling the ladder, “walking” the ladder, poor footing, and unstable/shifting ladders, among others were identified. Virtually all of these fatalities could have been avoided by adhering to the guidelines posted on the stepladders and by complying with basic safe construction practices. 

  13. Underlying causal factors associated with construction worker fatalities involving stepladders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aneurin Thomas James Grant

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Stepladders are frequently utilized on construction projects as a means of access to elevation. Stepladder heights commonly range from 4 feet (1.2 m to 14 feet (4.3 m. Since these heights are not extreme, there is a common misperception that stepladder use presents a low risk. On the contrary, extreme care must be exercised to ensure that work on stepladders is performed safely, as described in the conspicuously located recommendations and brightly-colored warnings that adorn virtually all newly-purchased equipment. Despite this, accidents involving stepladders occur on a regular basis.  This study was conducted to better understand the underlying causes of these accidents. The narrative descriptions of 180 stepladder-related fatalities were obtained from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and were analyzed to identify the at-risk behaviors that preceded the fatality incidents. The results showed that most of the incidents should have been anticipated and could have been avoided. Unsafe practices such as improper lockout-tagout of electrical equipment, loss of balance, working on a folded stepladder, over-reaching, straddling the ladder, “walking” the ladder, poor footing, and unstable/shifting ladders, among others were identified. Virtually all of these fatalities could have been avoided by adhering to the guidelines posted on the stepladders and by complying with basic safe construction practices.

  14. State Traffic Safety Information - 2010-2015 FARS Accident File data

    Data.gov (United States)

    Department of Transportation — The State Traffic Safety Information (STSI) portal is part of the larger Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Encyclopedia. STSI provides state-by-state traffic...

  15. Planning and Preparing for Emergency Response to Transport Accidents Involving Radioactive Material. Safety Guide

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-01-01

    This Safety Guide provides guidance on various aspects of emergency planning and preparedness for dealing effectively and safely with transport accidents involving radioactive material, including the assignment of responsibilities. It reflects the requirements specified in Safety Standards Series No. TS-R-1, Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, and those of Safety Series No. 115, International Basic Safety Standards for Protection against Ionizing Radiation and for the Safety of Radiation Sources. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. Framework for planning and preparing for response to accidents in the transport of radioactive material; 3. Responsibilities for planning and preparing for response to accidents in the transport of radioactive material; 4. Planning for response to accidents in the transport of radioactive material; 5. Preparing for response to accidents in the transport of radioactive material; Appendix I: Features of the transport regulations influencing emergency response to transport accidents; Appendix II: Preliminary emergency response reference matrix; Appendix III: Guide to suitable instrumentation; Appendix IV: Overview of emergency management for a transport accident involving radioactive material; Appendix V: Examples of response to transport accidents; Appendix VI: Example equipment kit for a radiation protection team; Annex I: Example of guidance on emergency response to carriers; Annex II: Emergency response guide.

  16. CANDU safety under severe accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snell, V.G.; Howieson, J.Q.; Alikhan, S.; Frescura, G.M.; King, F.; Rogers, J.T.; Tamm, H.

    1996-01-01

    The characteristics of the CANDU reactor relevant to severe accidents are set first by the inherent properties of the design, and second by the Canadian safety/licensing approach. The pressure-tube concept allows the separate, low-pressure, heavy-water moderator to act as a backup heat sink even if there is no water in the fuel channels. Should this also fail, the calandria shell itself can contain the debris, with heat being transferred to the water-filled shield tank around the core. Should the severe core damage sequence progress further, the shield tank and the concrete reactor vault significantly delay the challenge to containment. Furthermore, should core melt lead to containment overpressure, the containment behaviour is such that leaks through the concrete containment wall reduce the possibility of catastrophic structural failure. The Canadian licensing philosophy requires that each accident, together with failure of each safety system in turn, be assessed (and specified dose limits met) as part of the design and licensing basis. In response, designers have provided CANDUs with two independent dedicated shutdown systems, and the likelihood of Anticipated Transients Without Scram is negligible. Probabilistic safety assessment studies have been performed on operating CANDU plants, and on the 4 x 880 MW(e) Darlington station now under construction; furthermore a scoping risk assessment has been done for a CANDU 600 plant. They indicate that the summed severe core damage frequency is of the order of 5 x 10 -6 /year. 95 refs, 3 tabs

  17. CANDU safety under severe accidents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Snell, V G; Howieson, J Q [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (Canada); Alikhan, S [New Brunswick Electric Power Commission (Canada); Frescura, G M; King, F [Ontario Hydro (Canada); Rogers, J T [Carleton Univ., Ottawa, ON (Canada); Tamm, H [Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (Canada). Whiteshell Research Lab.

    1996-12-01

    The characteristics of the CANDU reactor relevant to severe accidents are set first by the inherent properties of the design, and second by the Canadian safety/licensing approach. The pressure-tube concept allows the separate, low-pressure, heavy-water moderator to act as a backup heat sink even if there is no water in the fuel channels. Should this also fail, the calandria shell itself can contain the debris, with heat being transferred to the water-filled shield tank around the core. Should the severe core damage sequence progress further, the shield tank and the concrete reactor vault significantly delay the challenge to containment. Furthermore, should core melt lead to containment overpressure, the containment behaviour is such that leaks through the concrete containment wall reduce the possibility of catastrophic structural failure. The Canadian licensing philosophy requires that each accident, together with failure of each safety system in turn, be assessed (and specified dose limits met) as part of the design and licensing basis. In response, designers have provided CANDUs with two independent dedicated shutdown systems, and the likelihood of Anticipated Transients Without Scram is negligible. Probabilistic safety assessment studies have been performed on operating CANDU plants, and on the 4 x 880 MW(e) Darlington station now under construction; furthermore a scoping risk assessment has been done for a CANDU 600 plant. They indicate that the summed severe core damage frequency is of the order of 5 x 10{sup -6}/year. 95 refs, 3 tabs.

  18. Helicopter type and accident severity in Helicopter Emergency Medical Services missions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinkelbein, Jochen; Schwalbe, Mandy; Wetsch, Wolfgang A; Spelten, Oliver; Neuhaus, Christopher

    2011-12-01

    Whereas accident rates and fatal accident rates for Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) were investigated sufficiently, resulting consequences for the occupants remain largely unknown. The present study aimed to classify HEMS accidents in Germany to prognosticate accident severity with regard to the helicopter model used. German HEMS accidents (1 Sept. 1970-31 Dec. 2009) were gathered as previously reported. Accidents were categorized in relation to the most severe injury, i.e., (1) no; (2) slight; (3) severe; and (4) fatal injuries. Only helicopter models with at least five accidents were analyzed to retrieve representative data. Prognostication was estimated by the relative percentage of each injury type compared to the total number of accidents. The model BO105 was most often involved in accidents (38 of 99), followed by BK117 and UH-1D. OfN = 99 accidents analyzed, N = 63 were without any injuries (63.6%), N = 8 resulted in minor injuries of the occupants (8.1%), and N = 9 in major injuries (9.1%). Additionally, N = 19 fatal accidents (19.2%) were registered. EC135 and BK1 17 had the highest incidence of uninjured occupants (100% vs. 88.2%) and the lowest percentage of fatal injuries (0% vs. 5.9%; all P > 0.05). Most fatal accidents occurred with the models UH-1D, Bell 212, and Bell 412. Use of the helicopter models EC135 and BK117 resulted in a high percentage of uninjured occupants. In contrast, the fatality rate was highest for the models Bell UH-I D, Bell 222, and Bell 412. Data from the present study allow for estimating accident risk in HEMS missions and prognosticating resulting fatalities, respectively.

  19. Fatalism and its implications for risky road use and receptiveness to safety messages: a qualitative investigation in Pakistan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kayani, A; King, M J; Fleiter, J J

    2012-12-01

    Given the increasing vehicle numbers and expanding road construction in developing countries, the importance of safe road user behaviour is critical. Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are a significant problem in Pakistan; however, the factors that contribute to RTCs in Pakistan are not well researched. Fatalistic beliefs are a potential barrier to the enhancement of road safety, especially participation in health-promoting and injury prevention behaviours, and also contribute to risk taking. Fatalistic beliefs relating to road safety have been found in some developing countries, although research is scarce and indicates that the nature and extent of fatalism differs in each country. Qualitative research was undertaken with a range of drivers, religious orators, police and policy makers to explore associations between fatalism, risky road use and associated issues. Findings indicate that fatalistic beliefs are pervasive in Pakistan, are strongly linked with religion, present a likely barrier to road safety messages and contribute to risky road use. Fatalism appears to be a default attribution of RTC and the intensity of belief in fate surpasses the kinds of fatalism noted in the limited existing literature. These findings have importance to developing road safety countermeasures in countries where fatalistic beliefs are strong.

  20. Caracterização das vítimas e dos acidentes de trabalho fatais Características de las víctimas y accidentes fatales en el trabajo Characteristics of victims and fatal accidents at the workplace

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernanda Moura D'Almeida Miranda

    2012-06-01

    study on fatal accidents occurred during the period from 2006 to 2010, in which workers were treated at Hospital do Trabalhador, located in Curitiba/Paraná. We selected 25 notifications for the outcome death. This study aimed to characterize victims and fatal occupational accidents. Fatal occupational accidents hit workers with a mean age of 35 years (SD = 13.0694, of the male sex, n = 23 (92%. Typical occupational accidents accounted for 52% (n = 13 of cases. One of the preventive measures proposed to reduce the number of fatal occupational accidents is the performance of educational and preventive work at the workplace by nurses. Moreover, it is necessary to rethink transit violence as a relevant factor for the cause of death of workers as well.

  1. Addressing Differences in Safety Influencing Factors—A Comparison of Offshore and Onshore Helicopter Operations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rolf J. Bye

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The accident levels in helicopter transportation vary between geographical regions and types of operations. In this paper, we develop some hypotheses regarding the factors that may explain this variation. The aim of this paper is to improve safety in helicopter transportation through better understanding of the causes leading to fatal accidents. We provide an analysis of three segments of helicopter transportation in Norway (i.e., offshore transportation; onshore ambulance/police, and onshore transportation. This analysis refers to international research on helicopter accidents. The number of fatal accidents per million flight hours in Norwegian offshore helicopter transportation was 2.8 in 1990–1999 and zero in 2000–2015. In Norwegian onshore helicopter transportation, the fatal accident rate was 13.8 in the period 2000–2012. Twenty-three onshore helicopters crashed to the ground; seven of these crashes were fatal, killing 16 people. It is reasonable to question why there is such a significant difference in accident rates between offshore and onshore helicopter transportation. We have approached this question by comparing how the different segments of helicopter transportation are organized and managed. Our analysis shows that there are major differences both at the “sharp” end (i.e., in actual operations and the “blunt” end (i.e., rules, regulations and organization. This includes differences in regulations, market conditions, work organization (i.e., training, employment conditions, and qualifications of the crews, operations and technology. A central argument is that differences in the market conditions and requirements stipulated by the users explain some of these differences. The same differences can be found internationally. If we use best practice and expert judgments, there is an opportunity to improve helicopter safety through improving the socio-technical system (i.e., organizational issues, improved design, improved

  2. Cost benefit study of a safety campaign's impact on road safety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stojanová, Hana; Blašková, Veronika

    2018-04-28

    The aim of this paper is to identify a break in the development trend of the time series of the number of fatal, light and heavy injuries in traffic accidents and compare the progress caused by the media campaign named "Think or you'll pay! "in the Czech Republic over the period 2000-2015. The campaign focuses on the age group of drivers under the age of 25 and the most common cause of their traffic accidents as the drivers in this age category are the most vulnerable group in road traffic. The campaign uses a method in which it tries to influence behaviour by negative action, or by causing negative emotions. The authors concentrate on the effects of mass media campaigns in the long-term development of accidents in the Czech Republic and a financial evaluation of the road safety campaign "Think or you'll pay! "by comparing the campaign costs, the cost of road fatalities, and the cost savings from the perspective of government expenditures. The secondary source data for the chart analysis and interpolation according to the criteria of analytical and mechanical balancing time series, the Chow test and Quandt Likelihood Ratio test, choosing the appropriate model trend of accidents and consequences of traffic accidents were obtained from the Czech Ministry of Transport, the database of The Losses due to Traffic Accident Rates (CZRSO) and the Czech Association of Victims of Traffic Accidents (CSODN, 2015) from period of 1990 till 2016. The impact of the media campaign "Think or you'll pay!", measured by enumerating the costs was compared with the number of fatalities in the years immediately after the campaign and the impact of the media campaign was evaluated and recognised. The conclusion and the highlights summarize the findings of research and the limits of media campaign evaluation approach. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. The role of post accident chemistry data in nuclear safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bradshaw, R.W.; Caruthers, G.F.

    1982-01-01

    The NRC instituted the NUREG-0737 requirements as implementation of the Post-TMI Action Plan in October, 1980. Among these requirements was the capability to obtain chemistry samples of the reactor coolant and containment building atmosphere under post accident conditions. The quantitative criteria were, in general, beyond the capabilities of existing plant systems. As a consequence the nuclear industry expended substantial efforts to design and install the post-accident sampling systems necessary to comply with these criteria. With such efforts essentially complete, the task remains to establish the role that data provided by these systems would play in mitigating the consequences of a nuclear plant accident. This role definition must include a characterization of the timing and priority for the post accident chemistry data. This paper defines that role using the Safety Level and Safety Function concepts as a matrix

  4. Use of probabilistic safety analyses in severe accident management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neogy, P.; Lehner, J.

    1991-01-01

    An important consideration in the development and assessment of severe accident management strategies is that while the strategies are often built on the knowledge base of Probabilistic Safety Analyses (PSA), they must be interpretable and meaningful in terms of the control room indicators. In the following, the relationships between PSA and severe accident management are explored using ex-vessel accident management at a PWR ice-condenser plant as an example. 2 refs., 1 fig., 3 tabs

  5. Causal Factors and Adverse Conditions of Aviation Accidents and Incidents Related to Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reveley, Mary S.; Briggs, Jeffrey L.; Evans, Joni K.; Sandifer, Carl E.; Jones, Sharon Monica

    2010-01-01

    The causal factors of accidents from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) database and incidents from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) database associated with loss of control (LOC) were examined for four types of operations (i.e., Federal Aviation Regulation Part 121, Part 135 Scheduled, Part 135 Nonscheduled, and Part 91) for the years 1988 to 2004. In-flight LOC is a serious aviation problem. Well over half of the LOC accidents included at least one fatality (80 percent in Part 121), and roughly half of all aviation fatalities in the studied time period occurred in conjunction with LOC. An adverse events table was updated to provide focus to the technology validation strategy of the Integrated Resilient Aircraft Control (IRAC) Project. The table contains three types of adverse conditions: failure, damage, and upset. Thirteen different adverse condition subtypes were gleaned from the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), the FAA Accident and Incident database, and the NTSB database. The severity and frequency of the damage conditions, initial test conditions, and milestones references are also provided.

  6. 78 FR 14877 - Pipeline Safety: Incident and Accident Reports

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-07

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [Docket ID PHMSA-2013-0028] Pipeline Safety: Incident and Accident Reports AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials... PHMSA F 7100.2--Incident Report--Natural and Other Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline Systems and...

  7. Safety evaluation of accident-tolerant FCM fueled core with SiC-coated zircalloy cladding for design-basis-accidents and beyond DBAs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chun, Ji-Han, E-mail: chunjh@kaeri.re.kr; Lim, Sung-Won; Chung, Bub-Dong; Lee, Won-Jae

    2015-08-15

    Highlights: • Thermal conductivity model of the FCM fuel was developed and adopted in the MARS. • Scoping analysis for candidate FCM FAs was performed to select feasible FA. • Preliminary safety criteria for FCM fuel and SiC/Zr cladding were set up. • Enhanced safety margin and accident tolerance for FCM-SiC/Zr core were demonstrated. - Abstract: The FCM fueled cores proposed as an accident tolerant concept is assessed against the design-basis-accident (DBA) and the beyond-DBA (BDBA) scenarios using MARS code. A thermal conductivity model of FCM fuel is incorporated in the MARS code to take into account the effects of irradiation and temperature that was recently measured by ORNL. Preliminary analyses regarding the initial stored energy and accident tolerant performance were carried out for the scoping of various cladding material candidates. A 16 × 16 FA with SiC-coated Zircalloy cladding was selected as the feasible conceptual design through a preliminary scoping analysis. For a selected design, safety analyses for DBA and BDBA scenarios were performed to demonstrate the accident tolerance of the FCM fueled core. A loss of flow accident (LOFA) scenario was selected for a departure-from-nucleate-boiling (DNB) evaluation, and large-break loss of coolant accident (LBLOCA) scenario for peak cladding temperature (PCT) margin evaluation. A control element assembly (CEA) ejection accident scenario was selected for peak fuel enthalpy and temperature. Moreover, a station blackout (SBO) and LBLOCA without a safety injection (SI) scenario were selected as a BDBA. It was demonstrated that the DBA safety margin of the FCM core is satisfied and the time for operator actions for BDBA s is evaluated.

  8. Having a New Pair of Glassess : Applying Systemic Accident Models on Road Safety

    OpenAIRE

    Huang, Yu-Hsing

    2007-01-01

    The main purpose of the thesis is to discuss the accident models which underlie accident prevention in general and road safety in particular, and the consequences of relying on a particular model have for actual preventive work. The discussion centres on two main topics. The first topic is whether the underlying accident model, or paradigm, of traditional road safety should be exchanged for a more complex accident model, and if so, which model(s) are appropriate. From a discussion of current ...

  9. Road Fatality Model Based on Over-Dispersion Data Along Federal Route F0050

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Musa Wan Zahidah

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available According to The World Health Ranking 2011 has ranked Malaysia as 20th in its list of countries with the most deaths caused by road accidents. Road accidents also have been identified as the prime cause of death in Malaysia after the heart disease, stroke, influenza and pneumonia. To date, previous researches from Malaysian Institute of Road Safety (MIROS have reported that averages of 18 people were killed on Malaysian road daily. There are many kinds of models that have been developed in modelling the circumstance of accidents. The most widely applied was Poisson and Negative Binomial regression models while Zeroinflated Poisson and Zero-inflated Negative Binomial are the modification of Poisson and Negative Binomials regression models. This study interested to focus on road F0050 as statistic data from Royal Malaysian Police 2014 list F0050 as one of the high accident road in Malaysia from kilometre 0 until kilometre 58. R programming was chose to analyse the relationship between road fatality and its factor (annual average daily traffic (AADT, speed, shoulder width, lane width. Negative binomial and Zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB were shown to be preferred modelling methods for this study. Significant positive relationships were also identified between road fatality and annual average daily traffic (AADT and lane width. This relationship can be a helpful support to the decision making of accident management for road F0050.

  10. Serious Injury and Fatality Investigations Involving Pneumatic Nail Guns, 1985-2012

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lowe, Brian D.; Albers, James T.; Hudock, Stephen D.; Krieg, Edward F.

    2016-01-01

    Background This paper examines serious and fatal pneumatic nail gun (PNG) injury investigations for workplace, tool design, and human factors relevant to causation and resulting OS&H authorities’ responses in terms of citations and penalties. Methods The U.S. OSHA database of Fatality and Catastrophe Investigation Summaries (F&CIS) were reviewed (1985 - 2012) to identify n=258 PNG accidents. Results 79.8% of investigations, and 100% of fatalities, occurred in the Construction industry. Between 53-71% of injuries appear preventable had a safer sequential trigger tool been used. Citations and monetary penalties were related to injury severity, body part injured, disabling of safety devices, and insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE). Conclusions Differences may exist between Construction and other industries in investigators interpretations of PNG injury causation and resulting citations/penalties. Violations of PPE standards were penalized most severely, yet the preventive effect of PPE would likely have been less than that of a safer sequential trigger. PMID:26725335

  11. Safety during sea transport of radioactive materials. Probabilistic safety analysis of package fro sea surface fire accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuoka, Takeshi; Obara, Isonori; Akutsu, Yukio; Aritomi, Masanori

    2000-01-01

    The ships carrying irradiated nuclear fuel, plutonium and high level radioactive wastes(INF materials) are designed to keep integrity of packaging based on the various safety and fireproof measures, even if the ship encounters a maritime fire accident. However, granted that the frequency is very low, realistic severe accidents should be evaluated. In this paper, probabilistic safety assessment method is applied to evaluate safety margin for severe sea fire accidents using event tree analysis. Based on our separate studies, the severest scenario was estimated as follows; an INF transport ship collides with oil tanker and induces a sea surface fire. Probability data such as ship's collision, oil leakage, ignition, escape from fire region, operations of cask cooling system and water flooding systems were also introduced from above mentioned studies. The results indicate that the probability of which packages cannot keep their integrity during the sea surface fire accident is very low and sea transport of INF materials is carried out very safely. (author)

  12. Nuclear Reactor RA Safety Report, Vol. 16, Maximum hypothetical accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-11-01

    Fault tree analysis of the maximum hypothetical accident covers the basic elements: accident initiation, phase development phases - scheme of possible accident flow. Cause of the accident initiation is the break of primary cooling pipe, heavy water system. Loss of primary coolant causes loss of pressure in the primary circuit at the coolant input in the reactor vessel. This initiates safety protection system which should automatically shutdown the reactor. Separate chapters are devoted to: after-heat removal, coolant and moderator loss; accident effects on the reactor core, effects in the reactor building, and release of radioactive wastes [sr

  13. Review of light water reactor safety through the Three Mile Island accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Phung, D.L.

    1984-05-01

    This review of light water reactor safety through the Three Mile Island accident has the purpose of establishing the baseline over which safety achievement post-TMI is assessed, and the need for new reactor designs and business direction is judged. Five major areas of reactor safety pre-TMI are examined: (1) safety philosophy and institutions, (2) reactor design criteria, (3) operational problems, (4) the Rasmussen reactor safety study, and (5) the TMI accident and repercussions. Although nuclear power has made spectacular achievements over the period pre-TMI and although TMI is technically a minor accident, this review concludes that there were basic flaws in the technology and in the manner safety philosophy was conceived and carried out. These flaws included (1) a reactor design that has high core power density, low heat capacity, and low system tolerance to upsets, (2) reactor deployment that had been expedited without extensive operational experience, (3) rules and regulations that had to play catch-up with commercial reactor development, (4) an industry that was fragmented, short-sighted, and tended to rely on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for safety guidance, (5) information that was not effectively shared, and (6) attention that was inadequate to the human aspects of reactor operation and to public reaction to the specter of a reactor accident, major or minor

  14. The influence of age, seat belt, time of day, and type of vehicles on road accidents in Kerman, Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadi, Ghorbanali

    2009-04-01

    Traffic accidents are one of the main external causes of morbidity and mortality in various parts of the world, including Kerman, a city that has experienced rapid growth in the number of cars in the last 5 years. The objective of this article was to identify the influence of age, belt use, time of day, and type of vehicle road accidents of southeastern Iran. This study used data obtained from Kerman police force reports on incidents of road traffic accidents (RTAs). We analyzed the police reports of total road accidents that occurred from 2005 to 2007. The involvement in fatal and non-fatal accidents was determined for females than among males. The analysis of the data indicated that the female drivers have a much better road safety record than male drivers, especially with regards to their involvement in severe traffic accidents. Forty-nine percent of accidents involve passenger cars, which is higher than other type of vehicles. Female drivers were found to be generally safer drivers than their male counterparts; male drivers who did not use seat belts had a higher involvement rate in road traffic accidents. Time of day analyses suggested that the problems of accidents in darkness are not a matter of visibility but a consequence of the way drivers use the roads at night. A number of recommended measures for the improvement of road safety in southeastern Iran are suggested.

  15. Control of Industrial Safety Based on Dynamic Characteristics of a Safety Budget-Industrial Accident Rate Model in Republic of Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Gi Heung; Loh, Byoung Gook

    2017-06-01

    Despite the recent efforts to prevent industrial accidents in the Republic of Korea, the industrial accident rate has not improved much. Industrial safety policies and safety management are also known to be inefficient. This study focused on dynamic characteristics of industrial safety systems and their effects on safety performance in the Republic of Korea. Such dynamic characteristics are particularly important for restructuring of the industrial safety system. The effects of damping and elastic characteristics of the industrial safety system model on safety performance were examined and feedback control performance was explained in view of cost and benefit. The implications on safety policies of restructuring the industrial safety system were also explored. A strong correlation between the safety budget and the industrial accident rate enabled modeling of an industrial safety system with these variables as the input and the output, respectively. A more effective and efficient industrial safety system could be realized by having weaker elastic characteristics and stronger damping characteristics in it. A substantial decrease in total social cost is expected as the industrial safety system is restructured accordingly. A simple feedback control with proportional-integral action is effective in prevention of industrial accidents. Securing a lower level of elastic industrial accident-driving energy appears to have dominant effects on the control performance compared with the damping effort to dissipate such energy. More attention needs to be directed towards physical and social feedbacks that have prolonged cumulative effects. Suggestions for further improvement of the safety system including physical and social feedbacks are also made.

  16. [Guilty victims: a model to perpetuate impunity for work-related accidents].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vilela, Rodolfo Andrade Gouveia; Iguti, Aparecida Mari; Almeida, Ildeberto Muniz

    2004-01-01

    This article analyzes reports and data from the investigation of severe and fatal work-related accidents by the Regional Institute of Criminology in Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brazil. Some 71 accident investigation reports were analyzed from 1998, 1999, and 2000. Accidents involving machinery represented 38.0% of the total, followed by high falls (15.5%), and electric shocks (11.3%). The reports conclude that 80.0% of the accidents are caused by "unsafe acts" committed by workers themselves, while the lack of safety or "unsafe conditions" account for only 15.5% of cases. Victims are blamed even in situations involving high risk in which not even minimum safety conditions are adopted, thus favoring employers' interests. Such conclusions reflect traditional reductionist explanatory models, in which accidents are viewed as simple, unicausal phenomena, generally focused on slipups and errors by the workers themselves. Despite criticism in recent decades from the technical and academic community, this concept is still hegemonic, thus jeopardizing the development of preventive policies and the improvement of work conditions.

  17. Impact of the Three Mile Island accident on reactor safety and licensing in Canada

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Harvie, J.D.

    1980-06-01

    This paper discusses the implications of the accident at Three Mile Island on reactor safety and licensing in Canada. Reactor safety principles which can be learned from, or are reaffirmed by, the accident are reviewed. It is concluded that reactor safety demands a firm commitment to safety by all those involved in the nuclear industry. (auth)

  18. Traffic monitoring and modeling for Intersection Safety

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pyykönen, P.; Molinier, M.; Klunder, G.A.

    2010-01-01

    The INTERSAFE-2 project aims to develop and demonstrate a Cooperative Intersection Safety System that is able to significantly reduce injury and fatal accidents at intersections. The cooperative sensor data fusion is based on state-of-the-art and advanced on-board sensors for object recognition and

  19. PREVENTION OF OCCUPATIONAL ACCIDENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jovica Jovanovic

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available Medical services, physicians and nurses play an essential role in the plant safety program through primary treatment of injured workers and by helping to identify workplace hazards. The physician and nurse should participate in the worksite investigations to identify specific hazard or stresses potentially causing the occupational accidents and injuries and in planning the subsequent hazard control program. Physicians and nurses must work closely and cooperatively with supervisors to ensure the prompt reporting and treatment of all work related health and safety problems. Occupational accidents, work related injuries and fatalities result from multiple causes, affect different segments of the working population, and occur in a myriad of occupations and industrial settings. Multiple factors and risks contribute to traumatic injuries, such as hazardous exposures, workplace and process design, work organization and environment, economics, and other social factors. With such a diversity of theories, it will not be difficult to understand that there does not exist one single theory that is considered right or correct and is universally accepted. These theories are nonetheless necessary, but not sufficient, for developing a frame of reference for understanding accident occurrences. Prevention strategies are also varied, and multiple strategies may be applicable to many settings, including engineering controls, protective equipment and technologies, management commitment to and investment in safety, regulatory controls, and education and training. Research needs are thus broad, and the development and application of interventions involve many disciplines and organizations.

  20. An Evaluation Methodology Development and Application Process for Severe Accident Safety Issue Resolution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert P. Martin

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available A general evaluation methodology development and application process (EMDAP paradigm is described for the resolution of severe accident safety issues. For the broader objective of complete and comprehensive design validation, severe accident safety issues are resolved by demonstrating comprehensive severe-accident-related engineering through applicable testing programs, process studies demonstrating certain deterministic elements, probabilistic risk assessment, and severe accident management guidelines. The basic framework described in this paper extends the top-down, bottom-up strategy described in the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Guide 1.203 to severe accident evaluations addressing U.S. NRC expectation for plant design certification applications.

  1. Passive Decay Heat Removal Strategy of Integrated Passive Safety System (IPSS) for SBO-combined Accidents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Sang Ho; Chang, Soon Heung; Jeong, Yong Hoon [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-10-15

    The weak points of nuclear safety would be in outmoded nuclear power plants like the Fukushima reactors. One of the systems for the safety enhancement is integrated passive safety system (IPSS) proposed after the Fukushima accidents. It has the five functions for the prevention and mitigation of a severe accident. Passive decay heat removal (PDHR) strategy using IPSS is proposed for coping with SBO-combined accidents in this paper. The two systems for removing decay heat before core-melt were applied in the strategy. The accidents were simulated by MARS code. The reference reactor was OPR1000, specifically Ulchin-3 and 4. The accidents included loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA) because the coolant losses could be occurred in the SBO condition. The examples were the stuck open of PSV, the abnormal open of SDV and the leakage of RCP seal water. Also, as LOCAs with the failure of active safety injection systems were considered, various LOCAs were simulated in SBO. Based on the thermal hydraulic analysis, the probabilistic safety analysis was carried out for the PDHR strategy to estimate the safety enhancement in terms of the variation of core damage frequency. AIMS-PSA developed by KAERI was used for calculating CDF of the plant. The IPSS was applied in the PDHR strategy which was developed in order to cope with the SBO-combined accidents. The estimation for initiating SGGI or PSIS was based on the pressure in RCS. The simulations for accidents showed that the decay heat could be removed for the safety duration time in SBO. The increase of safety duration time from the strategy provides the increase of time for the restoration of AC power.

  2. Road crash injuries and fatalities in Isfahan, Iran from March 2006 to March 2009.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohammadi, Ghorbanali

    2014-01-01

    With rapid development of social economies, road traffic accidents have continued to increase, and have become the primary public hazard to humans. The main goal of the present study was to investigate road traffic crash (RTC) fatalities and injuries in the city of Isfahan, Iran. A sample of 150,940 accident cases was considered from Isfahan Police Safety Driving Department, involving drivers and passengers of all ages, and covering a 3-year period. The record linkage identified 24,608 drivers and passengers injured or died as a result of RTC in the city of Isfahan over the 3-year period. The finding of this study shows that the highest rate of RTC fatality was 40% and 58%, which comprises the male drivers and female passengers within the age classes 25-34 and 35-44, respectively. On average, there were one death every 3 days and every hour, someone was injured and taken to an emergency department for RTCs in the city of Isfahan. The highest men to women death and injured ratios were 4:1 and 2:1, respectively. The use of seat belt devices in our population was worrisome. The article ends with a number of recommended measures for the improvement of road safety.

  3. Accident consequence calculations for project W-058 safety analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Keuren, J.C.

    1997-01-01

    This document describes the calculations performed to determine the accident consequences for the W-058 safety analysis. Project W-058 is the replacement cross site transfer system (RCSTS), which is designed to transort liquid waste between the 200 W and 200 E areas. Calculations for RCSTS safety analyses used the same methods as the calculations for the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) Basis for Interim Operation (BIO) and its supporting calculation notes. Revised analyses were performed for the spray and pool leak accidents since the RCSTS flows and pressures differ from those assumed in the TWRS BIO. Revision 1 of the document incorporates review comments

  4. Evaluation of severe accident safety system value based on averting financial risks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatch, S.W.; Benjamin, A.S.; Bennett, P.R.

    1983-01-01

    The Severe Accident Risk Reduction Program is being performed to benchmark the risks from nuclear power plants and to assess the benefits and impacts of a set of severe accident safety features. This paper describes the program in general and presents some preliminary results. These results include estimates of the financial risks associated with the operation of six reference plants and the value of severe accident prevention and mitigation safety systems in averting these risks. The results represent initial calculations and will be iterated before being used to support NRC decisions

  5. Initial integration of accident safety, waste management, recycling, effluent, and maintenance considerations for low-activation materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Piet, S.J.; Herring, J.S.; Cheng, E.T.; Fetter, S.

    1991-01-01

    A true low-activation material should ideally achieve all of the following objectives: 1. The possible prompt dose at the site boundary from 100% release of the inventory should be <2 Sv (200 rem); hence, the design would be inherently safe in that no possible accident could result in prompt radiation fatalities. 2. The possible cancers from realistic releases should be limited such that the accident risk is <0.1%/yr of the existing background cancer risk to local residents. This includes consideration of elemental volatility. 3. The decay heat should be limited so that active mitigative measures are not needed to protect the investment from cooling transients; hence, the design would be passively safe with respect to decay heat. 4. Used materials could be either recycled or disposed of as near- surface waste. 5. Hands-on maintenance should be possible around coolant system piping and components such as the heat exchanger. 6. Effluent of activation products should be minor compared to the major challenge of limiting tritium effluents. The most recent studies in these areas are used to determine which individual elements and engineering materials are low activation. Grades from A (best) to G (worst) are given to each element in the areas of accident safety, recycling, and waste management. Structure/fluid combinations are examined for low-activation effluents and out-of-blanket maintenance. The lowest activation structural materials are silicon carbide, vanadium alloys, and ferritic steels. Impurities and minor alloying constituents must be carefully considered. The lowest activation coolants are helium, water, FLiBe, and lithium. The lowest activation breeders are lithium, lithium oxide, lithium silicate, and FLiBe. Designs focusing on these truly low-activation materials will help achieve the excellent safety and environmental potential of fusion energy

  6. Safety against releases in severe accidents. Final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lindholm, I.; Berg, Oe.; Nonboel, E.

    1997-12-01

    The work scope of the RAK-2 project has involved research on quantification of the effects of selected severe accident phenomena for Nordic nuclear power plants, development and testing of a computerised accident management support system and data collection and description of various mobile reactors and of different reactor types existing in the UK. The investigations of severe accident phenomena focused mainly on in-vessel melt progression, covering a numerical assessment of coolability of a degraded BWR core, the possibility and consequences of a BWR reactor to become critical during reflooding and the core melt behavior in the reactor vessel lower plenum. Simulant experiments were carried out to investigate lower head hole ablation induced by debris discharge. In addition to the in-vessel phenomena, a limited study on containment response to high pressure melt ejection in a BWR and a comparative study on fission product source term behaviour in a Swedish PWR were performed. An existing computerised accident management support system (CAMS) was further developed in the area of tracking and predictive simulation, signal validation, state identification and user interface. The first version of a probabilistic safety analysis module was developed and implemented in the system. CAMS was tested in practice with Barsebaeck data in a safety exercise with the Swedish nuclear authority. The descriptions of the key features of British reactor types, AGR, Magnox, FBR and PWR were published as data reports. Separate reports were issued also on accidents in nuclear ships and on description of key features of satellite reactors. The collected data were implemented in a common Nordic database. (au)

  7. OVERVIEW OF MODULAR HTGR SAFETY CHARACTERIZATION AND POSTULATED ACCIDENT BEHAVIOR LICENSING STRATEGY

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ball, Sydney J [ORNL

    2014-06-01

    This report provides an update on modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) accident analyses and risk assessments. One objective of this report is to improve the characterization of the safety case to better meet current regulatory practice, which is commonly geared to address features of today s light water reactors (LWRs). The approach makes use of surrogates for accident prevention and mitigation to make comparisons with LWRs. The safety related design features of modular HTGRs are described, along with the means for rigorously characterizing accident selection and progression methodologies. Approaches commonly used in the United States and elsewhere are described, along with detailed descriptions and comments on design basis (and beyond) postulated accident sequences.

  8. Advances in operational safety and severe accident research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Simola, K. [VTT Automation (Finland)

    2002-02-01

    A project on reactor safety was carried out as a part of the NKS programme during 1999-2001. The objective of the project was to obtain a shared Nordic view of certain key safety issues related to the operating nuclear power plants in Finland and Sweden. The focus of the project was on selected central aspects of nuclear reactor safety that are of common interest for the Nordic nuclear authorities, utilities and research bodies. The project consisted of three sub-projects. One of them concentrated on the problems related to risk-informed deci- sion making, especially on the uncertainties and incompleteness of probabilistic safety assessments and their impact on the possibilities to use the PSA results in decision making. Another sub-project dealt with questions related to maintenance, such as human and organisational factors in maintenance and maintenance management. The focus of the third sub-project was on severe accidents. This sub-project concentrated on phenomenological studies of hydrogen combustion, formation of organic iodine, and core re-criticality due to molten core coolant interaction in the lower head of reactor vessel. Moreover, the current status of severe accident research and management was reviewed. (au)

  9. Mining Behavior Based Safety Data to Predict Safety Performance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jeffrey C. Joe

    2010-06-01

    The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) operates a behavior based safety program called Safety Observations Achieve Results (SOAR). This peer-to-peer observation program encourages employees to perform in-field observations of each other's work practices and habits (i.e., behaviors). The underlying premise of conducting these observations is that more serious accidents are prevented from occurring because lower level “at risk” behaviors are identified and corrected before they can propagate into culturally accepted “unsafe” behaviors that result in injuries or fatalities. Although the approach increases employee involvement in safety, the premise of the program has not been subject to sufficient empirical evaluation. The INL now has a significant amount of SOAR data on these lower level “at risk” behaviors. This paper describes the use of data mining techniques to analyze these data to determine whether they can predict if and when a more serious accident will occur.

  10. ACCIDENT ANALYSES & CONTROL OPTIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE SLUDGE WATER SYSTEM SAFETY ANALYSIS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    WILLIAMS, J.C.

    2003-11-15

    This report documents the accident analyses and nuclear safety control options for use in Revision 7 of HNF-SD-WM-SAR-062, ''K Basins Safety Analysis Report'' and Revision 4 of HNF-SD-SNF-TSR-001, ''Technical Safety Requirements - 100 KE and 100 KW Fuel Storage Basins''. These documents will define the authorization basis for Sludge Water System (SWS) operations. This report follows the guidance of DOE-STD-3009-94, ''Preparation Guide for US. Department of Energy Nonreactor Nuclear Facility Safety Analysis Reports'', for calculating onsite and offsite consequences. The accident analysis summary is shown in Table ES-1 below. While this document describes and discusses potential control options to either mitigate or prevent the accidents discussed herein, it should be made clear that the final control selection for any accident is determined and presented in HNF-SD-WM-SAR-062.

  11. The accident at Chernobyl and its implications for the safety of CANDU reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-05-01

    In August 1986, a delegation of Canadians, including two members of the staff of the AECB (Atomic Energy Control Board), attended a post-accident review meeting in Vienna, at which Soviet representatives described the accident and its causes and consequences. On the basis of the information presented at that meeting, AECB staff conducted a study of the accident to ascertain its implications for the safety of CANDU nuclear reactors and for the regulatory process in Canada. The conclusion of this review is that the accident at Chernobyl has not revealed any important new information which would have an effect on the safety requirements for CANDU reactors as presently applied by the AECB. All important aspects of the accident and its causes have been considered by the AECB in the licensing process for currently licensed reactors. However a number of recommendations are made with respect to aspects of reactor safety which should be re-examined in order to reinforce this conclusion

  12. Exploring the potential of data mining techniques for the analysis of accident patterns

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Prato, Carlo Giacomo; Bekhor, Shlomo; Galtzur, Ayelet

    2010-01-01

    Research in road safety faces major challenges: individuation of the most significant determinants of traffic accidents, recognition of the most recurrent accident patterns, and allocation of resources necessary to address the most relevant issues. This paper intends to comprehend which data mining...... and association rules) data mining techniques are implemented for the analysis of traffic accidents occurred in Israel between 2001 and 2004. Results show that descriptive techniques are useful to classify the large amount of analyzed accidents, even though introduce problems with respect to the clear...... importance of input and intermediate neurons, and the relative importance of hundreds of association rules. Further research should investigate whether limiting the analysis to fatal accidents would simplify the task of data mining techniques in recognizing accident patterns without the “noise” probably...

  13. A Public Health Perspective of Road Traffic Accidents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gopalakrishnan, S.

    2012-01-01

    Road traffic accidents (RTAs) have emerged as an important public health issue which needs to be tackled by a multi-disciplinary approach. The trend in RTA injuries and death is becoming alarming in countries like India. The number of fatal and disabling road accident happening is increasing day by day and is a real public health challenge for all the concerned agencies to prevent it. The approach to implement the rules and regulations available to prevent road accidents is often ineffective and half-hearted. Awareness creation, strict implementation of traffic rules, and scientific engineering measures are the need of the hour to prevent this public health catastrophe. This article is intended to create awareness among the health professionals about the various modalities available to prevent road accidents and also to inculcate a sense of responsibility toward spreading the message of road safety as a good citizen of our country. PMID:24479025

  14. Safety in New Zealand's adventure tourism industry: the client accident experience of adventure tourism operators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bentley , T A; Page, S J; Laird, I S

    2000-01-01

    Injuries and fatalities among participants of adventure tourism activities have the potential to seriously impact on New Zealand's tourism industry. However, the absence of statistics for tourist accidents in New Zealand, and the lack of detailed academic research into adventure tourism safety, means the extent of the problem is unknown. The aims of the present study were to determine the incidence of client injuries across a range of adventure tourism activity sectors, and to identify common accident events and contributory risk factors. A postal questionnaire survey of New Zealand adventure tourism operators was used. Operators were asked to provide information related to their business; the number of recorded client injuries during the preceding 12 month period, January to December 1998; common accident and injury events associated with their activity; and perceived risk factors for accidents in their sector of the adventure tourism industry. The survey was responded to by 142 New Zealand adventure tourism operators. The operators' reported client injury experience suggests the incidence of serious client injuries is very low. Highest client injury incidence rates were found for activities that involved the risk of falling from a moving vehicle or animal (e.g., cycle tours, quad biking, horse riding, and white-water rafting). Slips, trips, and falls on the level were common accident events across most sectors of the industry. Perceived accident/incident causes were most commonly related to the client, and in particular, failure to attend to and follow instructions. The prevalence of client injuries in activity sectors not presently covered by government regulation, suggests policy makers should look again at extending codes of practice to a wider range of adventure tourism activities. Further research considering adventure tourism involvement in overseas visitor hospitalized injuries in New Zealand, is currently in progress. This will provide supporting evidence

  15. Safety Culture and Issue in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali Danish

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available . This paper highlights the Safety culture and issue in the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector and emphasis the high occupational accidents due to lack of safety culture and non-compliance of the requirements of Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994. The aim of this study is to review the occupational accidents occurrence in the Malaysia workplace since 2012-2016. Malaysia aimed to reduce the occupational accidents, the results show by DOSH increase that Occupational Noise Induced Hearing Loss 83.7%, occupational musculoskeletal diseases, 4.4% and occupational lung diseases 2.3%. But the as per the record from DOSH that in last 5-Years, the increment in the fatal accidents by Average 26%, Permanent Disability by Average 71% and Non-Permanent Disability by 64 % are investigated only in Manufacturing Industries. The government must show their high interest on such a vulnerable employees to accomplish the above aim. This step will be helpful for planning to reduce the accidents in workplaces and it will also detect the prevention for the future accidents.

  16. Investigation of hot air balloon fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McConnell, T S; Smialek, J E; Capron, R G

    1985-04-01

    The rising popularity of the sport of hot air ballooning has been accompanied by several recent incidents, both in this country and other parts of the world, where mechanical defects and the improper operation of balloons have resulted in several fatalities. A study was conducted to identify the location and frequency of hot air ballooning accidents. Furthermore, the study attempted to identify those accidents that were the result of improper handling on the part of the balloon operators and those that were related to specific defects in the construction of the balloon. This paper presents a background of the sport of hot air ballooning, together with an analysis of the construction of a typical hot air balloon, pointing out the specific areas where defects may occur that could result in a potential fatal balloon crash. Specific attention is given to the two recent balloon crashes that occurred in Albuquerque, N.M., hot air balloon capital of the world, and that resulted in multiple fatalities.

  17. Pedestrian fatalities and injuries involving Irish older people.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Martin, A J

    2012-02-01

    BACKGROUND: It has been established internationally that road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving older drivers follow clearly different patterns of timing, location and outcomes from those of younger age groups. Older pedestrians are also a vulnerable group and fewer analyses have been undertaken of the phenomenology of their injuries and fatalities. We studied the pattern of pedestrian RTAs in Ireland over a five-year period with the aim of identifying differences between older pedestrians (aged 65 or older) and younger adults. METHODS: We examined the datasets of the Irish National Road Authority (now the Road Safety Authority) from 1998-2002. We analysed patterns of crashes involving older pedestrians (aged 65) and compared them with younger adults (aged 18-64). RESULTS: Older people represented 36% (n = 134) of pedestrian fatalities and 23% of serious injuries while they only account for 19% of total RTAs. Mortality in RTA is more than doubled for older pedestrians compared to younger adults (RR 2.30). Most accidents involving older pedestrians happen in daylight with good visibility (56%) and in good weather conditions (77%). CONCLUSIONS: Older pedestrians are particularly vulnerable in RTAs. These occur more frequently during daylight hours and in good weather conditions. This may point to a need for prevention strategies that are targeted at the traffic environment and other road users rather than at older people.

  18. Road safety in Poland: magnitude, causes and injuries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goniewicz, Krzysztof; Goniewicz, Mariusz; Pawłowski, Witold; Fiedor, Piotr; Lasota, Dorota

    2017-01-01

    Road accidents are a serious problem of the modern world. They are one of the main causes of injuries and are the third most frequent cause of death. Every year, about one million people, adults and children, die on the roads and several millions get injured. Mortality rate due to injuries from road accidents amounts to 2.2% of all deaths in the world. The research presents epidemiology of road accidents in the period 2004-2015 with particular emphasis on the key issues of road safety in Poland, related to the dangerous behaviour of road users (disregard toward traffic rules). Between years 2004 and 2015 on Polish roads took place more than 508000 accidents with 53155 fatalities and more then 572000 casualties. Despite the various measures which are taken to improve safety on Polish roads, the number of dead and wounded in the vehicle mishap is still large, and losses borne by society are high. To improve safety on Polish roads, it is necessary to continue multi- action plan to systematically progress in the level of road safety.

  19. Upgrading the safety toolkit: Initiatives of the accident analysis subgroup

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Kula, K.R.; Chung, D.Y.

    1999-01-01

    Since its inception, the Accident Analysis Subgroup (AAS) of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has been a leading organization promoting development and application of appropriate methodologies for safety analysis of US Department of Energy (DOE) installations. The AAS, one of seven chartered by the EFCOG Safety Analysis Working Group, has performed an oversight function and provided direction to several technical groups. These efforts have been instrumental toward formal evaluation of computer models, improving the pedigree on high-use computer models, and development of the user-friendly Accident Analysis Guidebook (AAG). All of these improvements have improved the analytical toolkit for best complying with DOE orders and standards shaping safety analysis reports (SARs) and related documentation. Major support for these objectives has been through DOE/DP-45

  20. Percepção do acidente fatal de trabalho para a família da vítima Percepción del accidente fatal de trabajo para la familia de la víctima Perception of the fatal work accident for the victim’s family

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Beatryce Tedesco Moraes

    2012-01-01

    íctima y del empleador sobre el accidente: mientras su repercusión para la familia se fundamenta en la importancia social del trabajo, para el empleador, se asocia a la defensa de la empresa y de su responsabilidad sobre la muerte en el trabajo.Human work is an important means of social insertion, implied in the formation of the identity and social acknowledgement. In the case of a fatal work accident, the family suffers the impacts of that phenomenon in its organization and dynamic. The work aimed at investigating the perception of a fatal work accident for the family of a victim in the south of Espírito Santo, whose analysis was based on the following themes: the working conditions of the one who had the accident, the psychosocial impacts created by the work accident and the changes in the familial dynamic due to such occurrence. Three members of the victim’s family and his/her employer were interviewed. Data were analyzed according to the qualitative criteria of the semiotic phenomenology. Results indicate a paradox in the victim’s family and in the employer’s perception of the accident: while its repercussion for the family is based on the social importance of work, for the employer, it is associated to the company’s defense and its responsibility regarding the death held at work.

  1. Study on the experimental VHTR safety with analysis for a hypothetical rapid depressurization accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mitake, S.; Suzuki, K.; Ohno, T.; Okada, T.

    1982-01-01

    A hypothetical rapid depressurization accident of the experimental VHTR has been analyzed, including all phenomena in the accident, from its initiating depressurization of the coolant to consequential radiological hazard. Based on reliability analysis of the engineered safety features, all possible sequences, in which the safety systems are in success or in failure, have been investigated with event tree analysis. The result shows the inherent safety characteristics of the reactor and the effectiveness of the engineered safety features. And through the analysis, it has been indicated that further investigations on some phenomena in the accident, e.g., air ingress by natural circulation flow and fission product transport in the plant, will bring forth more reasonable and sufficient safety of the reactor

  2. Occupational Accidents with Agricultural Machinery in Austria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kogler, Robert; Quendler, Elisabeth; Boxberger, Josef

    2016-01-01

    The number of recognized accidents with fatalities during agricultural and forestry work, despite better technology and coordinated prevention and trainings, is still very high in Austria. The accident scenarios in which people are injured are very different on farms. The common causes of accidents in agriculture and forestry are the loss of control of machine, means of transport or handling equipment, hand-held tool, and object or animal, followed by slipping, stumbling and falling, breakage, bursting, splitting, slipping, fall, and collapse of material agent. In the literature, a number of studies of general (machine- and animal-related accidents) and specific (machine-related accidents) agricultural and forestry accident situations can be found that refer to different databases. From the database Data of the Austrian Workers Compensation Board (AUVA) about occupational accidents with different agricultural machinery over the period 2008-2010 in Austria, main characteristics of the accident, the victim, and the employer as well as variables on causes and circumstances by frequency and contexts of parameters were statistically analyzed by employing the chi-square test and odds ratio. The aim of the study was to determine the information content and quality of the European Statistics on Accidents at Work (ESAW) variables to evaluate safety gaps and risks as well as the accidental man-machine interaction.

  3. Highway Safety: Trends in Highway Fatalities 1975-1987

    Science.gov (United States)

    1990-03-01

    pattern of fatalities as the overall trend. This pattern applies to many of the general fatality statis- tics we present, and, in all cases, it serves as a...Fatalities 1975-87 Appemfx IV Vehicle-Related Statistics Figure IV.17: Vehicle Fatalities by Direction of Principal Impacto NNNumber of PddUlsils lwam 0 1975

  4. Development of Safety Significance Evaluation Program for Accidents and Events in NPPs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Hui Chang; Hong, Seok Jin; Cho, Nam Chul; Chung, Dae Wook; Lee, Chang Joo

    2010-01-01

    To evaluate the significance in terms of safety for the accidents and events occurred in nuclear power plants using probabilistic safety assessment techniques can provide useful insights to the regulator. Based on the quantified risk information of accident or event occurred, regulators can decide which regulatory areas should be focused than the others. To support these regulatory analysis activities, KINS-ASP program was developed. KINS-ASP program can supports the risk increase due to the occurred accidents or events by providing the graphic interfaces and linked quantification engines for the PSA experts and non- PSA acquainted regulators both

  5. 29 CFR 1960.29 - Accident investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... reflective of the seriousness of the accident. (b) In any case, each accident which results in a fatality or... evidence uncovered during accident investigations which would be of benefit in developing a new OSHA...

  6. Time to death analysis of road traffic accidents in relation to delta V, drunk driving, and restraint systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ju, Yonghan; Sohn, So Young

    2014-01-01

    The main goal of this research is to identify variables related to the expected time to death due to road traffic accidents (RTAs). Such research is expected to be useful in improving safety laws and regulations and developing new safety systems. The resulting information is crucial not only for reducing accident fatalities but for assessing related insurance policies. In this article, we analyze factors that are potentially associated with variation in the expected survival time after a road traffic accident using Weibull regression. In particular, we consider the association with alcohol involvement, delta V, and restraint systems. Our empirical results, obtained based on the NASS-CDS, indicate that the expected survival time for non-alcohol-impaired drivers is 3.23 times longer at a delta V of 50 km/h than that for alcohol-impaired drivers under the same conditions. In addition, it was observed that, even when occupants were alcohol-impaired, if they were protected by both air bags and seat belts, their expected survival time after an RTA increased 2.59-fold compared to alcohol-impaired drivers who used only seat belts. Our findings may be useful in improving road traffic safety and insurance policies by offering insights into the factors that reduce fatalities.

  7. Safety against releases in severe accidents. Final report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lindholm, I.; Berg, Oe.; Nonboel, E. [eds.

    1997-12-01

    The work scope of the RAK-2 project has involved research on quantification of the effects of selected severe accident phenomena for Nordic nuclear power plants, development and testing of a computerised accident management support system and data collection and description of various mobile reactors and of different reactor types existing in the UK. The investigations of severe accident phenomena focused mainly on in-vessel melt progression, covering a numerical assessment of coolability of a degraded BWR core, the possibility and consequences of a BWR reactor to become critical during reflooding and the core melt behavior in the reactor vessel lower plenum. Simulant experiments were carried out to investigate lower head hole ablation induced by debris discharge. In addition to the in-vessel phenomena, a limited study on containment response to high pressure melt ejection in a BWR and a comparative study on fission product source term behaviour in a Swedish PWR were performed. An existing computerised accident management support system (CAMS) was further developed in the area of tracking and predictive simulation, signal validation, state identification and user interface. The first version of a probabilistic safety analysis module was developed and implemented in the system. CAMS was tested in practice with Barsebaeck data in a safety exercise with the Swedish nuclear authority. The descriptions of the key features of British reactor types, AGR, Magnox, FBR and PWR were published as data reports. Separate reports were issued also on accidents in nuclear ships and on description of key features of satellite reactors. The collected data were implemented in a common Nordic database. (au) 39 refs.

  8. Nuclear power plant safety - the risk of accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Higson, D.; Crancher, D.W.

    1975-08-01

    Although it is physically impossible for any nuclear plant to explode like an atom bomb, an accidental release of radioactive material into the environment is conceivable. Three factors reduce the probability of such releases, in dangerous quantities, to an extremely low level. Firstly, there are many safety features built into the plant including a leaktight containment building to prevent the escape of such material. Secondly, the quality of engineering and standards used are far more demanding than in conventional power engineering. Thirdly, strict government licensing and regulatory control is enforced at all phases from design through construction to operation. No member of the general public is known to have been injured or died as a result of any accident to a commercial nuclear power plant. Ten workers have died as a result of over-exposure to radiation from experimental reactors and laboratory work connected with the development of nuclear plant since 1945. Because of this excellent safety record the risk of serious accidents can only be estimated. On the basis of such estimates, the chance of an accident in a nuclear power reactor which could cause a detectable increase in the incidence of radiation-induced illnesses would be less than one chance in a million per year. In a typical highly industrialised society, such as the USA, the estimated risk of an individual being killed by such accidents, from one hundred operating reactors, is no greater than one chance in sixteen million per year. There are undoubtedly risks from reactor accidents but estimates of these risks show that they are considerably less than from other activities which are accepted by society. (author)

  9. 49 CFR 219.207 - Fatality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... TRANSPORTATION CONTROL OF ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE Post-Accident Toxicological Testing § 219.207 Fatality. (a) In the..., United States Code (but not the agent of the Secretary for purposes of the Federal Tort Claims Act...

  10. Highlights from the literature on accident causation and system safety: Review of major ideas, recent contributions, and challenges

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Saleh, J.H., E-mail: jsaleh@gatech.ed [School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (United States); Marais, K.B. [School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University (United States); Bakolas, E.; Cowlagi, R.V. [School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (United States)

    2010-11-15

    This work constitutes a short guide to the extensive but fragmented literature on accident causation and system safety. After briefly motivating the interest in accident causation and discussing the notion of a safety value chain, we delve into our multi-disciplinary review with discussions of Man Made Disasters, Normal Accident, and the High Reliability Organizations (HRO) paradigm. The HRO literature intersects an extensive literature on safety culture, a subject we then briefly touch upon. Following this discussion, we note that while these social and organizational contributions have significantly enriched our understanding of accident causation and system safety, they have important deficiencies and are lacking in their understanding of technical and design drivers of system safety and accident causation. These missing ingredients, we argue, were provided in part by the development of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). The idea of anticipating possible accident scenarios, based on the system design and configuration, as well as its technical and operational characteristics, constitutes an important contribution of PRA, which builds on and extends earlier contributions made by the development of Fault Tree and Event Tree Analysis. We follow the discussion of PRA with an exposition of the concept of safety barriers and the principle of defense-in-depth, both of which emphasize the functions and 'safety elements [that should be] deliberately inserted' along potential accident trajectories to prevent, contain, or mitigate accidents. Finally, we discuss two ideas that are emerging as foundational in the literature on system safety and accident causation, namely that system safety is a 'control problem', and that it requires a 'system theoretic' approach to be dealt with. We clarify these characterizations and indicate research opportunities to be pursued along these directions. We conclude this work with two general recommendations

  11. Highlights from the literature on accident causation and system safety: Review of major ideas, recent contributions, and challenges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saleh, J.H.; Marais, K.B.; Bakolas, E.; Cowlagi, R.V.

    2010-01-01

    This work constitutes a short guide to the extensive but fragmented literature on accident causation and system safety. After briefly motivating the interest in accident causation and discussing the notion of a safety value chain, we delve into our multi-disciplinary review with discussions of Man Made Disasters, Normal Accident, and the High Reliability Organizations (HRO) paradigm. The HRO literature intersects an extensive literature on safety culture, a subject we then briefly touch upon. Following this discussion, we note that while these social and organizational contributions have significantly enriched our understanding of accident causation and system safety, they have important deficiencies and are lacking in their understanding of technical and design drivers of system safety and accident causation. These missing ingredients, we argue, were provided in part by the development of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). The idea of anticipating possible accident scenarios, based on the system design and configuration, as well as its technical and operational characteristics, constitutes an important contribution of PRA, which builds on and extends earlier contributions made by the development of Fault Tree and Event Tree Analysis. We follow the discussion of PRA with an exposition of the concept of safety barriers and the principle of defense-in-depth, both of which emphasize the functions and 'safety elements [that should be] deliberately inserted' along potential accident trajectories to prevent, contain, or mitigate accidents. Finally, we discuss two ideas that are emerging as foundational in the literature on system safety and accident causation, namely that system safety is a 'control problem', and that it requires a 'system theoretic' approach to be dealt with. We clarify these characterizations and indicate research opportunities to be pursued along these directions. We conclude this work with two general recommendations: (1) that more fundamental

  12. Neglecting safety precautions may lead to trenching fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deatherage, J Harold; Furches, Lisa K; Radcliffe, Mike; Schriver, William R; Wagner, John P

    2004-06-01

    Trench collapses ranked as the seventh leading cause of the possible twenty-nine causes of OSHA-inspected fatal construction events during the period 1991-2001. This study aims to examine why these fatalities occurred. Forty-four case files from OSHA inspections of fatal trench collapses were reviewed. Improper protection of the excavation site where work was taking place was the leading fatality cause. Several organizational or physical conditions were present at many fatal sites; the most frequent was that no training had been provided for trenching. Presence of a competent, diligent person at the site would have prohibited most fatalities. The top cited violation was lack of protection, that is, benching, shoring, sloping, trench boxes, etc. (29 CFR 1926.652 (a) (1)). Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  13. Decrease of morbidity in road traffic accidents in a high income country - an analysis of 24,405 accidents in a 21 year period.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ernstberger, Antonio; Joeris, Alexander; Daigl, Monica; Kiss, Miklos; Angerpointner, Katharina; Nerlich, Michael; Schmucker, Uli

    2015-10-01

    The WHO initiated the "Decade of Action for Road Safety" because the fatality on road traffic accidents could become the fifth leading cause of death in 2030. On the contrary, fatalities continue to decrease in high income countries. The aim of the study was to find evidence for changes in injury severity of passenger car occupants after road traffic accidents in Germany over time, and to find contributing factors. Data from the German In Depth Accident Study (GIDAS), representative for Germany, was used. A total of 24.405 accidents, reported from 1991 until 2011. 44.503 adult passenger car occupants were examined. A multivariable logistic regression model was developed to find reasons for observed trends over time. The relative decrease in mortality was 68.8% from 1991 until 2011. Between 2006 and 2011, the percentage of severely injured traffic victims was less than half, both in terms of the whole body and individual body regions. For injuries with an Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) ≥ 2, the percentage of persons with lower leg injuries declined by 72.5%, followed by the percentage of persons with pelvic injuries (61.5%), upper extremity injuries (57.7%), head injuries (54.3%), thorax injuries (50.0%), and abdomen injuries (40.0%). The multivariable regression model found 13 independent variables associated with injury prevention (e.g. seat belt use: OR 0.41, CI 95% 0.32-0.49; airbag: OR 0.86, CI 95% 0.75-0.99). The implementation of protective factors increased over time while accident constellations with a high probability for severe injury decreased over time. The decrease of severe injuries after road traffic accidents can be only attributed to a comprehensive approach including the enforcement of road safety policies and innovations in car engineering and emergency medicine. Traffic related measures and alcohol level control, and seat belt usage enforcement next to other technical advances are considered especially important. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd

  14. Analysis of some accident conditions in confirmation of the HTGR safety

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grebennik, V. N.; Grishanin, E. I.; Kukharkin, N. E.; Mikhailov, P. V.; Pinchuk, V. V.; Ponomarev-Stepnoy, N. N.; Fedin, G. I.; Shilov, V. N.; Yanushevich, I. V. [Gosudarstvennyj Komitet po Ispol' zovaniyu Atomnoj Ehnergii SSSR, Moscow. Inst. Atomnoj Ehnergii

    1981-01-15

    This report concerns some accident conditions for the HTGR-50 demonstrational reactor which along with the safety features common to the typical HTGR differs in design. The analyses carried out on the accident situations showed that due to the high heat capacity of the graphite core and negative temperature effect of the reactivity the HTGR-50 reactor is effectively selfcontrolled at different perturbations of the reactivity and has low sensitivity to the failure of the core cooling. The primary circuit depressurization accident should be thoroughly studied because of the dangerous consequences i.e. the core overheating and the reactivity release into the environment. As a whole, the studies now in progress show that the problem of the HTGR safety can be successfully solved.

  15. Analysis of some accident conditions in confirmation of the HTGR safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grebennik, V.N.; Grishanin, E.I.; Kukharkin, N.E.; Mikhailov, P.V.; Pinchuk, V.V.; Ponomarev-Stepnoy, N.N.; Fedin, G.I.; Shilov, V.N.; Yanushevich, I.V.

    1981-01-01

    This report concerns some accident conditions for the HTGR-50 demonstrational reactor which along with the safety features common to the typical HTGR differs in design. The analyses carried out on the accident situations showed that due to the high heat capacity of the graphite core and negative temperature effect of the reactivity the HTGR-50 reactor is effectively selfcontrolled at different perturbations of the reactivity and has low sensitivity to the failure of the core cooling. The primary circuit depressurization accident should be thoroughly studied because of the dangerous consequences i.e. the core overheating and the reactivity release into the environment. As a whole, the studies now in progress show that the problem of the HTGR safety can be successfully solved

  16. Increased neurofibrillary tangles in the brains of older pedestrians killed in traffic accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gorrie, C A; Rodriguez, M; Sachdev, P; Duflou, J; Waite, P M E

    2006-01-01

    Older people are over-represented in pedestrian fatalities, and it has been suggested that the presence of cognitive impairment or dementia in these individuals may contribute to their accidents. Using neuropathological methods, we aimed to compare the prevalence of dementia pathology in fatally injured older pedestrians with similarly aged ambulatory subjects who died from other causes. The brains of 52 pedestrians (65-93 years) and 52 controls (65-92 years) were assessed for neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), neuritic plaques, Lewy bodies and vascular lesions using established neuropathological criteria. The examination for Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology showed that 43% of the pedestrians had NFT scores of III-VI using Braak and Braak staging, compared with 23% of the controls (p vascular dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies. These results suggest that cognitive decline associated with AD, even in the earliest stages of the disease, may be a factor in fatal traffic accidents for older pedestrians. Special measures for pedestrian safety are necessary in areas with high densities of older citizens and especially for those diagnosed as having a mild cognitive impairment or AD.

  17. A Public Health Perspective of Road Traffic Accidents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S Gopalakrishnan

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Road traffic accidents (RTAs have emerged as an important public health issue which needs to be tackled by a multi-disciplinary approach. The trend in RTA injuries and death is becoming alarming in countries like India. The number of fatal and disabling road accident happening is increasing day by day and is a real public health challenge for all the concerned agencies to prevent it. The approach to implement the rules and regulations available to prevent road accidents is often ineffective and half-hearted. Awareness creation, strict implementation of traffic rules, and scientific engineering measures are the need of the hour to prevent this public health catastrophe. This article is intended to create awareness among the health professionals about the various modalities available to prevent road accidents and also to inculcate a sense of responsibility toward spreading the message of road safety as a good citizen of our country.

  18. 77 FR 10666 - Pipeline Safety: Post Accident Drug and Alcohol Testing

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-02-23

    ... 199 [Docket No. PHMSA-2011-0335] Pipeline Safety: Post Accident Drug and Alcohol Testing AGENCY... operators of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities to conduct post- accident drug and alcohol tests of..., operators must drug and alcohol test each covered employee whose performance either contributed to the...

  19. Safety upgrading activities against tsunami, earthquake, and severe accident at Hamaoka NPPs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Tetsuya; Wakunaga, Takao; Ishida, Takahisa

    2013-01-01

    As the lessons learned by the Fukushima Daiichi NPPs accident, Chubu Electric Power carried out the Emergency Safety Measures at Hamaoka NPPs immediately, and announced the plan for tsunami countermeasures including the construction of 18m-height tsunami protection wall in July 2011. Furthermore, the company announced the additional severe accident and tsunami countermeasures, and etc. in December 2012 and in April 2013, such as the installation of Filtered Containment Venting System and increasing the height of the tsunami protection wall from 18m to 22m. In this paper, we present major safety upgrading activities against tsunami, earthquake and severe accident at Hamaoka NPPs. (author)

  20. The role of quantitative uncertainty in the safety analysis of flammable gas accidents in Hanford waste tanks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bratzel, D.R.

    1998-01-01

    Following a 1990 investigation into flammable gas generation, retention, and release mechanisms within the Hanford Site high-level waste tanks, personnel concluded that the existing Authorization Basis documentation did not adequately evaluate flammable gas hazards. The US Department of Energy Headquarters subsequently declared the flammable gas hazard as an unresolved safety issue. Although work scope has been focused on resolution of the issue, it has yet to be resolved due to considerable uncertainty regarding essential technical parameters and associated risk. Resolution of the Flammable Gas Safety Issue will include the identification of a set of controls for the Authorization Basis for the tanks which will require a safety analysis of flammable gas accidents. A traditional nuclear facility safety analysis is based primarily on the analysis of a set of bounding accidents to represent the risks of the possible accidents and hazardous conditions at a facility. While this approach may provide some indication of the bounding consequences of accidents for facilities, it does not provide a satisfactory basis for identification of facility risk or safety controls when there is considerable uncertainty associated with accident phenomena and/or data as is the case with potential flammable gas accidents at the Hanford Site. This is due to the difficulties in identifying the bounding case and reaching consensus among safety analysts, facility operations and engineering, and the regulator on the implications of the safety analysis results. In addition, the bounding cases are frequently based on simplifying assumptions that make the analysis results insensitive to variations among facilities or the impact of alternative safety control strategies. The existing safety analysis of flammable gas accidents for the Tank Waste Remediation system (TWRS) at the Hanford Site has these difficulties. However, Hanford Site personnel are developing a refined safety analysis approach

  1. A system of safety management practices and worker engagement for reducing and preventing accidents: an empirical and theoretical investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wachter, Jan K; Yorio, Patrick L

    2014-07-01

    The overall research objective was to theoretically and empirically develop the ideas around a system of safety management practices (ten practices were elaborated), to test their relationship with objective safety statistics (such as accident rates), and to explore how these practices work to achieve positive safety results (accident prevention) through worker engagement. Data were collected using safety manager, supervisor and employee surveys designed to assess and link safety management system practices, employee perceptions resulting from existing practices, and safety performance outcomes. Results indicate the following: there is a significant negative relationship between the presence of ten individual safety management practices, as well as the composite of these practices, with accident rates; there is a significant negative relationship between the level of safety-focused worker emotional and cognitive engagement with accident rates; safety management systems and worker engagement levels can be used individually to predict accident rates; safety management systems can be used to predict worker engagement levels; and worker engagement levels act as mediators between the safety management system and safety performance outcomes (such as accident rates). Even though the presence of safety management system practices is linked with incident reduction and may represent a necessary first-step in accident prevention, safety performance may also depend on mediation by safety-focused cognitive and emotional engagement by workers. Thus, when organizations invest in a safety management system approach to reducing/preventing accidents and improving safety performance, they should also be concerned about winning over the minds and hearts of their workers through human performance-based safety management systems designed to promote and enhance worker engagement. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

  2. Inherent safety features of the HTTR revealed in the accident condition

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kunitomi, K.; Shinozaki, M.; Baba, O.; Saito, S.

    1992-01-01

    The High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) being constructed by JAERI (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute) is a graphite-moderated and helium-cooled reactor with an outlet gas temperature of 950degC. The inherent safety characteristics in the HTTR prevent temperature increase of reactor fuels and fission product release from the reactor core in postulated accident conditions. The reactor core can be cooled by a Vessel Cooling System (VCS) indirectly, even in the case that no forced cooling is expected during the accident such as primary pipe break. The VCS consists of independent water cooling loop and cooling panel around the reactor pressure vessel. The cooling panel whose temperature of 60-90degC cools the reactor pressure vessel by radiation and removes the decay heat from the core indirectly. Furthermore, even if failure of VCS is assumed during this accident as a severe accident, the reactor core is remained safe despite the temperature increase of biological concrete shield around the reactor pressure vessel. This paper describes the inherent safety features of the HTTR specially focused on the accident condition without forced cooling. The detailed analytical results of such an accident are described together with clarifying the role of the VCS. (author)

  3. Can cyclist safety be improved with intelligent transport systems?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silla, Anne; Leden, Lars; Rämä, Pirkko; Scholliers, Johan; Van Noort, Martijn; Bell, Daniel

    2017-08-01

    In recent years, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) have assisted in the decrease of road traffic fatalities, particularly amongst passenger car occupants. Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) such as pedestrians, cyclists, moped riders and motorcyclists, however, have not been that much in focus when developing ITS. Therefore, there is a clear need for ITS which specifically address VRUs as an integrated element of the traffic system. This paper presents the results of a quantitative safety impact assessment of five systems that were estimated to have high potential to improve the safety of cyclists, namely: Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Bicycle to Vehicle communication (B2V), Intersection safety (INS), Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection System+Emergency Braking (PCDS+EBR) and VRU Beacon System (VBS). An ex-ante assessment method proposed by Kulmala (2010) targeted to assess the effects of ITS for cars was applied and further developed in this study to assess the safety impacts of ITS specifically designed for VRUs. The main results of the assessment showed that all investigated systems affect cyclist safety in a positive way by preventing fatalities and injuries. The estimates considering 2012 accident data and full penetration showed that the highest effects could be obtained by the implementation of PCDS+EBR and B2V, whereas VBS had the lowest effect. The estimated yearly reduction in cyclist fatalities in the EU-28 varied between 77 and 286 per system. A forecast for 2030, taking into accounts the estimated accident trends and penetration rates, showed the highest effects for PCDS+EBR and BSD. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Reactor safety study. An assessment of accident risks in U.S. commercial nuclear power plants. Appendix I. Accident definition and use of event trees

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1975-10-01

    Information is presented concerning accident definition and use of event trees, event tree methodology, potential accidents covered by the reactor safety study, analysis of potential accidents involving the reactor core, and analysis of potential accidents not involving the core

  5. Aircraft accident analysis for emergency planning and safety analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nicolosi, S.L.; Jordan, H.; Foti, D.; Mancuso, J.

    1996-01-01

    Potential aircraft accidents involving facilities at the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Site) are evaluated to assess their safety significance. This study addresses the probability and facility penetrability of aircraft accidents at the Site. The types of aircraft (large, small, etc.) that may credibly impact the Site determine the types of facilities that may be breached. The methodology used in this analysis follows elements of the draft Department of Energy Standard ''Accident Analysis for Aircraft Crash into Hazardous Facilities'' (July 1995). Key elements used are: the four-factor frequency equation for aircraft accidents; the distance criteria for consideration of airports, airways, and jet routes; the consideration of different types of aircraft; and the Modified National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) formula for projectile penetration, perforation, and minimum resistant thickness. The potential aircraft accident frequency for each type of aircraft applicable to the Site is estimated using a four-factor formula described in the draft Standard. The accident frequency is the product of the annual number of operations, probability of an accident, probability density function, and area. The annual number of operations is developed from site-specific and state-wide data

  6. Profiling technological failure and disaster in the energy sector: A comparative analysis of historical energy accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sovacool, Benjamin K.; Kryman, Matthew; Laine, Emily

    2015-01-01

    This study assesses the risk of energy accidents using an original historical dataset over the period 1874-2014, and it evaluates that risk across 11 energy systems: biofuels, biomass, coal, geothermal, hydroelectricity, hydrogen, natural gas, nuclear power, oil, solar energy, and wind energy. Our study shows how these energy systems collectively involved almost 1,100 accidents resulting in more than 210,000 human fatalities and almost $350 billion in property damages. Across the entire sample, the mean amount of property damage was $319 million and 196 fatalities per accident, though when reflected as a median the numbers substantially improve to $3 million in damages per accident and 0 fatalities. We found that wind energy is the most frequent to incur an accident within our sample, accounting for almost one third of accidents. Accidents at hydroelectric dams were the most fatal, accounting for 85 percent of fatalities. Nuclear power accidents are by far the most expensive, accounting for 70 percent of damages. We then utilize this data to test six hypotheses, drawn from the energy studies literature, related to energy systems, energy policy and regulation, and technological learning. - Highlights: • 1085 energy accidents have resulted in 211,529 human fatalities and $344.4 billion in property damages. • Wind energy is the most frequent to incur an accident. • Hydroelectric dam accidents tend to be the most fatal. • Nuclear energy accidents tend to be the most expensive. • Coal, natural gas, and oil are the least likely to incur an accident, when normalized to energy output.

  7. Statistical modelling of traffic safety development

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christens, Peter

    2004-01-01

    there were 6861 injury trafficc accidents reported by the police, resulting in 4519 minor injuries, 3946 serious injuries, and 431 fatalities. The general purpose of the research was to improve the insight into aggregated road safety methodology in Denmark. The aim was to analyse advanced statistical methods......, that were designed to study developments over time, including effects of interventions. This aim has been achieved by investigating variations in aggregated Danish traffic accident series and by applying state of the art methodologies to specific case studies. The thesis comprises an introduction...

  8. Safety analysis of RA reactor operation, I-III, Part II, Accident analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raisic, N.

    1963-02-01

    This volume covers the analyses of two types of accidents: accidents caused by uncontrolled reactivity increase, and accidents caused by decrease or loss of cooling. First type of accidents, uncontrolled reactivity insertion could occur due to removal of compensation, regulatory or safety rods, or by increase of heavy water level. Removal of irradiated samples from the core could also cause increase of reactivity. Second type of accidents could occur due to interruption of cooling, loss of water in the secondary cooling loop or loss of water in the primary coolant loop

  9. Implications of the Fukushima accident of nuclear safety in Finland

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valtonen, Keijo

    2012-01-01

    A severe accident took place in Japan at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in March 2011. The immediate cause of the accident was a tsunami caused by the earthquake and the fact that the consequences of large tsunamis were not adequately considered in the design of the plant. Although tsunamis are not considered a real threat in Europe, the European Council requested on 25 March 2011 the European Nuclear Safety Regulators' Group (ENSREG) and the European Commission to undertake a comprehensive and transparent risk and safety assessment (''stress test'') of European nuclear power plants [ENSREG 2011A]. This report is prepared to evaluate the safety provisions of Finnish Nuclear Power Plants as specified in the European ''stress tests''. The technical description is based on the Licensees' reports on the issues within these specifications [Fortum 2011; TVO 2011]. Furthermore, evaluation on the current situation carried out by Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) is provided, and the possibilities to further enhance safety in the Finnish NPPs are presented. According to the ENSREG specifications, earthquakes, flooding and extreme weather conditions were studied in the stress tests. In addition, consequences of losses of some safety functions and finally management of severe accidents were studied, irrespective of their probabilities. The European stress tests cover in Finland all the operating nuclear power plants (Loviisa 1 and 2, Olkiluoto 1 and 2) and the unit under construction (Olkiluoto 3). The intermediate storages of spent fuel in Loviisa and in Olkiluoto are included in the stress tests. The new NPP units to be constructed which do not yet have a construction license, (Fennovoima 1, Olkiluoto 4) are not considered in the European stress tests. (orig.)

  10. Aviation Safety Program: Weather Accident Prevention (WxAP) Project Overview and Status

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nadell, Shari-Beth

    2003-01-01

    This paper presents a project overview and status for the Weather Accident Prevention (WxAP) aviation safety program. The topics include: 1) Weather Accident Prevention Project Background/History; 2) Project Modifications; 3) Project Accomplishments; and 4) Project's Next Steps.

  11. The NASA Aviation Safety Program: Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Jaiwon

    2000-01-01

    In 1997, the United States set a national goal to reduce the fatal accident rate for aviation by 80% within ten years based on the recommendations by the Presidential Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. Achieving this goal will require the combined efforts of government, industry, and academia in the areas of technology research and development, implementation, and operations. To respond to the national goal, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a program that will focus resources over a five year period on performing research and developing technologies that will enable improvements in many areas of aviation safety. The NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) is organized into six research areas: Aviation System Modeling and Monitoring, System Wide Accident Prevention, Single Aircraft Accident Prevention, Weather Accident Prevention, Accident Mitigation, and Synthetic Vision. Specific project areas include Turbulence Detection and Mitigation, Aviation Weather Information, Weather Information Communications, Propulsion Systems Health Management, Control Upset Management, Human Error Modeling, Maintenance Human Factors, Fire Prevention, and Synthetic Vision Systems for Commercial, Business, and General Aviation aircraft. Research will be performed at all four NASA aeronautics centers and will be closely coordinated with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other government agencies, industry, academia, as well as the aviation user community. This paper provides an overview of the NASA Aviation Safety Program goals, structure, and integration with the rest of the aviation community.

  12. Examination of Conservatism in Early/Latent Fatality Estimation in Level 3 PRA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Sung-yeop; Lee, Haneol; Yim, Man-Sung

    2014-01-01

    Due to the computational model driven-nature of the work, there exist various sources of uncertainty in level 3 PRA. They are related with source release, environmental transport and deposition, human behavior involved in dosimetry, health effect and risk assessment. For instance, a total of 376 parameters have been considered in Probabilistic Accident Consequence Uncertainty Assessment Using COSYMA and the details on the number of parameters in each analysis are listed in Table 1. In 2012, the report of NPP accident consequence simulation was distributed by the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM). They insisted that Kori Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident would lead to 48,000 early fatalities and 850,000 cancer fatalities in Busan and Hanbit NPP accident would lead to 550,000 cancer fatalities in Seoul. This report exemplifies the misuse of collective dose, that is effective dose multiplied by population and time. Even though very low effective dose is considered, collective dose could give over-conservative estimate when high population and long time period is multiplied. International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) forewarned about the misuse of collective dose, in their ICRP Publication 103, such as applying it to simplified calculation of fatality and risk. As part of investigation of conservatism in early and latent fatality estimation, the existing methods of early and latent fatality calculation was reviewed and the results from the use of the existing methodology were examined in this study. The method of early and latent fatality estimation in level 3 PRA was investigated and the conservatism in the result was examined in this study. For the purpose of estimating both early and latent fatality, appropriate dose distributions among the affected population are found to be important. This study showed that large conservatism may be involved in the estimated fatality if the distribution of population dose as a function of

  13. Examination of Conservatism in Early/Latent Fatality Estimation in Level 3 PRA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Sung-yeop; Lee, Haneol; Yim, Man-Sung [Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-10-15

    Due to the computational model driven-nature of the work, there exist various sources of uncertainty in level 3 PRA. They are related with source release, environmental transport and deposition, human behavior involved in dosimetry, health effect and risk assessment. For instance, a total of 376 parameters have been considered in Probabilistic Accident Consequence Uncertainty Assessment Using COSYMA and the details on the number of parameters in each analysis are listed in Table 1. In 2012, the report of NPP accident consequence simulation was distributed by the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEM). They insisted that Kori Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident would lead to 48,000 early fatalities and 850,000 cancer fatalities in Busan and Hanbit NPP accident would lead to 550,000 cancer fatalities in Seoul. This report exemplifies the misuse of collective dose, that is effective dose multiplied by population and time. Even though very low effective dose is considered, collective dose could give over-conservative estimate when high population and long time period is multiplied. International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) forewarned about the misuse of collective dose, in their ICRP Publication 103, such as applying it to simplified calculation of fatality and risk. As part of investigation of conservatism in early and latent fatality estimation, the existing methods of early and latent fatality calculation was reviewed and the results from the use of the existing methodology were examined in this study. The method of early and latent fatality estimation in level 3 PRA was investigated and the conservatism in the result was examined in this study. For the purpose of estimating both early and latent fatality, appropriate dose distributions among the affected population are found to be important. This study showed that large conservatism may be involved in the estimated fatality if the distribution of population dose as a function of

  14. Cases of fatal accidents and violence among children, adolescents and young people: perception of the family and associated factors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine Baccarat de Godoy Martins

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Hundreds of children and young people die from fatal accidents or violence every year and others suffer the consequences of non-lethal lesions. Knowing the associated factors is essential for moving forward in the control of these events. The study analysed the families’ perception and factors associated with deaths due to external causes of children, adolescents and young people. Cross-sectional study from deaths from accidents and violence in the age group of 0 to 24 years in the city ofCuiabá-State of Mato Grosso, followed by a domestic survey with the families. The families could not tell whether the accident/violence was a foreseeable event and do not believe that habits/lifestyle have favoured the occurrence. Intentional deaths showed a greater association with factors: maternity/paternity in adolescence, role overload of the mother, consumption of alcohol/drugs, family conflicts and prior deaths from external cause. Feelings of appreciation (study, housing, work, and whether the victim’s pregnancy has been desired were positive in a higher proportion among cases at which the victims died in an accident. The families had easy access to health care services; however, it was difficult to access the network of social and religious support. Associated factors differ according to the intentionality of the event.

  15. Alternative method of highway traffic safety analysis for developing countries using delphi technique and Bayesian network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mbakwe, Anthony C; Saka, Anthony A; Choi, Keechoo; Lee, Young-Jae

    2016-08-01

    Highway traffic accidents all over the world result in more than 1.3 million fatalities annually. An alarming number of these fatalities occurs in developing countries. There are many risk factors that are associated with frequent accidents, heavy loss of lives, and property damage in developing countries. Unfortunately, poor record keeping practices are very difficult obstacle to overcome in striving to obtain a near accurate casualty and safety data. In light of the fact that there are numerous accident causes, any attempts to curb the escalating death and injury rates in developing countries must include the identification of the primary accident causes. This paper, therefore, seeks to show that the Delphi Technique is a suitable alternative method that can be exploited in generating highway traffic accident data through which the major accident causes can be identified. In order to authenticate the technique used, Korea, a country that underwent similar problems when it was in its early stages of development in addition to the availability of excellent highway safety records in its database, is chosen and utilized for this purpose. Validation of the methodology confirms the technique is suitable for application in developing countries. Furthermore, the Delphi Technique, in combination with the Bayesian Network Model, is utilized in modeling highway traffic accidents and forecasting accident rates in the countries of research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Health and safety of the older worker.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farrow, A; Reynolds, F

    2012-01-01

    In the UK, increasing numbers of paid employees are over 60 years with further increases expected as the state pension age rises. Some concern surrounds possible increased work-related illness and accidents for people working beyond the age of 60. To identify the available evidence for health and safety risks of workers over age 60 years with respect to factors associated with injuries and accidents. Databases searched included PUBMED, OSHUpdate, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSHTIC-2), SafetyLit, the UK The Health and Safety Executive (HSELINE) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety until December 2009. Inclusion criteria were workers aged over 60 years. Findings were grouped into occupational accidents and injuries and individual and workplace factors that may have influenced risk of injury to the over-60s. Very little direct evidence was found concerning safety practices and health risks of workers over age 60. Some safety risks were associated with specific physical declines such as age-related hearing loss. Overall, these workers had fewer accidents and injuries but these were more likely to be serious or fatal when they occurred. There was no strong evidence that work patterns, including shift work or overtime, affected safety. Protective, compensatory strategies or experience may maintain safe working practices. Implications for health and safety risks cannot be assessed without longitudinal research on workforces with substantial numbers of workers over age 60 in order to address the healthy worker effect.

  17. Two decades of radiological accidents direct causes, roots causes and consequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rozental Jose de Julio

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available Practically all Countries utilize radioisotopes in medicine, industry, agriculture and research. The extent to which ionizing radiation practices are employed varies considerably, depending largely upon social and economic conditions and the level of technical skills available in the country. An overview of the majority of practices and the associated hazards will be found in the Table IV to VII of this document. The practices in normal and abnormal operating conditions should follow the basic principles of radiation protection and the Safety of Radiation Sources, considering the IAEA Radiation Protection and the Safety of Radiation Sources, Safety Series 120 and the IAEA Recommendation of the Basic Safety Standards for Radiation Protection, Safety Series Nº 115. The Standards themselves underline the necessity to be able to predict the radiological consequences of emergency conditions and the investigations that should need to be done. This paper describes the major accidents that had happened in the last two decades, provides a methodology for analyses and gives a collection of lessons learned. This will help the Regulatory Authority to review the reasons of vulnerabilities, and to start a Radiation safety and Security Programme to introduce measurescapable to avoid the recurrence of similar events. Although a number of accidents with fatalities have caught the attention of the public in recent year, a safety record has accompanied the widespread use of radiation sources. However, the fact that accidents are uncommon should not give grounds for complacency. No radiological accident is acceptable. From a radiation safety and security of the sources standpoint, accident investigation is necessary to determine what happened, why, when, where and how it occurred and who was (were involved and responsible. The investigation conclusion is an important process toward alertness and feedback to avoid careless attitudes by improving the comprehension

  18. REAC/TS radiation accident registry. Update of accidents in the United States

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ricks, R.C.; Berger, M.E.; Holloway, E.C.; Goans, R.E.

    2000-01-01

    Serious injury due to ionizing radiation is a rare occurrence. From 1944 to the present, 243 US accidents meeting dose criteria for classification as serious are documented in the REAC/TS Registry. Thirty individuals have lost their lives in radiation accidents in the United States. The Registry is part of the overall REAC/TS program providing 24-hour direct or consultative assistance regarding medical and heath physics problems associated with radiation accidents in local, national, and international incidents. The REAC/TS Registry serves as a repository of medically important information documenting the consequences of these accidents. Registry data are gathered from various sources. These include reports from the World Heath Organization (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC), state radiological health departments, medical/health physics literature, personal communication, the Internet, and most frequently, from calls for medical assistance to REAC/TS, as part of our 24-hour medical assistance program. The REAC/TS Registry for documentation of radiation accidents serves several useful purposes: 1) weaknesses in design, safety practices, training or control can be identified, and trends noted; 2) information regarding the medical consequences of injuries and the efficacy of treatment protocols is available to the treating physician; and 3) Registry case studies serve as valuable teaching tools. This presentation will review and summarize data on the US radiation accidents including their classification by device, accident circumstances, and frequency by respective states. Data regarding accidents with fatal outcomes will be reviewed. The inclusion of Registry data in the IAEA's International Reporting System of Radiation Events (RADEV) will also be discussed. (author)

  19. Classification Of Road Accidents From The Perspective Of Vehicle Safety Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jirovský Václav

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Modern road accident investigation and database structures are focused on accident analysis and classification from the point of view of the accident itself. The presented article offers a new approach, which will describe the accident from the point of view of integrated safety vehicle systems. Seven main categories have been defined to specify the level of importance of automated system intervention. One of the proposed categories is a new approach to defining the collision probability of an ego-vehicle with another object. This approach focuses on determining a 2-D reaction space, which describes all possible positions of the vehicle or other moving object in the specified amount of time in the future. This is to be used for defining the probability of the vehicles interacting - when the intersection of two reaction spaces exists, an action has to be taken on the side of ego-vehicle. The currently used 1-D quantity of TTC (time-to-collision can be superseded by the new reaction space variable. Such new quantity, whose basic idea is described in the article, enables the option of counting not only with necessary braking time, but mitigation by changing direction is then easily feasible. Finally, transparent classification measures of a probable accident are proposed. Their application is highly effective not only during basic accident comparison, but also for an on-board safety system.

  20. Accidents in industrial radiography and lessons to be learned. A review of IAEA Safety Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Modupe, M.S.; Oresegun, O.

    1998-01-01

    This IAEA Safety Report Series publication is the result of a review of a large selection of accidents in industrial radiography which Regulatory Authorities, professional associations and scientific journals have reported. The review's objective was to draw lessons from the initiating events of the accidents, contributing factors and the consequences. A small, representative selection of accident descriptions is used to illustrate the primary causes of radiography accidents and a set of recommendations to prevent recurrence of such accidents or to mitigate the consequences of those that do occur is provided. By far the most common primary cause of over-exposure was 'Failure to follow operational procedures' and specifically failure to perform radiation monitoring to locate the position of the source. The information in the Safety Report is intended for use by Regulatory Authorities, operating organizations, workers manufacturers and client organizations having responsibilities for radiation protection and safety in industrial radiography. (author)

  1. High safety in the mining industry

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1987-08-01

    Presents an interview in question and answer format with the deputy chairman of Gosgortekhnadzor (Committee for Supervision of Industrial Work Safety and Mining Supervision) in which he discusses two recent fatal accidents in the Yasinovskaya-Glubokaya and Chaikino coal mines and identifies areas where safety needs to be improved (more automation, protective devices, ventilation etc.). Discusses the particular problems involved with deep mining (20% of mines are now deeper than 700 m and 27 mines are deeper than 1000 m), such as fires, dust, methane, rock falls, insufficient maintenance and strata control and poor ventilation. Confirms that a large number of accidents is due to poor organization and stresses the fact the coal industry must be subjected to perestroika (restructuring) as much as other areas of society.

  2. The risk of an air accident as a result of a serious incident of the hybrid type

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Skorupski, Jacek

    2015-01-01

    Safety in air traffic is a multilayered concept and consists of many safety barriers. The practical side of increasing safety is mainly based on analysing the causes of accidents and incidents. This analysis leads to finding gaps in the safety structure and to developing corrective recommendations in order to eliminate them. In this paper we indicate that this practice is insufficient. Most incidents could transform into accidents with fatalities. The standard method of investigating incidents does not answer the question as to whether safety barrier is permanent or whether it was activated accidentally. This paper proposes a new method for analysing incidents aimed at finding their consequences rather than their causes. This makes it possible to find areas that need improvement. Stochastic, timed, coloured Petri nets were used for the analysis. There are three types of air traffic incidents, distinguished according to events that lead to a transformation of an incident into an accident: causal and temporal. The hybrid case, in which both types are important, has been discussed in detail. The method is useful in evaluating the current level of safety in air traffic. Applicability of this method has been shown on the example of the runway incursion problem. - Highlights: • Current accident investigation procedure is not sufficient. • New method aimed to study incident’s conversion into accident was proposed. • The Petri net model of air traffic accident was developed. • Method allows calculating accident probability. • The hybrid case in which both causal and temporal events are important is discussed

  3. Development of Draft Regulatory Guide on Accident Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants with New Safety Design Features

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bang, Young Seok; Woo, Sweng Woong; Hwang, Tae Suk [KINS, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of); Sim, Suk K; Hwang, Min Jeong [Environment and Energy Technology, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-05-15

    The present paper discusses the development process of the draft version of regulatory guide (DRG) on accident analysis of the NPP having the NSFD and its result. Based on the consideration on the lesson learned from the previous licensing review, a draft regulatory guide (DRG) on accident analysis for NPP with new safety design features (NSDF) was developed. New safety design features (NSDF) have been introduced to the new constructing nuclear power plants (NPP) since the early 2000 and the issuance of construction permit of SKN Units 3 and 4. Typical examples of the new safety features includes Fluidic Device (FD) within Safety Injection Tanks (SIT), Passive Auxiliary Feedwater System (PAFS), ECCS Core Barrel Duct (ECBD) which were adopted in APR1400 design and/or APR+ design to improve the safety margin of the plants for the postulated accidents of interest. Also several studies of new concept of the safety system such as Hybrid ECCS design have been reported. General and/or specific guideline of accident analysis considering the NSDF has been requested. Realistic evaluation of the impact of NSDF on accident with uncertainty and separated accident analysis accounting the NSDF impact were specified in the DRG. Per the developmental process, identification of key issues, demonstration of the DRG with specific accident with specific NSDF, and improvement of DGR for the key issues and their resolution will be conducted.

  4. Considerations on monitoring needs of advanced, passive safety light water reactors for severe accident management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bava, G.; Zambardi, F.

    1992-01-01

    This paper deals with problems concerning information and related instrumentation needs for Accident Management (AM), with special emphasis on Severe Accidents (SA) in the new advanced, passive safety Light Water Reactors (PLWR), presently in a development stage. The passive safety conception adopted in the plants concerned goes parallel with a deeper consideration of SA, that reflects the need of increasing the plant resistance against conditions going beyond traditional ''design basis accidents''. Further, the role of Accident Management (AM) is still emphasized as last step of the defence in depth concept, in spite of the design efforts aimed to reduce human factor importance; as a consequence, the availability of pertinent information on actual plant conditions remains a necessary premise for performing preplanned actions. This information is essential to assess the evolution of the accident scenarios, to monitor the performances of the safety systems, to evaluate the ultimate challenge to the plant safety, and to implement the emergency operating procedures and the emergency plans. Based on these general purposes, the impact of the new conception on the monitoring structure is discussed, furthermore reference is made to the accident monitoring criteria applied in current plants to evaluate the requirements for possible solutions. (orig.)

  5. Safety Climate and Occupational Stress According to Occupational Accidents Experience and Employment Type in Shipbuilding Industry of Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyung Woo; Park, Sung Jin; Lim, Hae Sun; Cho, Hm Hak

    2017-09-01

    Safety climate and occupational stress are related with occupational accident. The present study tried to identify the differences in safety climate and occupational stress according to occupational accidents experience and employment type (e.g., direct workers and subcontract workers). In this study, we conducted a survey using safety climate scale and Korean Occupational Stress Scale and classified the participants into four groups: direct workers working for accident-free departments, direct workers working for accident departments, subcontract workers working for accident-free departments, and subcontract workers working for accident departments for 2 years within the same workplace in the shipbuilding industry. The direct workers and subcontract workers showed diverse results in subscales of safety climate and occupational stress. This result is supported by existing studies; however, further study is necessary for more supporting evidence and elaborative methodological approach. The necessity of management for safety climate and psychosocial factor such as occupational stress for both direct workers and subcontract workers as a whole is suggested by this study.

  6. Safety in traffic for vulnerable military road users

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleksandar J. Bulajić

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available The Army of Serbia, as a relatively closed system, regulates the field of traffic safety; however, during peacetime, general rules apply to all participants in traffic circulation. The Republic of Serbia is in the group of countries with a high number of road fatalities. The level of traffic safety in the Serbian Army has been on constant increase since 2000, although the relevant transport authorities in the military are not yet satisfied with the achieved level (even one lost life is too much. The increase can be deceptive, since if we take into account the substantial reduction in vehicle use due to various factors in the last few years (poor financial situation in the country as well as in the military, under-investment in the purchase of new vehicles, purchase of transportation services, fewer drivers drafted and more vehicles driven by trained officers, etc., it is not surprising that there are fewer accidents and fewer road deaths and injuries among military personnel. This paper aims at approaching the problem of pedestrian safety as a segment of road safety and at making an educational impact on all members of the military, because they all participate in traffic daily, if not as drivers or passengers, then certainly in large numbers as pedestrians. The basis of this paper is aimed at shedding light on the causes of pedestrian road fatalities due to their mistakes, i. e. 'negligence' of the participants in car accidents with the participation of pedestrians, as well as at proposing measures to reduce and prevent traffic accidents with pedestrians.

  7. Longitudinal relationship between economic development and occupational accidents in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Li; He, Xueqiu; Li, Chengwu

    2011-01-01

    The relativity between economic development and occupational accidents is a debated topic. Compared with the development courses of both economic development and occupational accidents in China during 1953-2008, this paper used statistic methods such as Granger causality test, cointegration test and impulse response function based on the vector autoregression model to investigate the relativity between economic development and occupational accidents in China from 1953 to 2008. Owing to fluctuation and growth scale characteristics of economic development, two dimensions including economic cycle and economic scale were divided. Results showed that there was no relationship between occupational accidents and economic scale during 1953-1978. Fatality rate per 10(5) workers was a conductive variable to gross domestic product per capita during 1979-2008. And economic cycle was an indicator to occupational accidents during 1979-2008. Variation of economic speed had important influence on occupational accidents in short term. Thus it is necessary to adjust Chinese occupational safety policy according to tempo variation of economic growth. Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Links between operating experience feedback of industrial accidents and nuclear safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eury, S.P.

    2012-01-01

    Since 1992, the bureau for analysis of industrial risks and pollutions (BARPI) collects, analyzes and publishes information on industrial accidents. The ARIA database lists over 40.000 accidents or incidents, most of which occurred in French classified facilities (ICPE). Events occurring in nuclear facilities are rarely reported in ARIA because they are reported in other databases. This paper describes the process of selection, characterization and review of these accidents, as well as the following consultation with industry trade groups. It is essential to publicize widely the lessons learned from analyzing industrial accidents. To this end, a web site (www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr) gives free access to the accidents summaries, detailed sheets, studies, etc. to professionals and the general public. In addition, the accidents descriptions and characteristics serve as inputs to new regulation projects or risk analyses. Finally, the question of the links between operating experience feedback of industrial accidents and nuclear safety is explored: if the rigorous and well-documented methods of experience feedback in the nuclear field certainly set an example for other activities, nuclear safety can also benefit from inputs coming from the vast diversity of accidents arisen into industrial facilities because of common grounds. Among these common grounds we can find: -) the fuel cycle facilities use many chemicals and chemical processes that are also used by chemical industries; -) the problems resulting from the ageing of equipment affect both heavy and nuclear industries; -) the risk of hydrogen explosion; -) the risk of ammonia, ammonia is a gas used by nuclear power plants as an ingredient in the onsite production of mono-chloramine and ammonia is involved in numerous accidents in the industry: at least 900 entries can be found in the ARIA database. The paper is followed by the slides of the presentation

  9. ACCIDENT WITH NEEDLESTICK: KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF SAFETY DEVICE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Maria Souza da Silva

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Health workers engaged in labour activities in environments surrounded the occupational hazards. Identify knowledge and use of safety devide for preventing accidents with sharp objects between nurses and nurse technicians, workers of the Intensive Care Unit, Emergency and Surgical Block, during the month of may 2015. Exploratory study, quantitative, developed in a teaching hospital in in Recife-PE. The data collection was conducted using a questionnaire prepared by the research authors. The results were submitted to descriptive statistical analysis, being evidenced that, although data indicate high rate of respondents know and use products with referencing safety devices to prevent accidents, cite gloves and masks as representatives of those materials, which requires clarification in discussion of the study. It is necessary to guide and clarify as to such mechanisms, through the permanent education, and training among workers.

  10. Fatal Exertional Heat Stroke and American Football Players: The Need for Regional Heat-Safety Guidelines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grundstein, Andrew J; Hosokawa, Yuri; Casa, Douglas J

    2018-01-01

      Weather-based activity modification in athletics is an important way to minimize heat illnesses. However, many commonly used heat-safety guidelines include a uniform set of heat-stress thresholds that do not account for geographic differences in acclimatization.   To determine if heat-related fatalities among American football players occurred on days with unusually stressful weather conditions based on the local climate and to assess the need for regional heat-safety guidelines.   Cross-sectional study.   Data from incidents of fatal exertional heat stroke (EHS) in American football players were obtained from the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research and the Korey Stringer Institute.   Sixty-one American football players at all levels of competition with fatal EHSs from 1980 to 2014.   We used the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and a z-score WBGT standardized to local climate conditions from 1991 to 2010 to assess the absolute and relative magnitudes of heat stress, respectively.   We observed a poleward decrease in exposure WBGTs during fatal EHSs. In milder climates, 80% of cases occurred at above-average WBGTs, and 50% occurred at WBGTs greater than 1 standard deviation from the long-term mean; however, in hotter climates, half of the cases occurred at near average or below average WBGTs.   The combination of lower exposure WBGTs and frequent extreme climatic values in milder climates during fatal EHSs indicates the need for regional activity-modification guidelines with lower, climatically appropriate weather-based thresholds. Established activity-modification guidelines, such as those from the American College of Sports Medicine, work well in the hotter climates, such as the southern United States, where hot and humid weather conditions are common.

  11. Analyzing the severity of accidents on the German Autobahn.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manner, Hans; Wünsch-Ziegler, Laura

    2013-08-01

    We study the severity of accidents on the German Autobahn in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia using data for the years 2009 until 2011. We use a multinomial logit model to identify statistically relevant factors explaining the severity of the most severe injury, which is classified into the four classes fatal, severe injury, light injury and property damage. Furthermore, to account for unobserved heterogeneity we use a random parameter model. We study the effect of a number of factors including traffic information, road conditions, type of accidents, speed limits, presence of intelligent traffic control systems, age and gender of the driver and location of the accident. Our findings are in line with studies in different settings and indicate that accidents during daylight and at interchanges or construction sites are less severe in general. Accidents caused by the collision with roadside objects, involving pedestrians and motorcycles, or caused by bad sight conditions tend to be more severe. We discuss the measures of the 2011 German traffic safety programm in the light of our results. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Perception of Contracting parties on Construction Safety in the Gaza Strip, Palestine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Enhassi, Adnan Ali; Hassouna, Ahmed Mohamed; Mayer, P.E.; Choudhary, R.M.

    2007-01-01

    The construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries in developing countries. Understanding the safety climate or culture of a workplace, the perceptions and attitudes of workforce are important factors in assessing safety needs. The construction industry in Palestine, by its inherent nature, is susceptible to potentially dangerous conditions that affect the safety of all personnel working in construction projects. This paper reports, based on a questionnaire survey, the perception of owners, consultants and contractors towards safety in the Gaza Strip. The results showed that, most of the participants in the survey had accidents in their construction projects. The findings indicated that, main causes of fatalities and injuries are falling from heights, dropped objects and materials and being caught under excavations. Carelessness of workers, lack of safety knowledge and lack of safety training are the main three reasons that contributed to the increase rate of accidents among construction workers in the Gaza Strip. Therefore, contactors should prepare safety training programs which help personnel to carry out various accidents preventive activities effectively. Training material should discuss the cost of accidents, the influence of good safety performance and should stress the safety objectives of the company, the relevant laws and legislation and contractual relationships with clients regarding safety matters. (author)

  13. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Accident: OECD/NEA Nuclear Safety Response and Lessons Learnt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2013-01-01

    Following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, all NEA member countries took early action to ensure and confirm the continued safety of their nuclear power plants and the protection of the public. After these preliminary safety reviews, all countries with nuclear facilities carried out comprehensive safety reviews, often referred to as 'stress tests', which reassessed safety margins of nuclear facilities with a primary focus on challenges related to conditions experienced at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, for example extreme external events and the loss of safety functions, or capabilities to cope with severe accidents. As appropriate, improvements are being made to safety and emergency response systems to ensure that nuclear power plants are capable of withstanding events that lead to loss of electrical power and/or cooling capability. In the weeks following the accident, the NEA immediately began establishing expert groups in the nuclear safety and radiological protection areas, as well as contributing to information exchange with the Japanese authorities and other international organisations. It promptly provided a forum for high-level decision makers and regulators within the G8-G20 frameworks. The NEA actions taken at the international level in response to the accident have been carried out primarily by the three NEA standing technical committees concerned with nuclear and radiation safety issues - the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA), the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) - under the leadership of the CNRA. More than two years following the accident, the NEA continues to assist the Japanese authorities in dealing with their nuclear safety and recovery efforts as well as to facilitate international co-operation on nuclear safety and radiological protection matters. It is strongly supporting the establishment of

  14. Considering lessons learned about safety culture and their reflection to activity. After Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Obu, Etsuji; Hamada, Jun; Fukano, Takuya

    2011-01-01

    Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident forced neighboring residents to evacuate for a long time and gave Public anxieties greatly and significant effects to social activities in Japan. Public trust of nuclear power was lost by not preventing the accident and future of nuclear power became reconsidered, which nuclear industry people regretted deeply. Japan Nuclear Technology Institute (JANTI) had conducted activities enhancing safety culture in nuclear industry. It would be necessary to consider improvements of accident prevention and mitigation measures after evaluating the accident in a viewpoint of 'safety culture'. Based on published information and knowledge accumulated by activities of JANTI, the accident was examined taking account of greatness of nuclear accident and its effects from the side of safety culture. Lessons learned about safety culture were pointed out as; (1) reconfirmation of specialty of nuclear technology. (2) reinforcement of questioning and learning attitudes and (3) improvement of evaluation capability of nuclear safety and safety assurance against external event. These were reflected in activities such as; (1) reconsideration of safety culture assessment, (2) strengthening further support to improve safety culture consciousness and (3) improvement of peer review activity. (T. Tanaka)

  15. The Evaluation of the Safety Benefits of Combined Passive and On-Board Active Safety Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Page, Yves; Cuny, Sophie; Zangmeister, Tobias; Kreiss, Jens-Peter; Hermitte, Thierry

    2009-01-01

    One of the objectives of the European TRACE project (TRaffic Accident Causation in Europe, 2006–2008) was to estimate the proportion of injury accidents that could be avoided and/or the proportion of injury accidents where the severity could be mitigated for on-the-market safety applications, if 100 % of the car fleet would be equipped with them. We have selected for evaluation the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and the Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) applications. As for passive safety systems, recent cars are designed to offer overall safety protection. Car structure, load limiters, front airbags, side airbags, knee airbags, pretensioners, padding and non aggressive structures in the door panel, the dashboard, the windshield, the seats, and the head rest also contribute to applying more protection. The whole safety package is very difficult to evaluate separately, one element independently segmented from the others. We decided to consider evaluating the effectivenessof the whole passive safety package, This package,, for the sake of simplicity, was the number of stars awarded at the Euro NCAP testing. The challenges were to compare the effectiveness of some safety configuration SC I, with the effectiveness of a different safety configuration SC II. A safety configuration is understood as a package of safety functions. Ten comparisons have been carried out such as the evaluation of the safety benefit of a fifth star given that the car has four stars and an EBA. The main outcome of this analysis is that any addition of a passive or active safety function selected in this analysis is producing increased safety benefits. For example, if all cars were five stars fitted with EBA and ESC, instead of four stars without ESC and EBA, injury accidents would be reduced by 47.2% for severe injuries and 69.5% for fatal injuries. PMID:20184838

  16. Introduction of the Amendment of IAEA Safety Requirements Reflected Lessons Learned from Fukushima Nuclear Accident

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahn, Sang-Kyu; Ahn, Hyung-Joon; Kim, Sun-Hae; Cheong, Jae-Hak [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2015-10-15

    The following five Safety Requirements publications were amended: Governmental, Legal and Regulatory Framework for Safety (GSR Part 1, 2010), Site Evaluation for Nuclear Installations (NS-R-3, 2003), Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Design (SSR-2/1, 2012), Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Commissioning and Operation (SSR-2/2, 2011), and Safety Assessment for Facilities and Activities (GSR Part 4, 2009). Figure 1 shows IAEA Safety Standards Categories Major amendments of five Safety Requirements publications were introduced and analyzed in this study. The five IAEA safety requirements publications which are GSR Part 1 and 4, NS-R-3 and SSR-2/1 and 2, were amended to reflect the lesson learned from the Fukushima accident and other operating experiences. Specially, 36 provisions were modified and the new 29 provision with 1 requirement (No. 67: Emergency response facilities on the site) of the SSR-2/1 were established. Since the Fukushima accident happened, a new word, design extension conditions (DECs) which cover substantially the beyond design basis accidents (BDBA), including severe accident conditions, was created and more elaborated by the world nuclear experts. Design extension conditions could include conditions in events without significant fuel degradation and conditions with core melting. Figure 2 shows the range of the DECs. The amendment of the five IAEA safety requirements publications are focused at the prevention of initiating events, which would lead to the DECs, and mitigation of the consequences of DECs by the enhanced defense in depth principle. The following examples of the IAEA requirements to prevent the initiating events are: margins for withstanding external events; margins for avoiding cliff edge effects; safety assessment for multiple facilities or activities at a single site; safety assessment in cases where resources at a facility are shared; consideration of the potential occurrence of events in combination; establishing levels of hazard

  17. Young Drivers Perceptual Learning Styles Preferences and Traffic Accidents

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Svetlana Čičević

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Young drivers are over-represented in crash and fatality statistics. One way of dealing with this problem is to achieve primary prevention through driver education and training. Factors of traffic accidents related to gender, age, driving experience, and self-assessments of safety and their relationship to perceptual learning styles (LS preferences have been analyzed in this study. The results show that auditory is the most prominent LS. Drivers in general, as well as drivers without traffic accidents favour visual and tactile LS. Both inexperienced and highly experienced drivers show relatively high preference of kinaesthetic style. Yet, taking into account driving experience we could see that the role of kinaesthetic LS is reduced, since individual LS has become more important. Based on the results of this study it can be concluded that a multivariate and multistage approach to driver education, taking into account differences in LS preferences, would be highly beneficial for traffic safety.

  18. Lessons learned and implications of the Fukushima NPP accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tokuhiro, A.

    2014-01-01

    The global nuclear 'enterprise' is now 3-1/2 years (March 11, 2011) beyond the historic Tohoku earthquake (M9.0), subsequent tsunami (~14-15m waves), and unfortunately, the continuing consequences of the 'Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) accident. We now live in the post-Fukushima nuclear era. First let us pay our respects to this tragic loss-of-life (~16,000 fatalities) as a result of the earthquake and tsunami; also 10-years earlier in 2004, centered further south in the Indian Ocean (230,000+ fatalities). The movie, 'The Impossible', was a reminder that indeed, energy provides sustenance and socio-economic development for humankind. Energy will determine the state of AsiaPacific (AP) in years to come. Over the past 15-years, AP has clearly had increasing means to lead global economic growth, relative to stagnating economies of scale in Europe and U.S. AP also has both existing and emerging larger-scale industrial ambitions and capital to construct new nuclear power plants (NPPs). China has some 25-28 units under construction at 11 sites; the near-term goal is to establish 40GW of generating capacity by 2020 and to reach some 70-75GW approximately 10 years later. Although some investments are also being made in renewable energy, the demand for capacity clearly dictates further growth in nuclear power. However, unless high expectations for safety, safety culture are concurrently encouraged, we may face the next nuclear accident again in Asia. This work looks at the technical and non-technical lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the implications that we cannot afford to ignore. (author)

  19. Lessons learned and implications of the Fukushima NPP accidents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tokuhiro, A., E-mail: tokuhio@uidaho.edu [Univ. of Idaho, Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

    2014-07-01

    The global nuclear 'enterprise' is now 3-1/2 years (March 11, 2011) beyond the historic Tohoku earthquake (M9.0), subsequent tsunami (~14-15m waves), and unfortunately, the continuing consequences of the 'Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) accident. We now live in the post-Fukushima nuclear era. First let us pay our respects to this tragic loss-of-life (~16,000 fatalities) as a result of the earthquake and tsunami; also 10-years earlier in 2004, centered further south in the Indian Ocean (230,000+ fatalities). The movie, 'The Impossible', was a reminder that indeed, energy provides sustenance and socio-economic development for humankind. Energy will determine the state of AsiaPacific (AP) in years to come. Over the past 15-years, AP has clearly had increasing means to lead global economic growth, relative to stagnating economies of scale in Europe and U.S. AP also has both existing and emerging larger-scale industrial ambitions and capital to construct new nuclear power plants (NPPs). China has some 25-28 units under construction at 11 sites; the near-term goal is to establish 40GW of generating capacity by 2020 and to reach some 70-75GW approximately 10 years later. Although some investments are also being made in renewable energy, the demand for capacity clearly dictates further growth in nuclear power. However, unless high expectations for safety, safety culture are concurrently encouraged, we may face the next nuclear accident again in Asia. This work looks at the technical and non-technical lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the implications that we cannot afford to ignore. (author)

  20. The covariance between the number of accidents and the number of victims in multivariate analysis of accident related outcomes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bijleveld, F. D.

    In this study some statistical issues involved in the simultaneous analysis of accident related outcomes of the road traffic process are investigated. Since accident related outcomes like the number of victims, fatalities or accidents show interdependencies, their simultaneous analysis requires that

  1. Regulatory measures for traffic safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Veerapur, R.D.; Bharambe, S.D.; Patnaik, S.K.; Tandle, A.K.; Sonawane, K.A.; Kumar, Rajesh; Venkat Subramanian, K.

    2017-01-01

    Traffic safety is an issue related to occupational safety not restricted alone to the transportation but extends beyond. BARC has many facilities spread across large area in Mumbai and outside Mumbai. BARC deploys large number of buses, mini buses, jeeps and cars for commuting its employees to reach BARC and for commuting within BARC premises. Additionally, trucks, fire tenders, trailers etc. are also deployed for transportation of materials. No moving vehicle is ever free of the possibility of involvement in an accident. Vehicular accidents and the fatalities on road are the result of inter-play of a number of factors. The vehicle population has been steadily increasing with the pace picking up significantly in recent past. Increase in vehicle population in the face of limited road space used by a large variety of traffic has heightened the need and urgency for a well-thought-out road safety. Therefore, existence of regulatory authority to regulate traffic and vehicles to ensure safety of its employees and vehicles is very essential. BARC Traffic Safety Committee (BTSC), which is the regulating body for traffic safety is responsible for ensuring overall traffic safety. (author)

  2. Complementary safety assessment in the light of the Fukushima accident - Laue Langevin Institute

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Desbriere; Caillot; Bidet

    2012-01-01

    This CSA (Complementary Safety Assessment) analyses the robustness of the Grenoble High Flux reactor to extreme situations such as those that led to the Fukushima accident and proposes a series of improvements. Robustness is the ability for the facility to withstand events beyond the level for which the facility was designed. Robustness is linked to safety margins but also to the situations leading to a sudden deterioration of the accident sequence (cliff edge effect). Safety is not only a matter of design or of engineered systems, it is also a matter of organization. So issues like crisis organization and work organization via subcontracting are also taken into consideration. This report is divided into 9 main chapters: 1) main features of the high flux reactor, 2) macroscopic study of safety, identification of structures and equipment essential to safety, 3) earthquake risk, 4) flood risk, 5) risks due to other extreme natural disasters, 6) the loss of electrical power supplies and of cooling systems, 7) management of severe accidents, 8) subcontracting policy, 9) synthesis and improvements. This study confirms the robustness of the facility and a series of improvements and modifications is proposed to face very unlikely situations (especially plurality of failures) that were not taken into account in baseline safety studies. (A.C.)

  3. Product Safety Culture: A New Variant of Safety Culture?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suhanyiova, L.; Flin, R.; Irwin, A.

    2016-01-01

    Product safety culture is a new research area which concerns user safety rather than worker or process safety. The concept appears to have emerged after the investigation into the Nimrod aircraft accident (Haddon-Cave, 2009) which echoed aspects of NASA’s Challenger and Columbia crashes. In these cases, through a blend of human and organizational failures, the culture deteriorated to the extent of damaging product integrity, resulting in user fatalities. Haddon-Cave noted that it was due to a failure in leadership and organizational safety culture that accidents such as the Nimrod happened, where the aircraft exploded due to several serious technical failures, preceded by deficiencies in the safety case. Now some organizations are starting to measure product safety culture. This is important in day-to-day life as well, where a product failure as a result of poor organizational safety culture, can cause user harm or death, as in the case of Takata airbags scandal in 2015. Eight people have lost their lives and many were injured. According to investigation reports this was due to the company’s safety malpractices of fixing faulty airbags and proceeding to install them in vehicles, as well as secretly conducting tests to assess the integrity of their product and then deleting the data and denying safety issues as a result of the company’s cost-cutting policies. As such, organizational culture, specifically the applications of safety culture, can have far-reaching consequences beyond the workplace of an organization.

  4. Criticality accident of nuclear fuel facility. Think back on JCO criticality accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naito, Keiji

    2003-09-01

    This book is written in order to understand the fundamental knowledge of criticality safety or criticality accident of nuclear fuel facility by the citizens. It consists of four chapters such as critical conditions and criticality accident of nuclear facility, risk of criticality accident, prevention of criticality accident and a measure at an occurrence of criticality accident. A definition of criticality, control of critical conditions, an aspect of accident, a rate of incident, damage, three sufferers, safety control method of criticality, engineering and administrative control, safety design of criticality, investigation of failure of safety control of JCO criticality accident, safety culture are explained. JCO criticality accident was caused with intention of disregarding regulation. It is important that we recognize the correct risk of criticality accident of nuclear fuel facility and prevent disasters. On the basis of them, we should establish safety culture. (S.Y.)

  5. Accident Journalism and Traffic Safety Education: A Three-Phase Investigation of Accident Reporting in the Canadian Daily Press.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilde, Gerald J. S.; Ackersviller, Melody J.

    A study examined the potential for development of a traffic accident-reporting form in the Canadian daily press that strengthens concern for road safety in the general population and enhances knowledge, attitudes, and behavior leading to greater safety. The investigation was conducted on three levels: a content analysis, a readership analysis, and…

  6. Industrial Safety and Accidents Prevention

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sajjad Akbar

    2006-01-01

    Accident Hazards, dangers, losses and risk are what we would to like to eliminate, minimize or avoid in industry. Modern industries have created many opportunities for these against which man's primitive instincts offer no protection. In today's complex industrial environment safety has become major preoccupation, especially after the realization that there is a clear economic incentive to do so. Industrial hazards may cause by human error or by physical or mechanical malfunction, it is very often possible to eliminate the worst consequences of human error by engineering modification. But the modification also needs checking very thoroughly to ensue that it has not introduced some new and unsuspected hazard. (author)

  7. Accident risk and factors regarding non-motorised road users

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Agerholm, Niels; Andersen, Camilla Sloth

    2015-01-01

    Almost half of all traffic fatalities worldwide are non-motorised road users (NMRUs). In Denmark, the number has increased with about 30%. NMRUs consist of about 63% of the injured in the Danish traffic. Much has been done to reduce the number of injured NMRUs with counterparts, while little effort...... is put into the reduction of the vast majority of the accidents, NMRU single accidents, which are about 90% of all injured NMRUs. There are no efficient tools available to reduce this number. A significantly better designed, maintained, and illuminated road network would most likely help. However......, that is expensive and not possible for most road authorities. Despite this, the challenges with NMRUs in single accidents need more attention, if road safety is to be improved. The situation in Denmark is more than likely the case in many other countries as well; although the documentation is scarce....

  8. An insight into the maritime accident characteristics in Bangladesh

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uddin, Md. Imran; Awal, Zobair Ibn

    2018-03-01

    The inland waterway plays a very important role in the transportation system of Bangladesh. But, due to severe deficiencies of the safety practices, a lot of accidentll take place almost every year in the inland waterways that cause considerable loss of human lives and assets. The inland waterway accidentll in Bangladasb during 2005 to 2015 were analysed statistically in the present study. It has been found that the leading mode of accidents is collision among vessels and fatal injury comprises considerably a higher proportion of total casnalties. The study also revealed that cargo vessels and passenger vessels encounter more accidents in comparison to other types of vessels. It was also observed that during fair weather and good visibility condition significant proportion of accidents have taken place. Based on this study several recommendstions bsve been put forward for improving ssfety in the inlsnd waterways ofBanglsdesh.

  9. An insight into the maritime accident characteristics in Bangladesh

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uddin, Md. Imran; Awal, Zobair Ibn

    2017-12-01

    The inland waterway plays a very important role in the transportation system of Bangladesh. But, due to severe deficiencies of the safety practices, a lot of accidentll take place almost every year in the inland waterways that cause considerable loss of human lives and assets. The inland waterway accidentll in Bangladasb during 2005 to 2015 were analysed statistically in the present study. It has been found that the leading mode of accidents is collision among vessels and fatal injury comprises considerably a higher proportion of total casnalties. The study also revealed that cargo vessels and passenger vessels encounter more accidents in comparison to other types of vessels. It was also observed that during fair weather and good visibility condition significant proportion of accidents have taken place. Based on this study several recommendstions bsve been put forward for improving ssfety in the inlsnd waterways ofBanglsdesh.

  10. Evaluation of special safety features of the SNR-300 in view of the Chernobyl accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vossebrecker, H.

    1987-03-01

    A comparison of those characteristics, which decisively influenced the accident in the RMBK-1000 reactor, with the safety features of SNR-300 has been performed. The conclusions of this comparison are presented in the present report. The SNR-300 is characterized by a stable reactivity behaviour and good controllability, whereas RBMK-1000 has an instable behaviour and complex spatial dependencies in the core. Among other points, design deficiencies in the protection and emergency shutdown systems were responsible for the Chernobyl accident. The protection and scram systems of the SNR-300 are unquestionably superior to those of the RBMK-1000 with regard to redundancy, diversity, degree of automation, separation of operational and safety-relevant tasks, protection against inadmissible interventions, effectiveness and safety reserves. Therefore, excursion accidents can be classified as hypothetical for SNR-300. Due to elementary physical properties, possible energy releases during hypothetical excursions are substantially lower for SNR-300 and would be controlled by the design of the primary system and containment systems. No damage limiting measures are provided in the RBMK-100 for excursion accidents. Finally, exothermal processes augmented the consequences of the accident in the RBMK-1000 and the long-lasting graphite fire intensified the release of radioactivity. In the SNR-300, however, inertisation of the containment, the steel plate lining and the floor troughs ensure that activity enclosure inside the containment after leakage or hypothetical excursion accident is not endangered by exothermal reactions. Further safety aspects are presented in the report, which can be linked with the accident in Chernobyl. In summary, it is obvious that the disadvantageous physical and technical features of the RBMK-1000 do either not exist in the SNR-300 or are covered by the safety design

  11. Comparison of fatal motor vehicle accidents at passive and active railway level crossings in Finland

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sirkku Laapotti

    2016-07-01

    Active warning devices are effective in preventing accidents due to road user errors. Equipping the most dangerous passive level crossings with warning devices – low cost or conventional – would increase safety. Alternatively, some level crossings could be removed altogether. A minimum requirement is that the environmental factors at passive level crossings support safe crossing.

  12. Key regulatory and safety issues emerging NEA activities. Lessons Learned from Fukushima Dai-ichi NPS Accident - Key Regulatory and Safety Issues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakoski, John

    2013-01-01

    A presentation was provided on the key safety and regulatory issues and an update of activities undertaken by the NEA and its members in response to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power stations (NPS) on 11 March 2011. An overview of the accident sequence and the consequences was provided that identified the safety functions that were lost (electrical power, core cooling, and primary containment) that lead to units 1, 2, and 3 being in severe accident conditions with large off-site releases. Key areas identified for which activities of the NEA and member countries are in progress include accident management; defence-in-depth; crisis communication; initiating events; operating experience; deterministic and probabilistic assessments; regulatory infrastructure; radiological protection and public health; and decontamination and recovery. For each of these areas, a brief description of the on-going and planned NEA activities was provided within the three standing technical committees of the NEA with safety and regulatory mandates (the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities - CNRA, the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations - CSNI, and the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health - CRPPH). On-going activities of CNRA include a review of enhancement being made to the regulatory aspects for the oversight of on-site accident management strategies and processes in light of the lessons learned from the accident; providing guidance to regulators on crisis communication; and supporting the peer review of the safety assessments of risk-significant research reactor facilities in light of the accident. Within the scope of the CSNI mandate, activities are being undertaken to better understand accident progression; characteristics of new fuel designs; and a benchmarking study of fast-running software for estimating source term under severe accident conditions to support protective measure recommendations. CSNI also has ongoing work in human

  13. The Analysis of the Contribution of Human Factors to the In-Flight Loss of Control Accidents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ancel, Ersin; Shih, Ann T.

    2012-01-01

    In-flight loss of control (LOC) is currently the leading cause of fatal accidents based on various commercial aircraft accident statistics. As the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) emerges, new contributing factors leading to LOC are anticipated. The NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP), along with other aviation agencies and communities are actively developing safety products to mitigate the LOC risk. This paper discusses the approach used to construct a generic integrated LOC accident framework (LOCAF) model based on a detailed review of LOC accidents over the past two decades. The LOCAF model is comprised of causal factors from the domain of human factors, aircraft system component failures, and atmospheric environment. The multiple interdependent causal factors are expressed in an Object-Oriented Bayesian belief network. In addition to predicting the likelihood of LOC accident occurrence, the system-level integrated LOCAF model is able to evaluate the impact of new safety technology products developed in AvSP. This provides valuable information to decision makers in strategizing NASA's aviation safety technology portfolio. The focus of this paper is on the analysis of human causal factors in the model, including the contributions from flight crew and maintenance workers. The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) taxonomy was used to develop human related causal factors. The preliminary results from the baseline LOCAF model are also presented.

  14. Nuclear technology and reactor safety engineering. The situation ten years after the Chernobyl reactor accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Birkhofer, A.

    1996-01-01

    Ten years ago, on April 26, 1986 the most serious accident ever in the history of nuclear tgechnology worldwide happened in unit 4 of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in the Ukraine, this accident unveiling to the world at large that the Soviet reactor design lines are bearing unthought of safety engineering deficits. The dimensions of this reactor accident on site, and the radioactive fallout spreading far and wide to many countries in Europe, vividly nourished the concern of great parts of the population in the Western world about the safety of nuclear technology, and re-instigated debates about the risks involved and their justification. Now that ten years have elapsed since the accident, it is appropriate to strike a balance and analyse the situation today. The number of nuclear power plants operating worldwide has been growing in the last few years and this trend will continue, primarily due to developments in Asia. The Chernobyl reactor accident has pushed the international dimension of reactor safety to the foreground. Thus the Western world had reason enough to commit itself to enhancing the engineered safety of reactors in East Europe. The article analyses some of the major developments and activities to date and shows future perspectives. (orig.) [de

  15. Ambulance traffic accidents in Taiwan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiu, Po-Wei; Lin, Chih-Hao; Wu, Chen-Long; Fang, Pin-Hui; Lu, Chien-Hsin; Hsu, Hsiang-Chin; Chi, Chih-Hsien

    2018-04-01

    Ambulance traffic accidents (ATAs) are the leading cause of occupation-related fatalities among emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. We aim to use the Taiwan national surveillance system to analyze the characteristics of ATAs and to assist EMS directors in developing policies governing ambulance operations. A retrospective, cross-sectional and largely descriptive study was conducted using Taiwan national traffic accidents surveillance data from January 1, 2011 to October 31, 2016. Among the 1,627,217 traffic accidents during the study period, 715 ATAs caused 8 deaths within 24 h and 1844 injured patients. On average, there was one ATA for every 8598 ambulance runs. Compared to overall traffic accidents, ATAs were 1.7 times more likely to result in death and 1.9 times more likely to have injured patients. Among the 715 ATAs, 8 (1.1%) ATAs were fatal and 707 (98.9%) were nonfatal. All 8 fatalities were associated with motorcycles. The urban areas were significantly higher than the rural areas in the annual number of ATAs (14.2 ± 7.3 [7.0-26.7] versus 3.1 ± 1.9 [0.5-8.4], p = 0.013), the number of ATA-associated fatalities per year (0.2 ± 0.2 [0.0-0.7] versus 0.1 ± 0.1 [0.0-0.2], p = 0.022), and the annual number of injured patients (who needed urgent hospital visits) in ATAs (19.4 ± 7.3 [10.5-30.9] versus 5.2 ± 3.8 [0.9-15.3], p traffic accident reporting system should be built to provide EMS policy guidance for ATA reduction and outcome improvements. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  16. Epidemiology and patterns of transport-related fatalities in Austria 1980-2012.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Majdan, Marek; Rusnak, Martin; Rehorcikova, Veronika; Brazinova, Alexandra; Leitgeb, Johannes; Mauritz, Walter

    2015-01-01

    Transport-related accidents remain the largest single cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 in the European Union, and despite the decrease in number of fatalities from 1990 onwards they remain a significant public health problem. The aim of this article was to analyze the long-term trends and patterns of transport-related fatalities, identify the anatomic distribution of most significant injuries in different road users, and identify the primary populations at risk of transport-related death in Austria between 1980 and 2013. Data on transport-related fatalities based on death certificates were obtained from Statistics Austria for the analyzed period. Crude and age-standardized mortality rates per 100,000 were calculated and broken down by age, gender, and month of death, and the anatomic distribution of most significant injuries were identified. Potential years of life lost before age 75 (PYLL-75) were used as a measure of public health impact. A total of 39,709 transport-related fatalities were identified for the studied years; 74% were males and the mean age was 42.1 years (range 0-103). A decrease in the number of fatalities (from 2018 in 1980 to 554 in 2012), mortality rates (from 26 in 1980 to 7 in 2012), and PYLL-75 (from 68,960 in 1980 to 14,931 in 2012) was observed. Introduction of major prevention milestones (compulsory use of seat belts or child restraints) may have contributed to this decrease. Men 16-24 years old were at the highest risk of transport-related death. Pedestrian victims were more likely to be women and car drivers and motorcyclists were more often men. Most fatal transport accidents occurred between the months of May and October and prevailingly in towns of fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. Injuries to the head were the most significant injuries in all user groups (>50% of cases in all road user types). Reduced mortality rates could translate into higher prevalence of long-term disabilities in survivors of transport accidents. Despite

  17. A cluster analysis on road traffic accidents using genetic algorithms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saharan, Sabariah; Baragona, Roberto

    2017-04-01

    The analysis of traffic road accidents is increasingly important because of the accidents cost and public road safety. The availability or large data sets makes the study of factors that affect the frequency and severity accidents are viable. However, the data are often highly unbalanced and overlapped. We deal with the data set of the road traffic accidents recorded in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 2000-2009 with a total of 26440 accidents. The data is in a binary set and there are 50 factors road traffic accidents with four level of severity. We used genetic algorithm for the analysis because we are in the presence of a large unbalanced data set and standard clustering like k-means algorithm may not be suitable for the task. The genetic algorithm based on clustering for unknown K, (GCUK) has been used to identify the factors associated with accidents of different levels of severity. The results provided us with an interesting insight into the relationship between factors and accidents severity level and suggest that the two main factors that contributes to fatal accidents are "Speed greater than 60 km h" and "Did not see other people until it was too late". A comparison with the k-means algorithm and the independent component analysis is performed to validate the results.

  18. 77 FR 45417 - Pipeline Safety: Inspection and Protection of Pipeline Facilities After Railway Accidents

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-07-31

    ... DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [Docket No... Accidents AGENCY: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA); DOT. [[Page 45418

  19. Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories: Volume 2. Accident Prevention for Faculty and Administrators, 7th Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.

    This book contains volume 2 of 2 and describes safety guidelines for academic chemistry laboratories to prevent accidents for college and university students. Contents include: (1) "Organizing for Accident Prevention"; (2) "Personal Protective Equipment"; (3) "Labeling"; (4) "Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs)"; (5) "Preparing for Medical…

  20. Nuclear safety in light water reactors severe accident phenomenology

    CERN Document Server

    Sehgal, Bal Raj

    2011-01-01

    This vital reference is the only one-stop resource on how to assess, prevent, and manage severe nuclear accidents in the light water reactors (LWRs) that pose the most risk to the public. LWRs are the predominant nuclear reactor in use around the world today, and they will continue to be the most frequently utilized in the near future. Therefore, accurate determination of the safety issues associated with such reactors is central to a consideration of the risks and benefits of nuclear power. This book emphasizes the prevention and management of severe accidents to teach nuclear professionals

  1. General dependencies and causality analysis of road traffic fatalities in OECD countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan; Ali, Qamar; Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal

    2018-05-07

    The road traffic accidents were responsible for material and human loss which was equal to 2.8 to 5% of gross national product (GNP). However, literature does not explore the elasticity coefficients and nexus of road traffic fatalities with foreign direct investment, health expenditures, trade openness, mobile subscriptions, the number of researchers in R&D department, and environmental particulate matter. This study filled this research gap by exploring the nexus between road traffic fatalities, foreign direct investment, health expenditures, trade openness, mobile subscriptions, the number of researchers, and environmental particulate matter in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries by using panel data from 1995 to 2015. The panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound test was used for the detection of cointegration between the variables after checking the stationarity in selected variables with different panel unit root tests. Panel vector error correction model explored the causality of road traffic fatalities, foreign direct investment, PM2.5 in the environment, and trade openness in the long run. Road traffic fatalities showed short run bi-directional causality with foreign direct investment and health expenditures. The short run bi-directional causality was also observed between trade and foreign direct investment and cellular mobile subscriptions and foreign direct investment. The panel fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and panel dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) showed the 0.947% reduction in road fatalities for 1% increase in the health expenditures in OECD countries. The significant reduction in road fatalities was also observed due to 1% increase in trade openness and researchers in R&D, which implies the importance of trade and research for road safety. It is required to invest in the health sector for the safety of precious human lives like the hospitals with latest medical equipment and improvement

  2. Technique of research of severe accidents and substantiation of safety of nuclear systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, E.A.; Tchenov, S.V.

    2001-01-01

    Work is devoted to development of possible ways of solution of the problems of nuclear safety substantiation. We believe that safety in severe accidents is one of significant factors, which restrict value of nuclear industry in future power production. In connection with it we can conclude followed items: -) Substantiation of safety in severe accidents in nuclear system should be built on a deterministic way of guaranteed exception of heavy consequences; -) It is easy that this aim can be achieved by modeling in functions of common type; -) Main purpose of this work is to show that it is possible to estimate physical allowed state of system in emergency and find of trajectory of heaviest scenarios by optimization procedure; and -) In this work we have developed new method and computer code purposed for study of accident conditions of water cooled un-managed nuclear systems such as cooling ponds of spent fuel, experimental facilities etc. (authors)

  3. Accidents in Building Engineering in the European Union Countries in the Years 2008 - 2014

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harasymiuk, Jolanta; Tadeusz Barski, Janusz

    2017-10-01

    According to the ESAW1, an accident at work is an event that results in physical or mental harm to the person doing the work. As a result of this incident, fatal accidents may occur (which in the course of one year lead to death of the victim) or non-fatal accidents (that imply at least four full calendar days of absence from work). In the paper the authors present the number and the analysis of the causes of accidents at work in the construction industry in years 2008 - 2014 in 28 countries of the European Union. The descriptive statistics method was used to achieve the intended goal. The accident rate indicator for individual European Union countries has been shown in the analyzed period. The structure and trends of accidents during the period under investigation, divided into two groups: fatal accidents and non-fatal accidents, were presented. Both groups were analyzed for what caused them and what factors affected the quantity (Age of the victim, work experience, month of occurrence). On the basis of the analyzed causes and factors causing accidents in the construction industry in years 2008 - 2014, the classification of EU countries has been shown in terms of accidents. The paper was concluded with a summary.

  4. Factors Associated with Fatal Occupational Accidents among Mexican Workers: A National Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonzalez-Delgado, Mery; Gómez-Dantés, Héctor; Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo; Robles, Eduardo; Borja, Víctor H.; Aguilar, Miriam

    2015-01-01

    Objective To identify the factors associated with fatal occupational injuries in Mexico in 2012 among workers affiliated with the Mexican Social Security Institute. Methods Analysis of secondary data using information from the National Occupational Risk Information System, with the consequence of the occupational injury (fatal versus non-fatal) as the response variable. The analysis included 406,222 non-fatal and 1,140 fatal injuries from 2012. The factors associated with the lethality of the injury were identified using a logistic regression model with the Firth approach. Results Being male (OR=5.86; CI95%: 4.22-8.14), age (OR=1.04; CI95%: 1.03-1.06), employed in the position for 1 to 10 years (versus less than 1 year) (OR=1.37; CI95%: 1.15-1.63), working as a facilities or machine operator or assembler (OR: 3.28; CI95%: 2.12- 5.07) and being a worker without qualifications (OR=1.96; CI95%: 1.18-3.24) (versus an office worker) were associated with fatality in the event of an injury. Additionally, companies classified as maximum risk (OR=1.90; CI 95%: 1.38-2.62), workplace conditions (OR=7.15; CI95%: 3.63-14.10) and factors related to the work environment (OR=9.18; CI95%:4.36-19.33) were identified as risk factors for fatality in the event of an occupational injury. Conclusions Fatality in the event of an occupational injury is associated with factors related to sociodemographics (age, sex and occupation), the work environment and workplace conditions. Worker protection policies should be created for groups with a higher risk of fatal occupational injuries in Mexico. PMID:25790063

  5. Generalization of Nuclear Safety and Course of Accident Events Research in the Ignalina NPP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kaliatka, A.; Uspuras, E.

    2001-01-01

    The safety analysis shown that after implementation of SAR recommendations Ignalina NPP is adequately protected against accidents which required fast initiation of automatic protections. In case of accidents with long-term loss of core cooling additional operator actions are required. Accident management in case long-term core cooling are analyzed in this paper. (author)

  6. Severe accident assessment. Results of the reactor safety research project VAHTI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sairanen, R.

    1997-10-01

    The report provides a summary of the publicly funded nuclear reactor safety research project Severe Accident Management (VAHTI). The project has been conducted at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) during the years 1994-96. The main objective was to assist the severe accident management programmes of the Finnish nuclear power plants. The project was divided into five work packages: (1) thermal hydraulic validation of the APROS code, (2) core melt progression within a BWR pressure vessel, (3) failure mode of the BWR pressure vessel, (4) Aerosol behaviour experiments, and (5) development of a computerized severe accident training tool

  7. Ex-ante assessment of the Spanish Occupational Health and Safety Strategy (2007–2012) using a State Space framework

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carnero, María del Carmen; Pedregal, Diego José

    2013-01-01

    Spain is above the EU-27, EU-25 and EU-15 average in the number of serious work accidents, and it is estimated that Spain is five years behind the rest of Europe in reducing such accidents. To address the problem of the high number of occupational accidents, in 2007 the Spanish Occupational Health and Safety Strategy (SOHSS, 2007–2012) was launched, with the general aim of achieving a continuous and significant reduction in work accidents, approaching the EU average in occupational accidents and illness. This article is an attempt to assess the extent to which the aims of the SOHSS have been satisfied by predicting incidence rates for different levels of accident severity (slight, serious and fatal), accidents that do not require sick leave, and commuting accidents (slight, serious and fatal). With these objectives in mind, both Univariate and Multivariate Unobserved Components models are used in an enhanced State Space framework in order to deal with the irregular sampling interval of the data from 1998 to 2010.

  8. 29 CFR 1960.70 - Reporting of serious accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 29 Labor 9 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Reporting of serious accidents. 1960.70 Section 1960.70... accidents. Agencies must provide the Office of Federal Agency Programs with a summary report of each fatal and catastrophic accident investigation. The summaries shall address the date/time of accident, agency...

  9. Two fatal tiger attacks in zoos.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tantius, Britta; Wittschieber, Daniel; Schmidt, Sven; Rothschild, Markus A; Banaschak, Sibylle

    2016-01-01

    Two captive tiger attacks are presented that took place in Cologne and Münster zoos. Both attacks occurred when the handlers, intent on cleaning the enclosures, entered whilst the tigers accidently retained access to the location, and thus defended their territory against the perceived intruders. Both victims suffered fatal neck injuries from the bites. At Münster, colleagues managed to lure the tiger away from its victim to enable treatment, whilst the Cologne zoo tiger had to be shot in order to allow access to be gained. Whilst it was judged that human error led to the deaths of the experienced zookeepers, the investigation in Münster was closed as no third party was found to be at fault, whereas the Cologne zoo director was initially charged with being negligent. These charges were subsequently dismissed as safety regulations were found to be up to date.

  10. To improve nuclear plant safety by learning from accident's experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsumoto, Hidezo; Kida, Masanori; Kato, Hiroyuki; Hara, Shin-ichi

    1994-01-01

    The ultimate goal of this study is to produce an expert system that enables the experience (records and information) gained from accidents to be put to use towards improving nuclear plant safety. A number of examples have been investigated, both domestic and overseas, in which experience gained from accidents was utilized by utilities in managing and operating their nuclear power stations to improve safety. The result of investigation has been used to create a general 'basic flow' to make the best use of experience. The ultimate goal is achieved by carrying out this 'basic flow' with artificial intelligence (AI). To do this, it is necessary (1) to apply language analysis to process the source information (primary data base; domestic and overseas accident's reports) into the secondary data base, and (2) to establish an expert system for selecting (screening) significant events from the secondary data base. In the processing described in item (1), a multi-lingual thesaurus for nuclear-related terms become necessary because the source information (primary data bases) itself is multi-lingual. In the work described in item (2), the utilization of probabilistic safety assessment (PSA), for example, is a candidate method for judging the significance of events. Achieving the goal thus requires developing various new techniques. As the first step of the above long-term study project, this report proposes the 'basic flow' and presents the concept of how the nuclear-related AI can be used to carry out this 'basic flow'. (author)

  11. Epidemiology o.f· Traffic Accidents

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Accidents. An analysis of some 2 100 fatal traffic accidents gave the following results: males-79%; females-21%; a ratio of 4: 1. The high proportion of males to females killed in traffic accidents may be due to the fact that (a) more males commute daily in private and commercial vehicles;. (b) more females commute daily in ...

  12. The role of alcohol in road traffic accidents with fatal outcome: 10-year period in Croatia Split-Dalmatia County.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sutlovic, Davorka; Scepanovic, Antonija; Bosnjak, Marinko; Versic-Bratincevic, Maja; Definis-Gojanovic, Marija

    2014-01-01

    The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between alcohol consumption and fatal road traffic accidents that took place in Split-Dalmatia County (Croatia) during a 10-year period (from August 2001 to August 2011). A retrospective analysis of 474 autopsy reports was performed, with an emphasis on 337 toxicologal findings of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and the mode of participation in traffic (driver, passenger, pedestrian, or cyclist). Relations between the BAC, the weekday on which death occurred, victim's age and gender, and differences according to 3 successive legislation periods within the observed time frame were analyzed. The BAC was measured by gas chromatography with headspace and flame ionization detection. Alcohol was regarded as a contributive death factor if BAC was positive; that is, higher than 0.5 g/kg. BAC was positive in 177 cases. Most often it was the car driver who had a positive BAC. Victims of traffic accidents were mostly male drivers, and those accidents were more often associated with alcohol consumption. Consumption of alcohol produced a significant increase in culpability. The results of our study show that alcohol remains one of the main contributing factors of traffic accidents in Split-Dalmatia County. Unfortunately, legislation changes regarding the allowed BAC did not cause any reduction in casualties among drivers driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA). Chi-square test of the number of total driver victims and driver victims who were DUIA revealed no significant difference (P = .173).

  13. Analysis of occupational accidents: prevention through the use of additional technical safety measures for machinery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dźwiarek, Marek; Latała, Agata

    2016-01-01

    This article presents an analysis of results of 1035 serious and 341 minor accidents recorded by Poland's National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) in 2005-2011, in view of their prevention by means of additional safety measures applied by machinery users. Since the analysis aimed at formulating principles for the application of technical safety measures, the analysed accidents should bear additional attributes: the type of machine operation, technical safety measures and the type of events causing injuries. The analysis proved that the executed tasks and injury-causing events were closely connected and there was a relation between casualty events and technical safety measures. In the case of tasks consisting of manual feeding and collecting materials, the injuries usually occur because of the rotating motion of tools or crushing due to a closing motion. Numerous accidents also happened in the course of supporting actions, like removing pollutants, correcting material position, cleaning, etc.

  14. Machine-related injuries in the US mining industry and priorities for safety research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruff, Todd; Coleman, Patrick; Martini, Laura

    2011-03-01

    Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health studied mining accidents that involved a worker entangled in, struck by, or in contact with machinery or equipment in motion. The motivation for this study came from the large number of severe accidents, i.e. accidents resulting in a fatality or permanent disability, that are occurring despite available interventions. Accident descriptions were taken from an accident database maintained by the United States Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration, and 562 accidents that occurred during 2000-2007 fit the search criteria. Machine-related accidents accounted for 41% of all severe accidents in the mining industry during this period. Machinery most often involved in these accidents included conveyors, rock bolting machines, milling machines and haulage equipment such as trucks and loaders. The most common activities associated with these accidents were operation of the machine and maintenance and repair. The current methods to safeguard workers near machinery include mechanical guarding around moving components, lockout/tagout of machine power during maintenance and backup alarms for mobile equipment. To decrease accidents further, researchers recommend additional efforts in the development of new control technologies, training materials and dissemination of information on best practices.

  15. Report of the Fukushima nuclear accident by the National Academy of Science. Lessons learned from the Fukushima nuclear accident for improving safety of U.S. nuclear plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nariai, Hideki

    2014-01-01

    U.S. National Academy of Science investigated the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant initiated by the Great East Japan Earthquake for two years and published a draft report in July 24, 2014. Investigation results were summarized in nine new findings and made ten recommendations in a wide horizon; (1) hardware countermeasures against severe accidents and training of operators, (2) upgrade of risk assessment capability for beyond design basis accident, (3) incorporation of new information about hazards in safety regulations, (4) needed improvement of off-site emergency preparedness, and (5) improvements of nuclear safety culture. New information about hazards related with tsunami assessment, new risk assessment for beyond design basis accident, advice of foreigner resident evacuations, regulatory capture, and safety culture and regulator's specialty were discussed as Japanese issues. (T. Tanaka)

  16. Safety Enhancements for PHWRs Based on Macroscopic Losses of the Fukushima Accident

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sang Ho Kim

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The role of nuclear energy is to supply electric power on a stable basis to meet increasing demands, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and maintain stable electric power costs while ensuring safety. The Fukushima accident taught us many lessons for creating safer nuclear power plants. Considering the design of systems, the areas of weakness at the Fukushima nuclear power plants can be divided into three categories: plant protection, electricity supply, and cooling of the nuclear fuel. In this paper, focusing on these three areas, the lessons learned are proposed and applied for pressurized heavy water reactors. Firstly, hard protection against external risks ensures the integrity of components and systems such that they can perform their original functions. Secondly, additional emergency power supply systems for electrical redundancy and diversity can improve the response capabilities for an accident by increasing the availability of active components. Thirdly, cooling for removing decay heat can be augmented by adopting diverse safety systems derived from other types of reactors. This study is expected to contribute to the safety enhancement of pressurized heavy water reactors by applying design changes based on the lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.

  17. Emergency response and nuclear risk governance. Nuclear safety at nuclear power plant accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuhlen, Johannes

    2014-01-01

    The present study entitled ''Emergency Response and Nuclear Risk Governance: nuclear safety at nuclear power plant accidents'' deals with issues of the protection of the population and the environment against hazardous radiation (the hazards of nuclear energy) and the harmful effects of radioactivity during nuclear power plant accidents. The aim of this study is to contribute to both the identification and remediation of shortcomings and deficits in the management of severe nuclear accidents like those that occurred at Chernobyl in 1986 and at Fukushima in 2011 as well as to the improvement and harmonization of plans and measures taken on an international level in nuclear emergency management. This thesis is divided into a theoretical part and an empirical part. The theoretical part focuses on embedding the subject in a specifically global governance concept, which includes, as far as Nuclear Risk Governance is concerned, the global governance of nuclear risks. Due to their characteristic features the following governance concepts can be assigned to these risks: Nuclear Safety Governance is related to safety, Nuclear Security Governance to security and NonProliferation Governance to safeguards. The subject of investigation of the present study is as a special case of the Nuclear Safety Governance, the Nuclear Emergency governance, which refers to off-site emergency response. The global impact of nuclear accidents and the concepts of security, safety culture and residual risk are contemplated in this context. The findings (accident sequences, their consequences and implications) from the analyses of two reactor accidents prior to Fukushima (Three Mile Iceland in 1979, Chernobyl in 1986) are examined from a historical analytical perspective and the state of the Nuclear Emergency governance and international cooperation aimed at improving nuclear safety after Chernobyl is portrayed by discussing, among other topics, examples of &apos

  18. Determination of Optimal Flow Paths for Safety Injection According to Accident Conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yoo, Kwae Hwan; Kim, Ju Hyun; Kim, Dong Yeong; Na, Man Gyun [Chosun Univ., Gwangju (Korea, Republic of); Hur, Seop; Kim, Changhwoi [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-05-15

    In case severe accidents happen, major safety parameters of nuclear reactors are rapidly changed. Therefore, operators are unable to respond appropriately. This situation causes the human error of operators that led to serious accidents at Chernobyl. In this study, we aimed to develop an algorithm that can be used to select the optimal flow path for cold shutdown in serious accidents, and to recover an NPP quickly and efficiently from the severe accidents. In order to select the optimal flow path, we applied a Dijkstra algorithm. The Dijkstra algorithm is used to find the path of minimum total length between two given nodes and needs a weight (or length) matrix. In this study, the weight between nodes was calculated from frictional and minor losses inside pipes. That is, the optimal flow path is found so that the pressure drop between a starting node (water source) and a destination node (position that cooling water is injected) is minimized. In case a severe accident has happened, if we inject cooling water through the optimized flow path, then the nuclear reactor will be safely and effectively returned into the cold shutdown state. In this study, we have analyzed the optimal flow paths for safety injection as a preliminary study for developing an accident recovery system. After analyzing the optimal flow path using the Dijkstra algorithm, and the optimal flow paths were selected by calculating the head loss according to path conditions.

  19. Social host liability for minors and underage drunk-driving accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dills, Angela K

    2010-03-01

    Social host laws for minors aim to reduce teenage alcohol consumption by imposing liability on adults who host parties. Parents cite safety reasons as part of their motivation for hosting parties, preferring their teens and their teens' friends to drink in a supervised and safe locale. Both sides predict an effect of social host liability for minors on alcohol-related traffic accident rates for under-aged drinkers; the effects, however, work in opposite directions. This paper finds that, among 18-20 year olds, social host liability for minors reduced the drunk-driving fatality rate by 9%. I find no effect on sober traffic fatalities. Survey data on drinking and drunk driving suggest the declines resulted mostly from reductions in drunk driving and not reductions in drinking. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Chernobyl accident consequences in Germany: Nuclear safety and radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Edelhauser, H.; Wendling, R.D.; Weiss, W.; Klonk, H.; Weil, L.

    1997-01-01

    A working Programme of the Federal Government was initiated on 26 May 1986 to cover all aspects of nuclear safety and public health, including research and public affairs in the light of the European and international activities resulting from the accident

  1. Proceedings of the Second NASA Aviation Safety Program Weather Accident Prevention Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martzaklis, K. Gus (Compiler)

    2003-01-01

    The Second NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) Weather Accident Prevention (WxAP) Annual Project Review held June 5-7, 2001, in Cleveland, Ohio, presented the NASA technical plans and accomplishments to the aviation community. NASA-developed technologies presented included an Aviation Weather Information System with associated digital communications links, electronic atmospheric reporting technologies, forward-looking turbulence warning systems, and turbulence mitigation procedures. The meeting provided feedback and insight from the aviation community of diverse backgrounds and assisted NASA in steering its plans in the direction needed to meet the national safety goal of 80-percent reduction of aircraft accidents by 2007. The proceedings of the review are enclosed.

  2. AN ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENT TRENDS AND MODELING OF SAFETY INDICES IN AN INDIAN CONSTRUCTION ORGANIZATION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sunku Venkata Siva Rajaprasad

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Construction industry has been recognized as a hazardous industry in many countries due to distinct nature of execution of works.The accident rate in construction sector is high all over the world due to dynamic nature of work activities. Occurrence of accidents and its severity in construction industry is several times higher than the manufacturing industries. The study was limited to a major construction organization in India to examine the trends in construction accidents for the period 2008-2014. In India, safety performance is gauged basing on safety indices; frequency, severity and incidence rates. It is not practicable to take decisions or to implement safety strategies on the basis of indices. The data used for this study was collected from a leading construction organization involved in execution of major construction activities all over India and abroad. The multiple regression method was adopted to model the pattern of safety indices wise .The pattern showed that significant relationships exist between the three safety indices and the related independent variables.

  3. Safety improvements at Canadian nuclear power plants in the aftermath of Fukushima accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rzentkowski, G.; Khouaja, H.

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the safety review of operating nuclear power plants undertaken by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in light of the March 11, 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). The review confirmed that the Canadian NPPs are robust and have a strong design relying on multiple layers of defence to protect the public from credible external events. Nevertheless, in the spirit of continuous safety improvements, the review identified a number of recommendations to further strengthen reactor defence-in-depth in preventing and mitigating the consequences of beyond design basis accidents, enhance onsite and offsite emergency response, and improve the CNSC regulatory framework. Progress achieved to date, in implementing these measures, is described in this paper along with a summary of safety benefits for each level of the reactor defence-in-depth. (author)

  4. Safety improvements at Canadian nuclear power plants in the aftermath of Fukushima accident

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rzentkowski, G.; Khouaja, H. [Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Ottawa, ON (Canada)

    2014-07-01

    This paper describes the safety review of operating nuclear power plants undertaken by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in light of the March 11, 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs). The review confirmed that the Canadian NPPs are robust and have a strong design relying on multiple layers of defence to protect the public from credible external events. Nevertheless, in the spirit of continuous safety improvements, the review identified a number of recommendations to further strengthen reactor defence-in-depth in preventing and mitigating the consequences of beyond design basis accidents, enhance onsite and offsite emergency response, and improve the CNSC regulatory framework. Progress achieved to date, in implementing these measures, is described in this paper along with a summary of safety benefits for each level of the reactor defence-in-depth. (author)

  5. Analysis of occupational accidents: prevention through the use of additional technical safety measures for machinery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dźwiarek, Marek; Latała, Agata

    2016-01-01

    This article presents an analysis of results of 1035 serious and 341 minor accidents recorded by Poland's National Labour Inspectorate (PIP) in 2005–2011, in view of their prevention by means of additional safety measures applied by machinery users. Since the analysis aimed at formulating principles for the application of technical safety measures, the analysed accidents should bear additional attributes: the type of machine operation, technical safety measures and the type of events causing injuries. The analysis proved that the executed tasks and injury-causing events were closely connected and there was a relation between casualty events and technical safety measures. In the case of tasks consisting of manual feeding and collecting materials, the injuries usually occur because of the rotating motion of tools or crushing due to a closing motion. Numerous accidents also happened in the course of supporting actions, like removing pollutants, correcting material position, cleaning, etc. PMID:26652689

  6. Comparing recall vs. recognition measures of accident under-reporting: A two-country examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Probst, Tahira M; Petitta, Laura; Barbaranelli, Claudio

    2017-09-01

    A growing body of research suggests that national injury surveillance data significantly underestimate the true number of non-fatal occupational injuries due to employee under-reporting of workplace accidents. Given the importance of accurately measuring such under-reporting, the purpose of the current research was to examine the psychometric properties of two different techniques used to operationalize accident under-reporting, one using a free recall methodology and the other a recognition-based approach. Moreover, in order to assess the cross-cultural generalizability of these under-reporting measures, we replicated our psychometric analyses in the United States (N=440) and Italy (N=592). Across both countries, the results suggest that both measures exhibited similar patterns of relationships with known antecedents, including job insecurity, production pressure, safety compliance, and safety reporting attitudes. However, the recall measures had more severe violations of normality and were less correlated with self-report workplace injuries. Considerations, implications, and recommendations for using these different types of accident measures are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Safety in Academic Chemistry Laboratories: Volume 1. Accident Prevention for College and University Students, 7th Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.

    This book contains volume 1 of 2 and describes safety guidelines for academic chemistry laboratories to prevent accidents for college and university students. Contents include: (1) "Your Responsibility for Accident Prevention"; (2) "Guide to Chemical Hazards"; (3) "Recommended Laboratory Techniques"; and (4) "Safety Equipment and Emergency…

  8. Safety demonstration analyses at JAERI for severe accident during overland transport of fresh nuclear fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nomura, Yasushi; Kitao, Kohichi; Karasawa, Kiyonori; Yamada, Kenji; Takahashi, Satoshi; Watanabe, Kohji; Okuno, Hiroshi; Miyoshi, Yoshinori

    2005-01-01

    It is expected in the near future that more and more fresh nuclear fuel will be transported in a variety of transport packages to cope with increasing demand from nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Accordingly, safety demonstration analyses are planned and conducted at JAERI under contract with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. These analyses are conducted in a four year plan from 2001 to 2004 to verify integrity of packaging against leakage of radioactive material in the case of a severe accident postulated to occur during transportation, for the purpose of gaining acceptance of such nuclear fuel activities. In order to create the accident scenarios, actual transportation routes were surveyed, accident or incident records were tracked, international radioactive material transport regulations such as IAEA rules were investigated and thus, accident conditions leading to mechanical damages and thermal failure were determined to characterize the scenarios. As a result, the worst-case conditions of run-off-the-road accidents were set up to define the impact against a concrete or asphalt surface. For fire accident scenarios to be set up, collisions were assumed to occur with an oil tanker carrying lots of inflammable material in open air, or with a commonly used two-ton-truck inside a tunnel without ventilation. Then the cask models were determined for these safety demonstration analyses to represent those commonly used for fresh nuclear fuel transported throughout Japan. Following the postulated accident scenarios, the mechanical damages were analyzed by using the general-purpose finite element code LS-DYNA with three-dimensional elements. It was found that leak tightness of the package be maintained even in the severe impact scenario. Then the thermal safety was analyzed by using the general-purpose finite element code ABAOUS with three-dimensional elements to describe cask geometry. As a result of the thermal analyses, the integrity of the containment

  9. FN-curves: preliminary estimation of severe accident risks after Fukushima

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vasconcelos, Vanderley de; Soares, Wellington Antonio; Costa, Antonio Carlos Lopes da

    2015-01-01

    Doubts of whether the risks related to severe accidents in nuclear reactors are indeed very low were raised after the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. Risk estimations of severe accidents in nuclear power plants involve both probability and consequence assessment of such events. Among the ways to display risks, risk curves are tools that express the frequency of exceeding a certain magnitude of consequence. Societal risk is often represented graphically in a FN-curve, a type of risk curve, which displays the probability of having N or more fatalities per year, as a function of N, on a double logarithmic scale. The FN-curve, originally introduced for the assessment of the risks in the nuclear industry through the U.S.NRC Reactor Safety Study WASH-1400 (1975), is used in various countries to express and limit risks of hazardous activities. This first study estimated an expected rate of core damage equal to 5x10 -5 by reactor-year and suggested an upper bound of 3x10 -4 by reactor-year. A more recent report issued by Electric Power Research Institute - EPRI (2008) estimates a figure of the order of 2x10 -5 by reactor-year. The Fukushima nuclear accident apparently implies that the observed core damage frequency is higher than that predicted by these probabilistic safety assessments. Therefore, this paper presents a preliminary analyses of the FN-curves related to severe nuclear reactor accidents, taking into account a combination of available data of past accidents, probability modelling to estimate frequencies, and expert judgments. (author)

  10. FN-curves: preliminary estimation of severe accident risks after Fukushima

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Vasconcelos, Vanderley de; Soares, Wellington Antonio; Costa, Antonio Carlos Lopes da, E-mail: vasconv@cdtn.br, E-mail: soaresw@cdtn.br, E-mail: aclc@cdtn.br [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

    2015-07-01

    Doubts of whether the risks related to severe accidents in nuclear reactors are indeed very low were raised after the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi in 2011. Risk estimations of severe accidents in nuclear power plants involve both probability and consequence assessment of such events. Among the ways to display risks, risk curves are tools that express the frequency of exceeding a certain magnitude of consequence. Societal risk is often represented graphically in a FN-curve, a type of risk curve, which displays the probability of having N or more fatalities per year, as a function of N, on a double logarithmic scale. The FN-curve, originally introduced for the assessment of the risks in the nuclear industry through the U.S.NRC Reactor Safety Study WASH-1400 (1975), is used in various countries to express and limit risks of hazardous activities. This first study estimated an expected rate of core damage equal to 5x10{sup -5} by reactor-year and suggested an upper bound of 3x10{sup -4} by reactor-year. A more recent report issued by Electric Power Research Institute - EPRI (2008) estimates a figure of the order of 2x10{sup -5} by reactor-year. The Fukushima nuclear accident apparently implies that the observed core damage frequency is higher than that predicted by these probabilistic safety assessments. Therefore, this paper presents a preliminary analyses of the FN-curves related to severe nuclear reactor accidents, taking into account a combination of available data of past accidents, probability modelling to estimate frequencies, and expert judgments. (author)

  11. Safety and man in light of the analysis of major technical accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carnino, A.

    1990-01-01

    Up to the seventies, it was not easy to admit human failure as a cause of industrial accidents. Man was considered as reliable. With the perfection of materials, technical systems and industrial processes though, man has become the weakest link in the chain of technical events. He is and stays a remarkably reliable being, with a roughly estimated average failure quota of 1:1000 manipulations. If the hypothetical risk should be kept very low, this value can become a problem. Instead of judging a mistake as a punishable crime, as the present tendency will have it, a more differentiated, systematical approach is called for. By means of an analysis of four major accidents - Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Challenger and Bhopal - interesting parallels between the causes of such accidents can be found. Human failure, e.g. of a surgeon, is in most cases, the direct cause of an accident. A whole series of further causes, which can be assigned to different areas of influence but are usually interdependent, also play a role. While the human factor must be viewed as more or less predetermined, far reaching improvements can be made to reduce the risk of accident. Today, thanks to modern technology and new findings, it is possible to practically neutralize human error. This creates more costs and necessitates giving up short term production maximization. It also requires the willingness to give safety absolute priority. The name 'culture de surete' (safety culture) is used to describe this concept. Surprising similarities between the causes of the four mentioned major accidents were discovered. Certain circumstances, such as the time of day, played a role. The concept of a plant, resp. technical process has an essential influence, as well as company policy (importance of safety, preparation of emergency procedures, training, maintenance, company rules) and management (evaluation and realization of foreign and the company's own operation experiences and error alarms). (author) 7

  12. Occupational health and safety in the Moroccan construction sites: preliminary diagnosis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarik, Bakeli; Adil, Hafidi Alaoui

    2018-05-01

    Managing occupational health and safety on Moroccan construction sector represents the first step for projects' success. In fact, by avoiding accidents, all the related direct and indirect costs and delays can be prevented. That leads to an important question always asked by any project manager: what are the factors responsible for accidents? How can they be avoided? Through this research, the aim is to go through these questions, to contribute in occupational health and safety principles understanding, to identify construction accidentology and risk management opportunities and to approach the case of Moroccan construction sites by an accurate diagnosis. The approach is to make researchers, managers, stakeholders and deciders aware about the criticality of construction sites health and safety situation. And, to do the first step for a scientific research project in relation with health and safety in the Moroccan construction sector. For this, the paper will study the related state of art namely about construction sites accidents causation, and will focus on Reason's `Swiss cheese' model and its utilization for Moroccan construction sites health and safety diagnosis. The research will end with an estimation of an accidents fatality rate in the Moroccan construction sector and a benchmarking with the international rates. Finally, conclusions will be presented about the necessity of Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) implementation, which shall cover all risk levels, and insure, at the same time, that the necessary defenses against accidents are on place.

  13. Improving Aviation Safety in Indonesia: How Many More Accidents?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ridha Aditya Nugraha

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Numerous and consecutive aircraft accidents combined with a consistent failure to meet international safety standards in Indonesia, namely from the International Civil Aviation Organization and the European Aviation Safety Agency have proven a nightmare for the country’s aviation safety reputation. There is an urgent need for bureaucracy reform, harmonization of legislation, and especially ensuring legal enforcement, to bring Indonesian aviation safety back to world standards. The Indonesian Aviation Law of 2009 was enacted to reform the situation in Indonesia. The law has become the ground for drafting legal framework under decrees of the Minister of Transportation, which have allowed the government to perform follow-up actions such as establishing a single air navigation service provider and guaranteeing the independency of the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee. A comparison with Thailand is made to enrich the perspective. Finally, foreign aviation entities have a role to assist states, in this case Indonesia, in improving its aviation safety, considering the global nature of air travel.

  14. Classification of the railway accident in accordance with the requirement of the safety analysis of transporting spent fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Tao

    1993-01-01

    Based on the analysis of the difference between the accident severity categorization used in the Ministry of Railway and that used in the safety analysis of the transporting spent fuel, a method used for the classification of the railway accident in accordance with the requirement of the safety analysis of transporting spent fuel is suggested. The method classifies the railway accidents into 10 scenarios and make it possible to scale the accident through directly using the data documented by the Ministry of Railway without any additional effort

  15. A Review of General Aviation Safety (1984-2017).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyd, Douglas D

    2017-07-01

    General aviation includes all civilian aviation apart from operations involving paid passenger transport. Unfortunately, this category of aviation holds a lackluster safety record, accounting for 94% of civil aviation fatalities. In 2014, of 1143 general aviation accidents, 20% were fatal compared with 0 of 29 airline mishaps in the United States. Herein, research findings over the past 30 yr will be reviewed. Accident risk factors (e.g., adverse weather, geographical region, post-impact fire, gender differences) will be discussed. The review will also summarize the development and implementation of stringent crashworthiness designs with multi-axis dynamic testing and head-injury protection and its impact on mitigating occupant injury severity. The benefits and drawbacks of new technology and human factor considerations associated with increased general aviation automation will be debated. Data on the safety of the aging general aviation population and increased drug usage will also be described. Finally, areas in which general aviation occupant survival could be improved and injury severity mitigated will be discussed with the view of equipping aircraft with 1) crash-resistant fuel tanks to reduce post-impact conflagration; 2) after-market ballistic parachutes for older aircraft; and 3) current generation electronic locator beacons to hasten site access by first responders.Boyd DD. A review of general aviation safety (1984-2017). Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(7):657-664.

  16. Process hazards analysis (PrHA) program, bridging accident analyses and operational safety

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Richardson, J.A.; McKernan, S.A.; Vigil, M.J.

    2003-01-01

    Recently the Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) for the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Technical Area 55 (TA-55) was revised and submitted to the US. Department of Energy (DOE). As a part of this effort, over seventy Process Hazards Analyses (PrHAs) were written and/or revised over the six years prior to the FSAR revision. TA-55 is a research, development, and production nuclear facility that primarily supports US. defense and space programs. Nuclear fuels and material research; material recovery, refining and analyses; and the casting, machining and fabrication of plutonium components are some of the activities conducted at TA-35. These operations involve a wide variety of industrial, chemical and nuclear hazards. Operational personnel along with safety analysts work as a team to prepare the PrHA. PrHAs describe the process; identi fy the hazards; and analyze hazards including determining hazard scenarios, their likelihood, and consequences. In addition, the interaction of the process to facility systems, structures and operational specific protective features are part of the PrHA. This information is rolled-up to determine bounding accidents and mitigating systems and structures. Further detailed accident analysis is performed for the bounding accidents and included in the FSAR. The FSAR is part of the Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) that defines the safety envelope for all facility operations in order to protect the worker, the public, and the environment. The DSA is in compliance with the US. Code of Federal Regulations, 10 CFR 830, Nuclear Safety Management and is approved by DOE. The DSA sets forth the bounding conditions necessary for the safe operation for the facility and is essentially a 'license to operate.' Safely of day-to-day operations is based on Hazard Control Plans (HCPs). Hazards are initially identified in the PrI-IA for the specific operation and act as input to the HCP. Specific protective features important to worker

  17. The relationships between organizational and individual variables to on-the-job driver accidents and accident-free kilometres.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Caird, J K; Kline, T J

    2004-12-01

    Highway fatalities are the leading cause of fatal work injuries in the US, accounting for approximately 1 in 4 of the 5900 job-related deaths during 2001. The present study focused on the contribution of organizational factors and driver behaviours to on-the-job driving accidents in a large Western Canadian corporation. A structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was used which allows researchers to test a complex set of relationships within a global theoretical framework. A number of scales were used to assess organizational support, driver errors, and driver behaviours. The sample of professional drivers that participated allowed the recording of on-the-job accidents and accident-free kilometres from their personnel files. The pattern of relationships in the fitted model, after controlling for exposure and social desirability, provides insight into the role of organizational support, planning, environment adaptations, fatigue, speed, errors and moving citations to on-the-job accidents and accident-free kilometres. For example, organizational support affected the capacity to plan. Time to plan work-related driving was found to predict accidents, fatigue and adaptations to the environment. Other interesting model paths, SEM limitations, future research and recommendations are elaborated.

  18. Design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of BIM system to determine the safety index

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ai Lin Evelyn Teo

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Despite the safety improvement drive that has been implemented in the construction industry in Singapore for many years, the industry continues to report the highest number of workplace fatalities, compared to other industries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical framework of the safety aspect of a proposed BIM System to determine a Safety Index. An online questionnaire survey was conducted to ascertain the current workplace safety and health situation in the construction industry and explore how BIM can be used to improve safety performance in the industry. A safety hazard library was developed based on the main contributors to fatal accidents in the construction industry, determined from the formal records and existing literature, and a series of discussions with representatives from the Workplace Safety and Health Institute (WSH Institute in Singapore. The results from the survey suggested that the majority of the firms have implemented the necessary policies, programmes and procedures on Workplace Safety and Health (WSH practices. However, BIM is still not widely applied or explored beyond the mandatory requirement that building plans should be submitted to the authorities for approval in BIM format. This paper presents a discussion of the safety aspect of the Intelligent Productivity and Safety System (IPASS developed in the study. IPASS is an intelligent system incorporating the buildable design concept, theory on the detection, prevention and control of hazards, and the Construction Safety Audit Scoring System (ConSASS. The system is based on the premise that safety should be considered at the design stage, and BIM can be an effective tool to facilitate the efforts to enhance safety performance. IPASS allows users to analyse and monitor key aspects of the safety performance of the project before the project starts and as the project progresses.

  19. Main safety issues related to IPSN severe accident research

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LeComte, C.

    1991-01-01

    The work performed at IPSN concerning accident studies on nuclear installations is focused on the characterization of accidental sequences with three major aims: prevention, mitigation, and organization of counter-measures. As criteria to optimize all efforts made to improve nuclear safety, the radioactive dispersal in the environment must be quantified as function of internal and external radioactive products transfers. During the short-term phase of the accident, potential radioactive releases can be evaluated by the realistic code system ESCADRE. This system is validated by numerous analytical studies related to containment and fission product behavior. It will be further qualified by the results of the global experiments performed in the PHEBUS FP facility at IPSN

  20. Development Of Dynamic Probabilistic Safety Assessment: The Accident Dynamic Simulator (ADS) Tool

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chang, Y.H.; Mosleh, A.; Dang, V.N.

    2003-01-01

    The development of a dynamic methodology for Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) addresses the complex interactions between the behaviour of technical systems and personnel response in the evolution of accident scenarios. This paper introduces the discrete dynamic event tree, a framework for dynamic PSA, and its implementation in the Accident Dynamic Simulator (ADS) tool. Dynamic event tree tools generate and quantify accident scenarios through coupled simulation models of the plant physical processes, its automatic systems, the equipment reliability, and the human response. The current research on the framework, the ADS tool, and on Human Reliability Analysis issues within dynamic PSA, is discussed. (author)

  1. Development Of Dynamic Probabilistic Safety Assessment: The Accident Dynamic Simulator (ADS) Tool

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chang, Y.H.; Mosleh, A.; Dang, V.N

    2003-03-01

    The development of a dynamic methodology for Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) addresses the complex interactions between the behaviour of technical systems and personnel response in the evolution of accident scenarios. This paper introduces the discrete dynamic event tree, a framework for dynamic PSA, and its implementation in the Accident Dynamic Simulator (ADS) tool. Dynamic event tree tools generate and quantify accident scenarios through coupled simulation models of the plant physical processes, its automatic systems, the equipment reliability, and the human response. The current research on the framework, the ADS tool, and on Human Reliability Analysis issues within dynamic PSA, is discussed. (author)

  2. Proposed classification scale for radiological incidents and accidents; Elaboration d'une echelle de classement des incidents et accidents radiologiques

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2003-04-15

    The scale proposed in this report is intended to facilitate communication concerning the severity of incidents and accidents involving the exposure of human beings to ionising radiations. Like the INES, it comprises eight levels of severity and uses the same terms (accident, incident, anomaly, serious and major) for keeping the public and the media informed. In a radiological protection context, the severity of an event is considered as being directly proportional to the risk run by an individual (the probability of developing fatal or non-fatal health effects) following exposure to ionising radiation in an incident or accident situation. However for society, other factors have to be taken into account to determine severity. The severity scale proposed is therefore based on assessment of the individual radiological risk. A severity level corresponding to exposure of a member of the public in an incident or accident situation is determined on the basis of risk assessment concepts and methods derived from international consensus on dose/effect relationships for both stochastic and deterministic effects. The severity of all the possible exposure situations - worker exposure, collective exposure, potential exposure - is determined using a system of weighting in relation to situations involving members of the public. In the case of this scale, to indicate the severity of an event, it is proposed to make use of the most penalizing level of severity, comparing: - the severity associated with the probability of occurrence of deterministic effects and the severity associated with the probability of occurrence of stochastic effects, when the event gives rise to both types of risk; - the severity for members of the public and the severity for exposed workers, when both categories of individuals are involved; - the severity on the proposed radiological protection scale and that obtained using the INES, when radiological protection and nuclear safety aspects are associated with

  3. Spatio-temporal patterns of hazards and their use in risk assessment and mitigation. Case study of road accidents in Romania

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catalin Stanga, Iulian

    2013-04-01

    Road accidents are among the leading causes of death in many world countries, partly as an inherent consequence of the increasing mobility of today society. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 million people died in road accidents in 2011, which means 186 deaths per million. The tragic picture is completed by millions of peoples experiencing different physical injuries or by the enormous social and economic costs that these events imply. Romania has one of the most unsafe road networks within the European Union, with annual averages of 9400 accidents, 8300 injuries and almost 2680 fatalities (2007-2012). An average of 141 death per million is more than twice the average fatality rate in European Union (about 60 death per million). Other specific indicators (accidents or fatalities reported to the road length, vehicle fleet size, driving license owners or adult population etc.) are even worst in the same European context. Road accidents are caused by a complex series of factors, some of them being a relatively constant premise, while others act as catalyzing factors or triggering agent: road features and quality, vehicle technical state, weather conditions, human related factors etc. All these lead to a complex equation with too many unknown variables, making almost impossible a probabilistic approach. However, the high concentration of accidents in a region or in some road sectors is caused by the existence of a specific context, created by factors with permanent or repetitive character, and leads to the idea of a spatial autocorrelation between locations of different adjoining accident. In the same way, the increasing frequency of road accidents and of their causes repeatability in different periods of the year would allow to identify those black timeframes with higher incidence of road accidents. Identifying and analyzing the road blackspots (hotspots) and black zones would help to improve road safety by acting against the common causes that create

  4. Causal Factors and Adverse Events of Aviation Accidents and Incidents Related to Integrated Vehicle Health Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reveley, Mary S.; Briggs, Jeffrey L.; Evans, Joni K.; Jones, Sharon M.; Kurtoglu, Tolga; Leone, Karen M.; Sandifer, Carl E.

    2011-01-01

    Causal factors in aviation accidents and incidents related to system/component failure/malfunction (SCFM) were examined for Federal Aviation Regulation Parts 121 and 135 operations to establish future requirements for the NASA Aviation Safety Program s Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) Project. Data analyzed includes National Transportation Safety Board (NSTB) accident data (1988 to 2003), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) incident data (1988 to 2003), and Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) incident data (1993 to 2008). Failure modes and effects analyses were examined to identify possible modes of SCFM. A table of potential adverse conditions was developed to help evaluate IVHM research technologies. Tables present details of specific SCFM for the incidents and accidents. Of the 370 NTSB accidents affected by SCFM, 48 percent involved the engine or fuel system, and 31 percent involved landing gear or hydraulic failure and malfunctions. A total of 35 percent of all SCFM accidents were caused by improper maintenance. Of the 7732 FAA database incidents affected by SCFM, 33 percent involved landing gear or hydraulics, and 33 percent involved the engine and fuel system. The most frequent SCFM found in ASRS were turbine engine, pressurization system, hydraulic main system, flight management system/flight management computer, and engine. Because the IVHM Project does not address maintenance issues, and landing gear and hydraulic systems accidents are usually not fatal, the focus of research should be those SCFMs that occur in the engine/fuel and flight control/structures systems as well as power systems.

  5. Safety Requirements / Design Criteria for SFR. Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yllera, Javier

    2013-01-01

    After the Fukushima event (March 2011) the IAEA has started an action to review and revise, if necessary, all Safety Standards to take into consideration the lessons learned from the accident. The Safety Standards that need to be revised have been identified. A Prioritization Approach has been established: The first priority is to review safety guides applicable for NPPs and spent fuel storage with focus on the measures for the prevention and mitigation of severe accident due to external hazards - ● Regulatory framework, Safety assessment, Management system, Radiation protection and Emergency Preparedness and response; ● Sitting, Design, Operation of NPPs ● Decommissioning and Waste Management. Original sources for lessons learned: IAE fact Finding Mission, Japan´s report to the Ministerial Conference, INSAG Report, etc. Later, other lesson sources considered

  6. The corporate quest for zero accidents: A case study into the response to safety transgressions in the industrial sector

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Twaalfhoven, S.F.M.; Kortleven, W.J.

    2016-01-01

    Since the 1990s, the idea that accidents should be reduced to zero is gaining growing acclaim in the fields of road safety and occupational safety and health. As most of the literature on this so-called Zero Accident Vision (ZAV) deals exclusively with its application to road safety, which is a

  7. Technology, safety, and costs of decommissioning reference light-water reactors following postulated accidents. Appendices

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Murphy, E S; Holter, G M

    1982-11-01

    Appendices contain information concerning the reference site description; reference PWR facility description; details of reference accident scenarios and resultant contamination levels; generic cleanup and decommissioning information; details of activities and manpower requirements for accident cleanup at a reference PWR; activities and manpower requirements for decommissioning at a reference PWR; costs of decommissioning at a reference PWR; cost estimating bases; safety assessment details; and details of post-accident cleanup and decommissioning at a reference BWR.

  8. Lessons of TEPCO's Fukushima accident from human and organizational aspects and challenge for nuclear safety reform

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kawano, Akira

    2013-01-01

    The author participated in international experts' meeting held by IAEA on May 21, 2013 and presented the paper focusing on human and organizational aspects of the Fukushima nuclear accident. It clarified TEPCO's basic recognition: 'The cause of the accident should not be treated merely as a natural disaster due to an enormous tsunami being something difficult to anticipate and we believe it is necessary to seriously acknowledge the result that TEPCO failed to avoid an accident which might have been avoided if ample preparations had been made in advance with thorough use of human intellect' and then reconsidered the Fukushima nuclear accident: 'could we predict an enormous tsunami and take whatever countermeasures?' and 'could we respond to the accident better?' for the worldwide operators to avoid such an accident, which moved meeting's participants deeply. Presentation's contents followed 'Reassessment of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident and Nuclear Safety Reform Plan' published by TEPCO on March 29. This article described outline of the presentation. Though the only way to explore the possibility to save Unit 1 was that operators could bravely go up to the 4th floor of reactor building and open the isolation valves to start IC, it was given up without any clear communication among key decision makers for confirming the IC operational status. As for Unit 3, operators could not achieve thorough focus on ensuring core cooling such that proactive transfer from RCIC/HPCI to low pressure water injection was not challenged, mainly because of low trust on Diesel/Driven Fire Protection Pump (DDFP). During the design stage and afterward, ample consideration was not given to common cause failures originating in external events, which led to a severe situation where almost all the power supplies and safety system functions were lost. Continuous efforts to reduce risks were not ample, including the collection, analysis and utilization of information on safety enhancement

  9. Proposed classification scale for radiological incidents and accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-04-01

    The scale proposed in this report is intended to facilitate communication concerning the severity of incidents and accidents involving the exposure of human beings to ionising radiations. Like the INES, it comprises eight levels of severity and uses the same terms (accident, incident, anomaly, serious and major) for keeping the public and the media informed. In a radiological protection context, the severity of an event is considered as being directly proportional to the risk run by an individual (the probability of developing fatal or non-fatal health effects) following exposure to ionising radiation in an incident or accident situation. However for society, other factors have to be taken into account to determine severity. The severity scale proposed is therefore based on assessment of the individual radiological risk. A severity level corresponding to exposure of a member of the public in an incident or accident situation is determined on the basis of risk assessment concepts and methods derived from international consensus on dose/effect relationships for both stochastic and deterministic effects. The severity of all the possible exposure situations - worker exposure, collective exposure, potential exposure - is determined using a system of weighting in relation to situations involving members of the public. In the case of this scale, to indicate the severity of an event, it is proposed to make use of the most penalizing level of severity, comparing: - the severity associated with the probability of occurrence of deterministic effects and the severity associated with the probability of occurrence of stochastic effects, when the event gives rise to both types of risk; - the severity for members of the public and the severity for exposed workers, when both categories of individuals are involved; - the severity on the proposed radiological protection scale and that obtained using the INES, when radiological protection and nuclear safety aspects are associated with

  10. Accidents - Chernobyl accident; Accidents - accident de Tchernobyl

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2004-07-01

    This file is devoted to the Chernobyl accident. It is divided in four parts. The first part concerns the accident itself and its technical management. The second part is relative to the radiation doses and the different contaminations. The third part reports the sanitary effects, the determinists ones and the stochastic ones. The fourth and last part relates the consequences for the other European countries with the case of France. Through the different parts a point is tackled with the measures taken after the accident by the other countries to manage an accident, the cooperation between the different countries and the groups of research and studies about the reactors safety, and also with the international medical cooperation, specially for the children, everything in relation with the Chernobyl accident. (N.C.)

  11. The analysis of pressurizer safety valve stuck open accident for low power and shutdown PSA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lim, Ho Gon; Park, Jin Hee; Jang, Seong Chul; Kim, Tae Woon

    2005-01-01

    The PSV (Pressurizer Safety Valve) popping test carried out practically in the early phase of a refueling outage has a little possibility of triggering a test-induced LOCA due to a PSV not fully closed or stuck open. According to a KSNP (Korea Standard Nuclear Power Plant) low power and shutdown PSA (Probabilistic Safety Assessment), the failure of a HPSI (High Pressure Safety Injection) following a PSV stuck open was identified as a dominant accident sequence with a significant contribution to low power and shutdown risks. In this study, we aim to investigate the consequences of the NPP for the various accident sequences following the PSV stuck open as an initiating event through the thermal-hydraulic system code calculations. Also, we search the accident mitigation method for the sequence of HPSI failure, then, the applicability of the method is verified by the simulations using T/H system code.

  12. Comparative assessment of severe accident risks in the coal, oil and natural gas chains

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burgherr, Peter; Eckle, Petrissa; Hirschberg, Stefan

    2012-01-01

    This study compared severe accident risks of fossil energy chains (coal, oil and natural gas), based on the historical experience contained in the comprehensive database ENSAD. Considered risk indicators focused on human health impacts, i.e., fatality rates and maximum consequences were calculated for a broad range of country groups. Generally, expected fatality rates were lowest for natural gas, intermediate for oil and highest for coal. Concerning maximum consequences of a single accident, natural gas also performed best, followed by coal, whereas accidents in the oil chain can claim significantly more fatalities. In general, OECD and EU 27 ranked top, while non-OECD countries and China in the case of coal were worst. The consideration of numerous additional country groups enabled a more detailed differentiation within the main bounding groups. Furthermore, differences among country groups are distinctly decreasing from coal to oil and natural gas, both for fatality rates and maximum consequences. The use of import adjusted-fatality rates indicates that fatality risks in supply countries are an essential aspect to understand how specific risk reduction strategies may affect other components of energy security, and thus tradeoffs and compromises are necessary. Finally, the proposed fatality risk score for fossil chains (FRS F ) allows a comparison of the combined accident risk for the considered fossil energy chains across individual countries, which can be visualized using risk mapping.

  13. [Epidemiological profile of traffic accidents in Marília, São Paulo State, Brazil, 2012].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biffe, Carina Rejane Fernandes; Harada, Airi; Bacco, Alexander Bocchi; Coelho, Carine Silveira; Baccarelli, João Lucas Ferrareto; Silva, Karoline Lopes; Braccialli, Luzmarina Aparecida Doretto; Beloni, Margarete; Bernardes, Maria Luiza Guidinho; Lacerda, Stephanie Ribeiro; Silva, Thainá Inoue

    2017-01-01

    to describe the profile of victims of traffic accidents and traffic-related deaths in Marília-SP, Brazil. this is a descriptive study, based on data from police reports (PR) and Death Certificates (DC), in 2012. 1,537 PR were gathered; among the 3,257 individuals involved in traffic accidents, 67.3% were men, and 53.3% were between 20-39 years of age; most accidents occurred on road intersections (35.2%), at 8 a.m. (6.8%), 1 p.m. (7.2%) and 7 p.m. (8.1%); motorcycle was the most involved vehicle in the accidents (47.6%); among the 78 deaths reported, 61 were men, 31 were over 50 years old, and 23 were motorcyclists; 32 fatal accidents occurred on highways. the main victims and fatal victims of traffic accidents were male motorcyclists; fatal accidents occurred mainly on highways, and the main victims were over 50 years old.

  14. The role of computer tomography in the diagnosis of arterial gas embolism in fatal diving accidents in Tasmania

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oliver, J.; Lyons, T.J.; Harle, R.

    1999-01-01

    Four cases of fatal diving accidents in Tasmania are presented, highlighting the role of CT in the investigation of diving fatalities. The CT technique allows rapid diagnosis when arterial gas embolism (AGE) is suspected. The traditional method of investigation, underwater autopsy, is a difficult procedure that requires specialized training in which the subtle diagnosis of AGE may be completely missed. Facilities for performing underwater autopsies are normally available only in tertiary referral centres, and therefore the diagnosis of AGE may be missed due to lack of facilities. The use of CT in the diagnosis of AGE in divers was first utilized in the early 1980s but has still not become widely adopted in forensic practice. This radiological technique has the advantage of being sensitive, quick, reliable, readily available and provides a permanent record. For hospitals that do not have a resident forensic pathologist, a CT scan can be easily performed and interpreted to eliminate the possibility of AGE. There are a number of pitfalls in the diagnosis of AGE with CT, particularly intravascular gas production following postmortem fermentation and off-gassing. Awareness of these pitfalls will help the radiologist in making a correct diagnosis of AGE. Copyright (1999) Blackwell Science Pty Ltd

  15. Determinant of Road Traffic Crash Fatalities in Iran: A Longitudinal Econometric Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rezaei, Satar; Bagheri Lankarani, Kamran; Karami Matin, Behzad; Bazyar, Mohammad; Hamzeh, Behrooz; Najafi, Farid

    2015-01-01

    Injuries and deaths from road traffic crashes are one of the main public health problems throughout the world. This study aimed to identify determinants of fatality traffic accident in Iran for the twenty-span year from 1991 to 2011. A time series analysis (1991-2011) was used to examine the effects of some of the key explanatory factors (GDP per capita, number of doctors per 10,000 populations, degree of urbanization, unemployment rate and motorization rate) on deaths from road traffic in Iran. In order to examine long- and short-run effects of variables, we employed autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and error correction method (ECM). The data for the study was obtained from the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Iranian Statistical Center (ISC) and Legal medical organizations (LMO). GDP per capita, doctor per 10,000 populations, degree of urbanization and motorization rate had a significant impact on fatality from road traffic in Iran. We did not observe any short- and long-term effects of the unemployment rate on fatality from road traffic. GDP per capita, doctor per 10,000 populations, degree of urbanization and motorization rate were identified as main determinant of fatality from road traffic accidents in Iran. We hope the results of the current study enable health policy-makers to understand better the factors affecting deaths from road traffic accidents in the country.

  16. Meta-analysis of the effect of road safety campaigns on accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Ross Owen; Ulleberg, Pål; Vaa, Truls

    2011-05-01

    A meta-analysis of 67 studies evaluating the effect of road safety campaigns on accidents is reported. A total of 119 results were extracted from the studies, which were reported in 12 different countries between 1975 and 2007. After allowing for publication bias and heterogeneity of effects, the weighted average effect of road safety campaigns is a 9% reduction in accidents (with 95% confidence that the weighted average is between -12 and -6%). To account for the variability of effects measured across studies, data were collected to characterise aspects of the campaign and evaluation design associated with each effect, and analysed to identify a model of seven campaign factors for testing by meta-regression. The model was tested using both fixed and random effect meta-regression, and dependency among effects was accounted for by aggregation. These analyses suggest positive associations between accident reduction and the use of personal communication or roadside media as part of a campaign delivery strategy. Campaigns with a drink-driving theme were also associated with greater accident reductions, while some of the analyses suggested that accompanying enforcement and short campaign duration (less than one month) are beneficial. Overall the results are consistent with the idea that campaigns can be more effective in the short term if the message is delivered with personal communication in a way that is proximal in space and time to the behaviour targeted by the campaign. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Effects of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) standard on rates of machinery-related fatal occupational injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bulzacchelli, Maria T; Vernick, Jon S; Webster, Daniel W; Lees, Peter S J

    2007-10-01

    To evaluate the impact of the United States' federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) standard on rates of machinery-related fatal occupational injury. The standard, which took effect in 1990, requires employers in certain industries to establish an energy control program and sets minimum criteria for energy control procedures, training, inspections, and hardware. An interrupted time-series design was used to determine the standard's effect on fatality rates. Machinery-related fatalities, obtained from the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities surveillance system for 1980 through 2001, were used as a proxy for lockout/tagout-related fatalities. Linear regression was used to control for changes in demographic and economic factors. The average annual crude rate of machinery-related fatalities in manufacturing changed little from 1980 to 1989, but declined by 4.59% per year from 1990 to 2001. However, when controlling for demographic and economic factors, the regression model estimate of the standard's effect is a small, non-significant increase of 0.05 deaths per 100 000 production worker full-time equivalents (95% CI -0.14 to 0.25). When fatality rates in comparison groups that should not have been affected by the standard are incorporated into the analysis, there is still no significant change in the rate of machinery-related fatalities in manufacturing. There is no evidence that the lockout/tagout standard decreased fatality rates relative to other trends in occupational safety over the study period. A possible explanation is voluntary use of lockout/tagout by some employers before introduction of the standard and low compliance by other employers after.

  18. Effects of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) standard on rates of machinery‐related fatal occupational injury

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bulzacchelli, Maria T; Vernick, Jon S; Webster, Daniel W; Lees, Peter S J

    2007-01-01

    Objective To evaluate the impact of the United States' federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) standard on rates of machinery‐related fatal occupational injury. The standard, which took effect in 1990, requires employers in certain industries to establish an energy control program and sets minimum criteria for energy control procedures, training, inspections, and hardware. Design An interrupted time‐series design was used to determine the standard's effect on fatality rates. Machinery‐related fatalities, obtained from the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities surveillance system for 1980 through 2001, were used as a proxy for lockout/tagout‐related fatalities. Linear regression was used to control for changes in demographic and economic factors. Results The average annual crude rate of machinery‐related fatalities in manufacturing changed little from 1980 to 1989, but declined by 4.59% per year from 1990 to 2001. However, when controlling for demographic and economic factors, the regression model estimate of the standard's effect is a small, non‐significant increase of 0.05 deaths per 100 000 production worker full‐time equivalents (95% CI −0.14 to 0.25). When fatality rates in comparison groups that should not have been affected by the standard are incorporated into the analysis, there is still no significant change in the rate of machinery‐related fatalities in manufacturing. Conclusions There is no evidence that the lockout/tagout standard decreased fatality rates relative to other trends in occupational safety over the study period. A possible explanation is voluntary use of lockout/tagout by some employers before introduction of the standard and low compliance by other employers after. PMID:17916891

  19. Young people and snowmobiling in northern Norway: accidents, injury prevention and safety strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehus, Grete; Mehus, Alf Gunnar; Germeten, Sidsel; Henriksen, Nils

    2016-01-01

    Snowmobiling among young people in Scandinavia frequently leads to accidents and injuries. Systematic studies of accidents exist, but few studies have addressed young drivers' experiences. The aim of this article is to reveal how young people experience and interpret accidents, and to outline a prevention strategy. Thirty-one girls and 50 boys aged 16-23 years from secondary schools in Northern Norway and on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, participated in 17 focus groups segregated by gender. A content analysis identified themes addressing the research questions. Participants described risk as being inherent to snowmobiling, and claimed that accidents followed from poor risk assessment, careless driving or mishaps. Evaluation of accidents and recommendations for preventive measures varied. Girls acknowledged the risks and wanted knowledge about outdoor life, navigation and external risks. Boys underestimated or downplayed the risks, and wanted knowledge about safety precautions while freeriding. Both genders were aware of how and why accidents occurred, and took precautions. Boys tended to challenge norms in ways that contradict the promotion of safe driving behaviour. Stories of internal justice regarding driving under the influence of alcohol occurred. Adolescents are aware of how accidents occur and how to avoid them. Injury prevention strategies should include a general population strategy and a high-risk strategy targeted at extreme risk-seekers. Drivers, snowmobilers' organisations and the community should share local knowledge in an effort to define problem areas, set priorities and develop and implement preventive measures. Risk prevention should include preparation of safe tracks and focus on safety equipment and safe driving behaviour, but should also pay increased attention to the potential of strengthening normative regulation within peer groups regarding driving behaviour and mutual responsibility for preventing accidents.

  20. Aviation-Related Wildland Firefighter Fatalities--United States, 2000-2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Corey R; O'Connor, Mary B; Lincoln, Jennifer M

    2015-07-31

    Airplanes and helicopters are integral to the management and suppression of wildfires, often operating in high-risk, low-altitude environments. To update data on aviation-related wildland firefighting fatalities, identify risk factors, and make recommendations for improved safety, CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed reports from multiple data sources for the period 2000-2013. Among 298 wildland firefighter fatalities identified during 2000-2013, 78 (26.2%) were aviation-related occupational fatalities that occurred during 41 separate events involving 42 aircraft. Aircraft crashes accounted for 38 events. Pilots, copilots, and flight engineers represented 53 (68%) of the aviation-related fatalities. The leading causes of fatal aircraft crashes were engine, structure, or component failure (24%); pilot loss of control (24%); failure to maintain clearance from terrain, water, or objects (20%); and hazardous weather (15%). To reduce fatalities from aviation-related wildland firefighting activities, stringent safety guidelines need to be followed during all phases of firefighting, including training exercises. Crew resource management techniques, which use all available resources, information, equipment, and personnel to achieve safe and efficient flight operations, can be applied to firefighting operations.

  1. Technology, safety and costs of decommissioning reference light water reactors following postulated accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Konzek, G.J.; Smith, R.I.

    1990-12-01

    The estimated costs for post-accident cleanup at the reference BWR (developed previously in NUREG/CR-2601, Technology, Safety and Costs of Decommissioning Reference Light Water Reactors Following Postulated Accidents) are updated to January 1989 dollars in this report. A simple formula for escalating post-accident cleanup costs is also presented. Accident cleanup following the most severe accident described in NUREG/CR-2601 (i.e., the Scenario 3 accident) is estimated to cost from $1.22 to 1.44 billion, in 1989 dollars, for assumed escalation rates of 4% or 8% in the years following 1989. The time to accomplish cleanup remained unchanged from the 8.3 years originally estimated. No reanalysis of current information on the technical aspects of TMI-2 cleanup has been performed. Only the cost of inflation has been evaluated since the original PNL analysis was completed. 32 refs., 12 tabs

  2. Risk reduction category (RRC-A) accident studies in the safety analysis report of the EPR trademark reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Poehlmann, M.; Bleher, G.; Ismaier, A.; Knoll, A.; Levi, P.; Garcia, E. Vera; Schels, A.; Seitz, H.; Lima Campos, L.

    2013-01-01

    The Risk Reduction Category (RRC-A) is considered in the safety demonstration of nuclear reactors in addition to design basis operating conditions (Plant Condition Category, PCC), in order to analyze with a risk reduction approach any operating conditions with multiple failures. As extending the operating conditions of the plant 'beyond design basis', the Risk Reduction Category (RRC-A) is also denoted as Design Extension Condition (DEC-A). In the German licensing framework, the RRCA (or DEC-A) transients correspond to safety assessment level '4b' of the 'Sicherheitsanforderungen an Kernkraftwerke' (Safety Requirements for Nuclear Power Plants), Az. RS I 5 - 13303/01 of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. These RRC-A (or DEC-A) operating conditions require specific design provisions (implemented by manual or automatic action), known as RRC-A measures, intended to render consequences of accumulated failures admissible. In contrast, RRC-B constitute severe accidents that lead to core melt. Identification of RRC-A operating conditions and corresponding RRC-A measures is based on the use of results of probabilistic safety assessments. After the Fukushima accident the RRC-A accidents like Station Black Out (SBO) or Loss of Ultimate Heat Sink (LUHS) are of particular interest in the safety assessment of nuclear new builds. In several chapters of the Safety Analysis Report it is demonstrated that the AREVA EPRTM design is resistant at RRC-A accident conditions. (orig.)

  3. Operational accidents and radiation exposures at DOE facilities. Fiscal year 1979

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1980-12-01

    The Department of Energy's safety performance in fiscal year 1979 showed improvement in all categories over fiscal year 1978. The loss rates were less than one-half the United States industry average as reported by the National Safety Council. Incidence rates per 200,000 workhours were 1.1 lost workday cases and 17.2 lost workdays compared to 1.2 lost workday cases and 17.6 lost workdays during fiscal year 1978. The recordable occupational illness rate, based on only 80 cases, was 0.06 cases per 200,000 workhours compared to 0.07 cases per 200,000 workhours for fiscal year 1978. Nine fatalities of contractor employees resulted in an annual rate of 6.0 deaths per 100,000 workers compared with 10 fatalities during fiscal year 1978, and an annual rate of 6.7 deaths per 100,000 workers. The total Department of Energy property loss reported during fiscal year 1979 was $3.3 million; $765,400 was caused by fire, and $2.5 million by other causes. A total of 121 million vehicle miles of official travel resulted in 685 accidents with $338,400 in property damage. The loss rates of 5.7 accidents per million vehicle miles and $2.80 per 1000 miles were improvements over the fiscal year 1978 rates of 5.8 accidents per million vehicle miles and $2.97 property damage per 1000 miles. The 104,986 monitored Department of Energy and its contractor employees received a total dose of 9040 rem in calendar year 1979. Both the total dose and the 1748 employees receiving radiation exposures greater than 1 rem in 1979 represent a continuing downward trend from the calendar year 1978 total dose of 9380 rem and the 1826 employees who received radiation exposures greater than 1 rem

  4. Fatal cardiotoxicity related to halofantrine: a review based on a worldwide safety data base

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Danis Martin

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Halofantrine (HF was considered an effective and safe treatment for multi-drug resistant falciparum malaria until 1993, when the first case of drug-associated death was reported. Since then, numerous studies have confirmed cardiac arrythmias, possibly fatal, in both adults and children. The aim of the study was to review fatal HF related cardiotoxicity. Methods In addition, to a systematic review of the literature, the authors have had access to the global safety database on possible HF related cardiotoxicity provided by GlaxoSmithKline. Results Thirty-five cases of fatal cardiotoxicity related to HF, including five children, were identified. Females (70% and patients from developing countries (71% were over-represented in this series. Seventy-four percent of the fatal events occurred within 24 hours of initial exposure to HF. Twenty six patients (74% had at least one predisposing factor for severe cardiotoxicity, e.g., underlying cardiac disease, higher than recommended doses, or presence of a concomitant QT-lengthening drug. All (100% of the paediatric cases had either a contraindication to HF or an improper dose was given. In six cases there was no malaria. Conclusion A distinction should be made between common but asymptomatic QT-interval prolongation and the much less common ventricular arrhythmias, such as torsades de pointes, which can be fatal and seem to occur in a very limited number of patients. The majority of reported cardiac events occurred either in patients with predisposing factors or with an improper dose. Therefore, in the rare situations in which HF is the only therapeutic option, it can still be given after carefully checking for contraindications, such as underlying cardiac disease, bradycardia, metabolic disorders, personal or family history of long QT-interval or concomitant use of another QT-prolonging drug (e.g., mefloquine, especially in females.

  5. Regulation Plans on Severe Accidents developed by KINS Severe Accident Regulation Preparation TFT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Kyun Tae; Chung, Ku Young; Na, Han Bee

    2016-01-01

    Some nuclear power plants in Fukushima Daiichi site had lost their emergency reactor cooling function for long-time so the fuels inside the reactors were molten, and the integrity of containment was damaged. Therefore, large amount of radioactive material was released to environment. Because the social and economic effects of severe accidents are enormous, Korean Government already issued 'Severe Accident Policy' in 2001 which requires nuclear power plant operators to set up 'Quantitative Safety Goal', to do 'Probabilistic Safety Analysis', to install 'Severe Accident Countermeasures' and to make 'Severe Accident Management Plan'. After the Fukushima disaster, a Special Safety Inspection was performed for all operating nuclear power plants of Korea. The inspection team from industry, academia, and research institutes assessed Korean NPPs capabilities to cope with or respond to severe accidents and emergency situation caused by natural disasters such as a large earthquake or tsunami. As a result of the special inspection, about 50 action items were identified to increase the capability to cope with natural disaster and severe accidents. Nuclear Safety Act has been amended to require NPP operators to submit Accident Management Plant as part of operating license application. The KINS Severe Accident Regulation Preparation TFT had first investigated oversea severe accident regulation trend before and after the Fukushima accident. Then, the TFT has developed regulation draft for severe accidents such as Severe accident Management Plans, the required design features for new NPPs to prevent severe accident against multiple failures and beyond-design external events, countermeasures to mitigate severe accident and to keep the integrity of containment, and assessment methodology on safety assessment plan and probabilistic safety assessment

  6. Progress and Updates of Regulatory Challenges and Safety Issues in Korea during Three Years after Fukushima Accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Young Eal; Kim, Kyun Tae

    2014-01-01

    Before the public fear on radiation risk caused by neighboring country's severe accident disappeared, a series of nuclear safety issues last 3 years made a few reactors shut down and the public trust much lower than before. Because of these scandals such as cover-ups, forged certificated items, corruption of manager of licensee and so on, many efforts made during three year after Fukushima accident on improving the nuclear safety were invalidated and even regulators as well as operators have been sharply criticized for its responsibility and transparency. This paper shares information on the progress and uprates achieved in Korea so far in connection with the safety issues caused during last 3 years and actions taken by the regulatory body. Before the public fear on radiation risk caused by neighboring country's severe accident disappeared, a series of nuclear safety issues last 3 years made a few reactors shut down and the public trust much lower than before. Because of these scandals such as cover-ups, forged certificated items, corruption of manager of licensee and so on, many efforts made during three year after Fukushima accident on improving the nuclear safety were invalidated and even regulators as well as operators have been sharply criticized for its responsibility and transparency

  7. Progress and Updates of Regulatory Challenges and Safety Issues in Korea during Three Years after Fukushima Accident

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Young Eal; Kim, Kyun Tae [Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2014-10-15

    Before the public fear on radiation risk caused by neighboring country's severe accident disappeared, a series of nuclear safety issues last 3 years made a few reactors shut down and the public trust much lower than before. Because of these scandals such as cover-ups, forged certificated items, corruption of manager of licensee and so on, many efforts made during three year after Fukushima accident on improving the nuclear safety were invalidated and even regulators as well as operators have been sharply criticized for its responsibility and transparency. This paper shares information on the progress and uprates achieved in Korea so far in connection with the safety issues caused during last 3 years and actions taken by the regulatory body. Before the public fear on radiation risk caused by neighboring country's severe accident disappeared, a series of nuclear safety issues last 3 years made a few reactors shut down and the public trust much lower than before. Because of these scandals such as cover-ups, forged certificated items, corruption of manager of licensee and so on, many efforts made during three year after Fukushima accident on improving the nuclear safety were invalidated and even regulators as well as operators have been sharply criticized for its responsibility and transparency.

  8. Jules Horowitz reactor - Complementary safety assessment in the light of the Fukushima accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-01-01

    This CSA (Complementary Safety Assessment) analyses the robustness of the Jules Horowitz reactor (RJH) to extreme situations such as those that led to the Fukushima accident and proposes a series of improvements. RJH is being built on the Cadarache CEA's site. Robustness is the ability for the facility to withstand events beyond the level for which the facility was designed. Robustness is linked to safety margins but also to the situations leading to a sudden deterioration of the accident sequence (cliff edge effect). Safety is not only a matter of design or of engineered systems, it is also a matter of organization. So issues like RJH's crisis organization, the organization of radiation protection, and work organization via subcontracting are also taken into consideration. This report is divided into 9 main chapters: 1) main features of the RJH facility, 2) identification of cliff edge risks and of equipment essential for safety, 3) earthquake risk, 4) flood risk, 5) risks due to other extreme natural disasters, 6) the loss of electrical power supplies and of cooling systems, 7) management of severe accidents, 8) subcontracting policy, 9) synthesis and list of improvements. This study shows a globally good robustness of the RJH for the considered risks. Nevertheless it can considered relevant to increase the robustness of the plant on a few points: -) to increase the seismic safety margins of some pieces of equipment, -) to increase the robustness of the internal electrical power supplies, -) to increase the fuel cooling capacity, and -) to improve the management of the post-accidental period. (A.C.)

  9. Applicability of Phebus FP results to severe accident safety evaluations and management measures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwarz, M.; Clement, B.; Jones, A.V.

    2001-01-01

    The international Phebus FP (Fission Product) programme is the largest research programme in the world investigating core degradation and radioactive product release should a core meltdown accident occur in a light water reactor plant. Three integral experiments have already been performed. The experimental database obtained so far contains a wealth of information to validate the computer codes used for safety and accident management assessment

  10. Safety leadership at construction sites: the importance of rule-oriented and participative leadership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grill, Martin; Pousette, Anders; Nielsen, Kent; Grytnes, Regine; Törner, Marianne

    2017-07-01

    Objectives The construction industry accounted for >20% of all fatal occupational accidents in Europe in 2014. Leadership is an essential antecedent to occupational safety. The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented, participative, and laissez-faire leadership on safety climate, safety behavior, and accidents in the Swedish and Danish construction industry. Sweden and Denmark are similar countries but have a large difference in occupational accidents rates. Methods A questionnaire study was conducted among a random sample of construction workers in both countries: 811 construction workers from 85 sites responded, resulting in site and individual response rates of 73% and 64%, respectively. Results The results indicated that transformational, active transactional, rule-oriented and participative leadership predict positive safety outcomes, and laissez-faire leadership predict negative safety outcomes. For example, rule-oriented leadership predicts a superior safety climate (β=0.40, Pleadership on workers' safety behavior was moderated by the level of participative leadership (β=0.10, Pleadership behaviors on safety outcomes were largely similar in Sweden and Denmark. Rule-oriented and participative leadership were more common in the Swedish than Danish construction industry, which may partly explain the difference in occupational accident rates. Conclusions Applying less laissez-faire leadership and more transformational, active transactional, participative and rule-oriented leadership appears to be an effective way for construction site managers to improve occupational safety in the industry.

  11. The experiences of research reactor accident to safety improvement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wiranto, S.

    1999-01-01

    The safety of reactor operation is the main factor in order that the nuclear technology development program can be held according the expected target. Several experience with research reactor incidents must be learned and understood by the nuclear program personnel, especially for operators and supervisors of RSG-GA. Siwabessy. From the incident experience of research reactor in the world, which mentioned in the book 'Experience with research reactor incidents' by IAEA, 1995, was concluded that the main cause of research reactor accidents is understandless about the safety culture by the nuclear installation personnel. With learn, understand and compare between this experiences and the condition of RSG GA Siwabessy is expended the operators and supervisors more attention about the safety culture, so that RSG GA Siwabessy can be operated successfull, safely according the expected target

  12. Review of severe accidents and the results of accident consequence assessment in different energy systems (Contract research)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsuki, Yoshio; Muramatsu, Ken

    2008-05-01

    The cases of severe accidents and the consequence assessments in different energy systems, Coal, Oil, Gas, Hydro and Nuclear, were collected, and then they were further analyzed. In this report, the information on the accidents in various energy systems were collected from the sources of the Paul Scherrer Institute (hereinafter, 'PSI') and the International Atomic Energy Agency (hereinafter, 'IAEA'). The information on the severe accidents of nuclear power plants were collected from the report of the US Presidential Commission on Catastrophic Nuclear Accidents and several relevant reports issued in the countries of the European Union, together with the reports of the PSI and the IAEA. To analyze the collected information, several parameters, which are numbers of fatalities, injuries, evacuees and the costs of the damages, were chosen to characterize those accidents in different energy systems. And then, upon the comparison of these characteristics of different accidents, the impacts of the accidents in nuclear and other energy systems were compared. Upon the results of the analysis, it is pointed out that the cost caused by the Chernobyl Accident, the severe accident in nuclear energy, tends to be higher than in the other energy systems. On the other hand, from the aspects of fatalities and injuries, it is not confirmed that the damages of the Chernobyl Accident are larger than in the other energy systems. However, it is also recognized, as the specific characteristics of the severe nuclear accident, that the impacts of the accident spread in a wider area, and stay for a longer period, in comparison with the ones in the other energy systems. (author)

  13. Individual and occupational factors related to fatal occupational injuries: a case-control study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villanueva, Vicent; Garcia, Ana M

    2011-01-01

    This study has been designed in order to identify factors increasing the risk of a fatal outcome when occupational accidents occur. The aim is to provide further evidence for the design and implementation of preventive measures in occupational settings. The Spanish Ministry of Labour registry of occupational injuries causing absence from work includes information on individual and occupational characteristics of injured workers and events. Registered fatal occupational injuries in 2001 (n=539) were compared to a sample of non-fatal injuries in the same year (n=3493). Risks for a fatal result of occupational injuries, adjusted by individual and occupational factors significantly associated, were obtained through logistic regression models. Compared to non-fatal injuries, fatal occupational injuries were mostly produced by trapping or by natural causes, mostly related to elevation and transport devices and power generators, and injured parts of body more frequently affected were head, multiple parts or internal organs. Adjusted analyses showed increased risk of fatality after an occupational injury for males (adjusted odds ratio aOR=10.92; 95%CI 4.80-24.84) and temporary workers (aOR=5.18; 95%CI 2.63-10.18), and the risk increased with age and with advancing hour of the work shift (p for trends accidents in agricultural or construction companies. These data can help to select and define priorities for programmes aimed to prevent fatal consequences of occupational injuries. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Development of accident event trees and evaluation of safety system failure modes for the nuclear ultra large crude carrier

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewe, C.K.; Coffey, R.S.; Goodwin, E.F.; Maltese, J.G.; Pyatt, D.W.

    1978-01-01

    A method of applying the probabilistic accident event tree methodology to safety assessments of a nuclear powered Ultra Large Crude Carrier is presented. Also presented are the procedures by which an external accident initiating event, such as a ship collision, may be correlated with the probabilities of damage to the ship's safety systems and to their ultimate availabilities to perform required safety functions

  15. A comparison of safety culture associated with three engineered systems in Japan and the United States

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tokuhiro, Akira

    2001-01-01

    The internationally reported nuclear criticality accident at JCO in Tokaimura, Japan has further eroded public confidence in nuclear energy, its related facilities and the (Japanese) government's ability to handle such a crisis. The JCO accident marked the sixth nuclear-related incident since 1995. The existing state of 'safety culture' is being questioned and re-evaluated at a national level. In this work the safety culture associated with engineered systems (ES) such as the automobile, commercial airplane and nuclear power plants (NPP) are evaluated based on a scale-analysis (SA), via proposition of two fundamental parameters called eigenmetrics. The identified eigenmetrics are time- (τ) and number-scales (N) describing both ES and human factors, at the individual and/or societal levels. The SA approach is appropriate because human perception of risk (POR), perception of benefit (POB) and level of (technology) acceptance (LOA) are inherently subjective, therefore 'fuzzy' and rarely quantifiable in exact magnitude. POR expressed in terms of the psychometric factors 'dread risk' and 'unknown risk', contain both time- and number-scale elements. The JCO accident, as well as auto-fatalities, commercial airline accidents and hypothetical NPP accidents are characterized in terms of τ, N and two additional derived parameters of relevance, Nτ and N/τ. We contend that LOA infers a POB at least two orders of magnitude larger than POR. The 'amplification' influence of mass-media is also deduced as being 100 to 1000 fold the actual number of fatalities/serious injuries in a nuclear-related accident. (author)

  16. A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of the IAEA Cooperation Instruments in the Field of Nuclear Safety to Deal with the Fukushima Daiichi Accident vis-a-vis the Chernobyl Accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Da Silva Simões, V.

    2016-01-01

    On 26 April 1986, an explosion at Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released a very large amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere. According to the conclusions raised at the “International Forum on Chernobyl´s Nuclear Safety Aspects” held in Vienna from 1 to 3 April 1996, two important causes of the accident were that: “there were significant deficiencies in the design of the reactor – in particular of its shutdown system – and operating procedures were severely violated at the time of the accident” and “there was a lack of safety culture in the organizations responsible for operation and for control: important safety weaknesses had been recognized long before the accident occurred but were not remedied.” Only thanks to the discovery of an increase in environmental radioactivity in Nordic countries the international community was informed about the accident. On 11 March 2011, as one of the consequences of the tsunami waves generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake off the Pacific coast of Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident took place. In his statement to the “International Conference on Chernobyl: Twenty-Five Years On - Safety for the Future” the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General, Mr. Yukiya Amano, pointed out “Chernobyl led to a great step forward in international cooperation in the field of nuclear safety. We now have four safety conventions, two Codes of Conduct, fundamental safety principles and a body of globally recognised IAEA Safety Standards.” [ ] “An international coordinated response system, with the IAEA's Incident and Emergency Centre at its heart, is now in place.” [ ] “We also have an IAEA peer review system, based on the Agency's Safety Standards.” But Mr. Amano also recognized that “despite the great progress made in the last 25 years, more needs to be done to ensure that a ''Safety First'' approach becomes fully

  17. [Autoerotic fatalities in Greater Dusseldorf].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartung, Benno; Hellen, Florence; Borchard, Nora; Huckenbeck, Wolfgang

    2011-01-01

    Autoerotic fatalities in the Greater Dusseldorf area correspond to the relevant medicolegal literature. Our results included exclusively young to middle-aged, usually single men who were found dead in their city apartments. Clothing and devices used showed a great variety. Women's or fetish clothing and complex shackling or hanging devices were disproportionately frequent. In most cases, death occurred due to hanging or ligature strangulation. There was no increased incidence of underlying psychiatric disorders. In most of the deceased no or at least no remarkable alcohol intoxication was found. Occasionally, it may be difficult to reliably differentiate autoerotic accidents, accidents occurring in connection with practices of bondage & discipline, dominance & submission (BDSM) from natural death, suicide or homicide.

  18. Impact of the accident at TMI-2 on new safety regulations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Collins, J.T.

    1981-01-01

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been very busy, since the accident, looking into the causes surrounding the events that occurred on the morning of March 28, 1979. To date, the Commission has implemented the Short-Term Lessons Learned and has provided a schedule for implementing the Long-Term Lessons Learned. Some of these requirements have resulted in delays in licensing of new plants and the temporary shutdown of some operating plants. However, the NRC believes these new requirements are essential to increase the safety of nuclear power plants and to protect the health and safety of the public. Although the accident occurred almost 19 months ago, the cleanup of TMI-2 continues and will continue for the next 5 to 7 years. As the cleanup progresses and ultimately the fuel removed, the Commission will continue to learn from the information generated by this program. This information will be factored into the licensing process. If nuclear power is to remain a viable option as a source of electrical power in the United States, then NRC must continue to assure the general public that these plants can be operated safely from the lessons learned at TMI and that systems required to mitigate the consequences of accidents will indeed perform their intended functions

  19. Task Force Report, Safety of Personnel in LHC underground areas following the accident of 19th September 2008

    CERN Document Server

    Delille, B; Inigo-Golfin, J; Lindell, G; Roy, G; Tavian, L; Thomas, E; Trant, R; Völlinger, C

    2009-01-01

    In January 2009, the Task Force on Safety of Personnel in the LHC underground areas following the accident in sector 3-4 of 19th September 2008 (Safety Task Force) received from the CERN Director General the mandate to investigate the impact of the accident of 19th September 2008 on the safety of personnel working in the LHC underground areas. This mandate includes the elaboration of preventive and/or corrective measures, if deemed necessary. This report gives the conclusions and recommendations of the Safety Task Force which have been reviewed by an external advisory committee of safety experts.

  20. Regulation Plans on Severe Accidents developed by KINS Severe Accident Regulation Preparation TFT

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Kyun Tae; Chung, Ku Young; Na, Han Bee [KINS, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-05-15

    Some nuclear power plants in Fukushima Daiichi site had lost their emergency reactor cooling function for long-time so the fuels inside the reactors were molten, and the integrity of containment was damaged. Therefore, large amount of radioactive material was released to environment. Because the social and economic effects of severe accidents are enormous, Korean Government already issued 'Severe Accident Policy' in 2001 which requires nuclear power plant operators to set up 'Quantitative Safety Goal', to do 'Probabilistic Safety Analysis', to install 'Severe Accident Countermeasures' and to make 'Severe Accident Management Plan'. After the Fukushima disaster, a Special Safety Inspection was performed for all operating nuclear power plants of Korea. The inspection team from industry, academia, and research institutes assessed Korean NPPs capabilities to cope with or respond to severe accidents and emergency situation caused by natural disasters such as a large earthquake or tsunami. As a result of the special inspection, about 50 action items were identified to increase the capability to cope with natural disaster and severe accidents. Nuclear Safety Act has been amended to require NPP operators to submit Accident Management Plant as part of operating license application. The KINS Severe Accident Regulation Preparation TFT had first investigated oversea severe accident regulation trend before and after the Fukushima accident. Then, the TFT has developed regulation draft for severe accidents such as Severe accident Management Plans, the required design features for new NPPs to prevent severe accident against multiple failures and beyond-design external events, countermeasures to mitigate severe accident and to keep the integrity of containment, and assessment methodology on safety assessment plan and probabilistic safety assessment.

  1. Study On Safety Analysis Of PWR Reactor Core In Transient And Severe Accident Conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le Dai Dien; Hoang Minh Giang; Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy; Nguyen Thi Tu Oanh; Le Thi Thu; Pham Tuan Nam; Tran Van Trung; Le Van Hong; Vo Thi Huong

    2014-01-01

    The cooperation research project on the Study on Safety Analysis of PWR Reactor Core in Transient and Severe Accident Conditions between Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology (INST), VINATOM and Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Korea has been setup to strengthen the capability of researches in nuclear safety not only in mastering the methods and computer codes, but also in qualifying of young researchers in the field of nuclear safety analysis. Through the studies on the using of thermal hydraulics computer codes like RELAP5, COBRA, FLUENT and CFX the thermal hydraulics research group has made progress in the research including problems for safety analysis of APR1400 nuclear reactor, PIRT methodologies and sub-channel analysis. The study of severe accidents has been started by using MELCOR in collaboration with KAERI experts and the training on the fundamental phenomena occurred in postulated severe accident. For Vietnam side, VVER-1000 nuclear reactor is also intensively studied. The design of core catcher, reactor containment and severe accident management are the main tasks concerning VVER technology. The research results are presented in the 9 th National Conference on Mechanics, Ha Noi, December 8-9, 2012, the 10 th National Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology, Vung Tau, August 14-15, 2013, as well as published in the journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, Vietnam Nuclear Society and other journals. The skills and experience from using computer codes like RELAP5, MELCOR, ANSYS and COBRA in nuclear safety analysis are improved with the nuclear reactors APR1400, Westinghouse 4 loop PWR and especially the VVER-1000 chosen for the specific studies. During cooperation research project, man power and capability of Nuclear Safety center of INST have been strengthen. Three masters were graduated, 2 researchers are engaging in Ph.D course at Hanoi University of Science and Technology and University of Science and Technology, Korea

  2. Work-related fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes: Matching of 2010 data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byler, Christen; Kesy, Laura; Richardson, Scott; Pratt, Stephanie G; Rodríguez-Acosta, Rosa L

    2016-07-01

    Motor vehicle traffic crashes (MVTCs) remain the leading cause of work-related fatal injuries in the United States, with crashes on public roadways accounting for 25% of all work-related deaths in 2012. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) provides accurate counts of fatal work injuries based on confirmation of work relationship from multiple sources, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) provides detailed data on fatal MVTCs based on police reports. Characterization of fatal work-related MVTCs is currently limited by data sources that lack either data on potential risk factors (CFOI) or work-relatedness confirmation and employment characteristics (FARS). BLS and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) collaborated to analyze a merged data file created by BLS using CFOI and FARS data. A matching algorithm was created to link 2010 data from CFOI and FARS using date of incident and other case characteristics, allowing for flexibility in variables to address coding discrepancies. Using the matching algorithm, 953 of the 1044 CFOI "Highway" cases (91%) for 2010 were successfully linked to FARS. Further analysis revealed systematic differences between cases identified as work-related by both systems and by CFOI alone. Among cases identified as work-related by CFOI alone, the fatally-injured worker was considerably more likely to have been employed outside the transportation and warehousing industry or transportation-related occupations, and to have been the occupant of a vehicle other than a heavy truck. This study is the first step of a collaboration between BLS, NHTSA, and NIOSH to improve the completeness and quality of data on fatal work-related MVTCs. It has demonstrated the feasibility and value of matching data on fatal work-related traffic crashes from CFOI and FARS. The results will lead to

  3. RA reactor safety analysis, Part II - Accident analysis; Analiza sigurnosti rada Reaktora RA I-III, Deo II - Analiza akcidenta

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Raisic, N; Radanovic, Lj; Milovanovic, M; Afgan, N; Kulundzic, P [Institute of Nuclear Sciences Boris Kidric, Vinca, Beograd (Serbia and Montenegro)

    1963-02-15

    This part of the RA reactor safety analysis includes analysis of possible accidents caused by failures of the reactor devices and errors during reactor operation. Two types of accidents are analyzed: accidents resulting from uncontrolled reactivity increase, and accidents caused by interruption of cooling.

  4. Mitigation of Severe Accident Consequences Using Inherent Safety Principles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wigeland, R.A.; Cahalan, J.E.

    2009-01-01

    Sodium-cooled fast reactors are designed to have a high level of safety. Events of high probability of occurrence are typically handled without consequence through reliable engineering systems and good design practices. For accidents of lower probability, the initiating events are characterized by larger and more numerous challenges to the reactor system, such as failure of one or more major engineered systems and can also include a failure to scram the reactor in response. As the initiating conditions become more severe, they have the potential for creating serious consequences of potential safety significance, including fuel melting, fuel pin disruption and recriticality. If the progression of such accidents is not mitigated by design features of the reactor, energetic events and dispersal of radioactive materials may result. For severe accidents, there are several approaches that can be used to mitigate the consequences of such severe accident initiators, which typically include fuel pin failures and core disruption. One approach is to increase the reliability of the reactor protection system so that the probability of an ATWS event is reduced to less than 1 x 10-6 per reactor year, where larger accident consequences are allowed, meeting the U.S. NRC goal of relegating such accident consequences as core disruption to these extremely low probabilities. The main difficulty with this approach is to convincingly test and guarantee such increased reliability. Another approach is to increase the redundancy of the reactor scram system, which can also reduce the probability of an ATWS event to a frequency of less than 1 x 10-6 per reactor year or lower. The issues with this approach are more related to reactor core design, with the need for a greater number of control rod positions in the reactor core and the associated increase in complexity of the reactor protection system. A third approach is to use the inherent reactivity feedback that occurs in a fast reactor to

  5. Impact of the TMI accident on the French nuclear program and the safety analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fourest, B.; Boaretto, Y.; Cayol, A.; Droulers, Y.; Goudal, M.; Oury, J.M.

    1980-04-01

    Almost immediately after the TMI accident, Electricite de France (EdF), Framatome and the French safety authorities started a large scale program of actions designed to analyse and understand the causes of the accident, and draw lessons applicable in France. This paper discusses these actions and the main conclusions of TMI accident analysis in France, notably: the fundamental role of plant operators, and the importance of operator training, written instructions and procedures, and diagnostic aids; the importance of feeding back operating experience to design teams, and incorporating the results of accident and post-accident studies in operating procedures; the necessity to improve knowledge of core cooling modes, including during two-phase flow and natural circulation; measures to improve particular systems and components [fr

  6. Safety and risk questions following the nuclear incidents and accidents in Japan. Summary final report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mildenberger, Oliver

    2015-03-01

    After the nuclear accidents in Japan, GRS has carried out in-depth investigations of the events. On the one hand, the accident sequences in the affected units have been analysed from various viewpoints. On the other hand, the transferability of the findings to German plants has been examined to possibly make recommendations for safety improvements. The accident sequences at Fukushima Daiichi have been traced with as much detail as possible based on all available information. Additional insights have been drawn from thermohydraulic analyses with the GRS code system ATHLET-CD/COCOSYS focusing on the events in units 2 and 3, e.g. with regard to core damage and the state of the containments in the first days of the accident sequence. In-depth investigations have also been carried out on topics such as natural external hazards, electrical power supply or organizational measures. In addition, methodological studies on further topics related with the accidents have been performed. Through a detailed analysis of the relevant data from the events in Japan, the basis for an in-depth examination of the transferability to German plants was created. It was found that an implementation of most of the insights gained from the investigations had already been initiated as part of the GRS information notice 2012/02. Further findings have been communicated to the federal government and introduced into other relevant bodies, e.g. the Nuclear Safety Standards Committee (KTA) or the Reactor Safety Commission (RSK).

  7. NASA Aviation Safety Program Systems Analysis/Program Assessment Metrics Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Louis, Garrick E.; Anderson, Katherine; Ahmad, Tisan; Bouabid, Ali; Siriwardana, Maya; Guilbaud, Patrick

    2003-01-01

    The goal of this project is to evaluate the metrics and processes used by NASA's Aviation Safety Program in assessing technologies that contribute to NASA's aviation safety goals. There were three objectives for reaching this goal. First, NASA's main objectives for aviation safety were documented and their consistency was checked against the main objectives of the Aviation Safety Program. Next, the metrics used for technology investment by the Program Assessment function of AvSP were evaluated. Finally, other metrics that could be used by the Program Assessment Team (PAT) were identified and evaluated. This investigation revealed that the objectives are in fact consistent across organizational levels at NASA and with the FAA. Some of the major issues discussed in this study which should be further investigated, are the removal of the Cost and Return-on-Investment metrics, the lack of the metrics to measure the balance of investment and technology, the interdependencies between some of the metric risk driver categories, and the conflict between 'fatal accident rate' and 'accident rate' in the language of the Aviation Safety goal as stated in different sources.

  8. Probability safety assessment of LOOP accident to molten salt reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mei Mudan; Shao Shiwei; Yu Zhizhen; Chen Kun; Zuo Jiaxu

    2013-01-01

    Background: Loss of offsite power (LOOP) is a possible accident to any type of reactor, and this accident can reflect the main idea of reactor safety design. Therefore, it is very important to conduct a study on probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) of the molten salt reactor that is under LOOP circumstance. Purpose: The aim is to calculate the release frequency of molten salt radioactive material to the core caused by LOOP, and find out the biggest contributor to causing the radioactive release frequency. Methods: We carried out the PSA analysis of the LOOP using the PSA process risk spectrum, and assumed that the primary circuit had no valve and equipment reliability data based on the existing mature power plant equipment reliability data. Results: Through the PSA analysis, we got the accident sequences of the release of radioactive material to the core caused by LOOP and its frequency. The results show that the release frequency of molten salt radioactive material to the core caused by LOOP is about 2×10 -11 /(reactor ·year), which is far below that of the AP1000 LOOP. In addition, through the quantitative analysis, we obtained the point estimation and interval estimation of uncertainty analysis, and found that the biggest contributor to cause the release frequency of radioactive material to the core is the reactor cavity cooling function failure. Conclusion: This study provides effective help for the design and improvement of the following molten salt reactor system. (authors)

  9. Comparison of the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents: a review of the environmental impacts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steinhauser, Georg; Brandl, Alexander; Johnson, Thomas E

    2014-02-01

    The environmental impacts of the nuclear accidents of Chernobyl and Fukushima are compared. In almost every respect, the consequences of the Chernobyl accident clearly exceeded those of the Fukushima accident. In both accidents, most of the radioactivity released was due to volatile radionuclides (noble gases, iodine, cesium, tellurium). However, the amount of refractory elements (including actinides) emitted in the course of the Chernobyl accident was approximately four orders of magnitude higher than during the Fukushima accident. For Chernobyl, a total release of 5,300 PBq (excluding noble gases) has been established as the most cited source term. For Fukushima, we estimated a total source term of 520 (340-800) PBq. In the course of the Fukushima accident, the majority of the radionuclides (more than 80%) was transported offshore and deposited in the Pacific Ocean. Monitoring campaigns after both accidents reveal that the environmental impact of the Chernobyl accident was much greater than of the Fukushima accident. Both the highly contaminated areas and the evacuated areas are smaller around Fukushima and the projected health effects in Japan are significantly lower than after the Chernobyl accident. This is mainly due to the fact that food safety campaigns and evacuations worked quickly and efficiently after the Fukushima accident. In contrast to Chernobyl, no fatalities due to acute radiation effects occurred in Fukushima. © 2013.

  10. Agricultural vehicles and rural road safety: tackling a persistent problem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaarsma, Catharinus F; De Vries, Jasper R

    2014-01-01

    Crashes involving agricultural vehicles (AVs) on public roads are an increasing road safety problem. We aim to analyze developments in the appearance and severity of these accidents, identify influencing factors, and draw lessons for possible interventions for accident prevention within the context of modern mechanized agriculture. To analyze developments in the appearance of accidents we use a subset of accidents with AVs involved on public roads in The Netherlands aggregated per year for 1987-2010. To identify and explore preventive measures we use an in-depth study of the Dutch Safety Board. With a study of international literature we put our findings in a wider context. During this time span, Dutch annual averages show 15 registered fatal accidents involving AVs, 93 with hospitalization and 137 with slight injuries. For nonfatal accidents, the numbers are decreasing over time. This decrease is proportionate to the reduction in the total number of traffic victims. For fatalities, however, the number is stable, increasing its proportion in all traffic fatalities from 1 in 1987 to 2 percent in 2010. Related to the number of inhabitants, this number is 2 times the value in the UK and 3 times the value in the United States. Influencing factors can be related to the 3 road system components (AV, driver, and infrastructure). Weak points for AVs are the view from the driver's seat, visibility at night, permitted vehicle width, and crash aggressivity (large kinetic energy of the AV) that is transferred to other road users in case of a collision. Important factors identified for the driver are poor risk perception and high risk acceptance, in combination with speeding, dysfunctional use such as the use of AVs as modes of transport to and from school, and driving on public roads without protecting or removing protruding and sharp components. For infrastructure, the focus is on road design and separation of AVs from other motor vehicles. Lessons to be learned follow from

  11. The development of safety criteria for use in the nuclear industry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Higson, D.J.

    1978-01-01

    Limits to routine radiation exposure have been laid down in the health regulations of industrial nations and provide a basis for the safe operation of nuclear power stations, uranium mines and other nuclear installations. However, these limits do not take account of the possibility of accidents, which may also be a major concern in the sitting and design of plants. In this paper specific limits to fatal accident frequencies are recommended. An indication of the required level of safety has been derived from the records of other industries and human activities which are already regarded as safe

  12. Institut Laue Langevin. Complementary safety evaluation in the light of the Fukushima accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2011-01-01

    This report proposes a complementary safety evaluation of Laue Langevin Institute (ILL) in Grenoble, one of the French basic nuclear installations (BNI, in French INB) in the light of the Fukushima accident. This evaluation takes the following risks into account: risks of flooding, earthquake, loss of power supply and loss of cooling, in addition to operational management of accident situations. It presents some characteristics of the installation (location, operator, industrial environment, installation characteristics), reports a macroscopic safety study focused of installation structures, systems and components, evaluates the seismic risk (installation sizing, margin evaluation, reinforcement propositions, possible ground acceleration levels, reactivity, cooling and confinement control), evaluates the flooding risk (installation sizing, margin evaluation), briefly examines other extreme natural phenomena (extreme meteorological conditions related to flooding, earthquake with flooding). It analyzes the risk of a loss of power supply and of cooling (loss of external and internal electric sources, loss of the ultimate cooling system). It analyzes the management of severe accidents: core cooling management, confinement management after fuel damage, cooling management of irradiated fuel element in pool, cliff effect for these three types of accident. It discusses the conditions of the use of subcontractors. In conclusion, reinforcement and strengthening measures are proposed and discussed

  13. States with low non-fatal injury rates have high fatality rates and vice-versa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mendeloff, John; Burns, Rachel

    2013-05-01

    State-level injury rates or fatality rates are sometimes used in studies of the impact of various safety programs or other state policies. How much does the metric used affect the view of relative occupational risks among U.S. states? This paper uses a measure of severe injuries (fatalities) and of less severe injuries (non-fatal injuries with days away from work, restricted work, or job transfer-DART) to examine that issue. We looked at the correlation between the average DART injury rate (from the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses) and an adjusted average fatality rate (from the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries) in the construction sector for states for 2003-2005 and for 2006-2008. The RAND Human Subjects Protection Committee determined that this study was exempt from review. The correlations between the fatal and non-fatal injury rates were between -0.30 and -0.70 for all construction and for the subsector of special trade contractors. The negative correlation was much smaller between the rate of fatal falls from heights and the rate of non-fatal falls from heights. Adjusting for differences in the industry composition of the construction sector across states had minor effects on these results. Although some have suggested that fatal and non-fatal injury rates should not necessarily be positively correlated, no one has suggested that the correlation is negative, which is what we find. We know that reported non-fatal rates are influenced by workers' compensation benefits and other factors. Fatality rates appear to be a more valid measure of risk. Efforts to explain the variations that we find should be undertaken. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. Guidelines for the review of accident management programmes in nuclear power plants. Reference document for the IAEA safety service missions on review of accident management programmes in nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    Similarly as for other IAEA safety services, the objectives of accident management safety service are to assist the Member States in ensuring and enhancing the safety of NPPs. In particular, the objective is to assist at the utility and NPP (i.e. licensee) level in effective plant specific AMP preparation, development and implementation. However, assistance can also be provided to the regulatory body in its reviewing of AMPs. Objectives of the safety service can be summarized as follows: To explain to licensee personnel principles and possible approaches in effective implementation of AMP based on experience world-wide; To give opportunities to experts from the host plant to broaden their experience and knowledge in the field; To perform an objective assessment of the status in various phases of AMP implementation, compared with international experience and practices; To provide the licensee with suggestions and assistance for improvements in various stages of AMP implementation. The objective of the IAEA safety services is to offer two options to respond to individual requirements. These options include missions to review accident analysis needed for accident management and missions to review the whole AMP. Review of accident analysis for accident management (RAAAM): this review is intended to check completeness and quality of accident analysis covering BDBA and severe accidents. The review should be typically performed prior to use of accident analysis for development of AMP. It is considered that 2 experts and 1 IAEA team leader in one-week mission can perform the review. Detailed guidelines for review of analysis are provided in Section 2. Reference is also made to another IAEA Safety Report (Safety Standards Series No. NS-R-1) which is devoted to guidance for accident analysis of nuclear power plants (NPPs). Review of AMP (RAMP): this review of AMP, which is in particular appropriate prior to its implementation, is intended to check its quality, consistency

  15. Radiation safety for the emergency situation of the power plant accident. Radiation safety in society and its education

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kosako, Toshiso

    2012-01-01

    Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunamis, and following Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Accident brought about great impact on society in Japan. Accident analysis of inside reactor was studied by reactor physics or reactor engineering knowledge, while dissipation of a large amount of radioactive materials outside reactor facilities, and radiation and radioactivity effects on people by way of atmosphere, water and soil were dealt with radiation safety or radiation protection. Due to extremely low frequency and experience of an emergency, there occurred a great confusion in the response of electric power company concerned, relevant regulating competent authorities, local government and media, and related scholars and researchers, which caused great anxieties amount affected residents and people. This article described radiation safety in the society and its education. Referring to actual examples, how radiation safety or radiation protection knowledge should be dealt with emergency risk management in the society was discussed as well as problem of education related with nuclear power, radiation and prevention of disaster and fostering of personnel for relevant people. (T. Tanaka)

  16. Validation and Verification of Future Integrated Safety-Critical Systems Operating under Off-Nominal Conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belcastro, Christine M.

    2010-01-01

    Loss of control remains one of the largest contributors to aircraft fatal accidents worldwide. Aircraft loss-of-control accidents are highly complex in that they can result from numerous causal and contributing factors acting alone or (more often) in combination. Hence, there is no single intervention strategy to prevent these accidents and reducing them will require a holistic integrated intervention capability. Future onboard integrated system technologies developed for preventing loss of vehicle control accidents must be able to assure safe operation under the associated off-nominal conditions. The transition of these technologies into the commercial fleet will require their extensive validation and verification (V and V) and ultimate certification. The V and V of complex integrated systems poses major nontrivial technical challenges particularly for safety-critical operation under highly off-nominal conditions associated with aircraft loss-of-control events. This paper summarizes the V and V problem and presents a proposed process that could be applied to complex integrated safety-critical systems developed for preventing aircraft loss-of-control accidents. A summary of recent research accomplishments in this effort is also provided.

  17. Road accident fatality risks for "vulnerable" versus "protected" road users in northern Ghana.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damsere-Derry, James; Palk, Gavan; King, Mark

    2017-10-03

    Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a serious epidemic that claims more than a million lives across the globe each year. The burden of RTIs is particularly pronounced in Africa and other low- and middle-income countries. The unfavorable disparity of the burden of road trauma in the world is largely attributable to unsafe vehicles, lack of appropriate road infrastructure, and the predominance of vulnerable road users (VRUs) in developing countries. However, little research exists in northern Ghana to highlight the scale and risk of death among road users. The objective of this research was to establish the relative risk of death among road users in northern Ghana. Crash data from police reports between 2007 and 2011 were analyzed for the Upper Regions of Ghana. Conditional probabilities and multivariable logistic regression techniques were used to report proportions and adjusted odds ratios (AORs), respectively. Generally, crashes in northern Ghana were extremely severe; that is, 35% of all injury related collisions were fatal. The proportion of fatal casualties ranged between 21% among victims of sideswipe collisions and 41% among pedestrians and victims of rear-end collisions. Though males were 6 times more likely to die than females overall, females were more likely to die as pedestrians (90% of all female casualty deaths) and males were more likely to die as riders/drivers (78% of all male casualty deaths). Pedestrians were 3 times more likely to die (odds ratio [OR] = 3.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4 to 4.1) compared with drivers/riders. Compared with drivers, the odds of death among cyclists was about 4 times higher (AOR = 3.6; 95% CI, 2.3 to 5.6) and about 2 times higher among motorcyclists (AOR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2 to 2.2). Compared with casualties aged between 30 and 59 years, children under 10 years and those aged 60 years and above were independently 2 times more likely to die in traffic collisions. Provision of requisite road infrastructure is vital

  18. Integrating VR and knowledge-based technologies to facilitate the development of operator training systems and scenarios to improve process safety

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Shang, X.; Chung, P.W.H.; Vezzadini, L.; Loupos, K.; Hoekstra, W.

    2006-01-01

    Process safety can be regarded of paramount importance since any malfunction or mal-operation of a hazardous processing plant may lead to accidents that will cause damage to properties, injury to people and may even result in fatalities. This project investigates how Virtual Reality (VR) and

  19. Reactivity Accidents in CAREM-25 Core with and Without Safety Systems Actuation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gimenez, Marcelo; Vertullo, Alicia; Schlamp, Miguel

    2000-01-01

    A reactivity accident in CAREM core can be provoked by different initiating events, a cold water injection in pressure vessel, a secondary side steam line breakage and a failure in the absorbing rods drive system.The present work analyses inadverted control rod withdraws transients.Maximum worth control rod (2.5 $) at normal velocity (1 cm/s) is adopted for the simulations (Reactivity ramp of 0.018 $/s).Different scenarios considering actuation of first shutdown system (FSS), second shutdown system (SSS) and selflimiting conditions were modeled.Results of the accident with actuation of FSS show that safety margins are well above critical values (DNBR and CPR).In the cases with failure of the FSS and success of SSS or selflimited, safety margins are below critical values, however, the SSS provides a reduction of elapsed time under advised margins

  20. Aspects of using a best-estimate approach for VVER safety analysis in reactivity initiated accidents

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ovdiienko, Iurii; Bilodid, Yevgen; Ieremenko, Maksym [State Scientific and Technical Centre on Nuclear and Radiation, Safety (SSTC N and RS), Kyiv (Ukraine); Loetsch, Thomas [TUEV SUED Industrie Service GmbH, Energie und Systeme, Muenchen (Germany)

    2016-09-15

    At present time, Ukraine faces the problem of small margins of acceptance criteria in connection with the implementation of a conservative approach for safety evaluations. The problem is particularly topical conducting feasibility analysis of power up-rating for Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Such situation requires the implementation of a best-estimate approach on the basis of an uncertainty analysis. For some kind of accidents, such as loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), the best estimate approach is, more or less, developed and established. However, for reactivity initiated accident (RIA) analysis an application of best estimate method could be problematical. A regulatory document in Ukraine defines a nomenclature of neutronics calculations and so called ''generic safety parameters'' which should be used as boundary conditions for all VVER-1000 (V-320) reactors in RIA analysis. In this paper the ideas of uncertainty evaluations of generic safety parameters in RIA analysis in connection with the use of the 3D neutron kinetic code DYN3D and the GRS SUSA approach are presented.

  1. Test study on safety features of station blackout accident for nuclear main pump

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Xiajie; Wang Dezhong; Zhang Jige; Liu Junsheng; Yang Zhe

    2009-01-01

    The theoretical and experimental studies of reactor coolant pump accidents encountered nation-wide and world-wide were described. To investigate the transient hydrodynamic performance of reactor coolant pump (RCP) during the period of rotational inertia in the station blackout accident, some theoretical and experimental studies were carried out, and the analysis of the test results was presented. The experiment parameters, conditions and test methods were introduced. The flow-rate, rotate speed and vibrations were analyzed emphatically. The quadruplicate polynomial curve equation was used to simulate the flow-rate,rotate speed along with time. The test results indicate that the flow-rate and rotator speed decrease rapidly at the very beginning of cut power and the test results accord with the regulation of safety standard. The vibrant displacement of bearing seat is intensified at the moment of lose power, but after a certain period rotor shaft libration changes. The test and analysis results help to understand the hydrodynamic performance of nuclear primary pump under lost of power accident, and provide the basic reference for safety evaluation. (authors)

  2. Learning Safety Assessment from Accidents in a University Environment

    OpenAIRE

    Jensen, Niels; Jørgensen, Sten Bay

    2013-01-01

    This contribution describes how a chemical engineering department started learning from accidents during experimental work and ended up implementing an industrially inspired system for risk assessment of new and existing experimental setups as well as a system for assessing potential risk from the chemicals used in the experimental work. These experiences have led to recent developments which focus increasingly on the a theoretical basis for modeling and reasoning on safety as well as operati...

  3. HTGR accident initiation and progression analysis status report. Volume 1. Introduction and summary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raabe, P.H.; Houghton, W.J.; Joksimovic, V.

    1976-01-01

    Probabilistic risk assessment techniques have been applied to obtain guidance in choosing nuclear safety research and development that is most worthwhile for high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plants. The probabilistic techniques used are similar to those employed in the Reactor Safety Study for light water reactors (LWRs), WASH-1400, directed by Dr. N. C. Rasmussen. The recommendations for research include studies related to core heatup even though this event poses a very low risk to the public. In fact, it was found that under the many conditions covered by the study to date, even very infrequent accidents in HTGRs (say, once in ten million years) will not produce fatalities. Potential cost reduction areas have been found where alternate design options protect the public and meet regulatory safety criteria

  4. Outline of the Fukushima Daiichi Accident. Lessons Learned and Safety Enhancements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hirano Masashi

    2017-01-01

    This paper briefly presents the outline of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and summarizes the major lessons learned having been drawn and safety enhancements having been done in Japan for the purpose of giving inputs to the discussions to be taken place in the Special Invited Session “Fukushima, 5 years after”.

  5. Social identity, safety climate and self-reported accidents among construction workers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Lars Peter; Nørdam, Line; Jønsson, Thomas Faurholt

    2018-01-01

    The construction industry has one of the highest frequencies of work-related accidents. We examined whether construction workers predominantly identify themselves in terms of their workgroup or in terms of the construction site. In addition, we examined the associations between social identity...... themselves primarily with their workgroup, and to a lesser degree with the construction site. Social identity and safety climate were related both at the workgroup and construction site levels, meaning that social identity may be an antecedent for safety climate. The association between social identity...

  6. Technical organization of safety authorities for the event of an accident at a nuclear installation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scherrer, J.; Evrard, J.M.; Ney, J.

    1986-01-01

    Within the general context of nuclear safety, the Central Nuclear Installation Safety Service of the French Ministry for Industry and its technical backup, the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety of the CEA (Atomic Energy Commission), have established a special organization designed to provide real-time forecasts of the evolution of a nuclear accident situation with sufficient forewarning for the local representative of the Government (the Commissaire de la Republique in the Departement affected) to implement, as required, effective countermeasures to protect the population - for example, confinement indoors or evacuation. Descriptions are given of the principles of this organization and the particular precautions taken to confront the problems of mobilizing experts and of dealing with the saturation of normal telecommunications channels to be expected in the event of a nuclear accident. The organization set up for the installations belonging to Electricite de France is given as a detailed example. Particular stress is placed on the organizational arrangements of the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety designed to provide the emergency teams with the evaluation and forecasting tools they require to carry out their tasks. The procedures are on the whole well developed for atmospheric radioactivity transport, for which operational models already exist. Computer-backed methods with improved performance are at present being developed. A method of forecasting the behaviour of the releases resulting from nuclear accidents is set out for pressurized water reactors, based on evaluating the physical state of the installation, confinement integrity, availability of safety and backup systems, support systems and feed sources and on forecasting how this state will develop on the basis of measured and inferred physical values transmitted from the affected power station through a national network. The experience acquired during accident

  7. The influence of the technologically advanced evacuation models on the risk analyses during accidents in LNG terminal

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stankovicj, Goran; Petelin, Stojan [Faculty for Maritime Studies and Transport, University of Ljubljana, Portorozh (Sierra Leone); others, and

    2014-07-01

    The evacuation of people located in different safety zones of an LNG terminal is a complex problem considering that the accidents involving LNG are very hazardous and post the biggest threat to the safety of the people located near the LNG leakage. The safety risk criteria define the parameters which one LNG terminal should meet in terms of safety. Those criteria also contain an evacuation as an evasive action with the objective to mitigate the influence of the LNG accident on the people at risk. Till date, not a lot of attention has been paid to technologically advanced evacuations intended for LNG terminals. Creating the technologically advanced evacuation influences directly on the decrease of the probability of fatalities P{sub f,i}, thus influencing the calculation of the individual risk as well as the societal risk which results in the positioning of the F-N curve in the acceptable part of the ALARP zone. With this paper, we aim to present the difference between the safety analyses in cases when conservative data for P{sub f,i} is being used while calculating the risk, and in cases when real data for P{sub f,i} is been used. (Author)

  8. Outline of the Fukushima Daiichi Accident. Lessons Learned and Safety Enhancements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirano, Masashi

    2017-09-01

    Abstract. On March 11, 2011, an earthquake and subsequent tsunamis off the Pacific coastline of Japan's Tohoku region caused widespread devastation in Japan. As of June 10, 2016, it is reported that a total of 15,894 people lost their lives and 2,558 people are still unaccounted for. In Fukushima Prefecture, approximately 100,000 people are still obliged to live away from their homes due to the earthquake and tsunami as well as the Fukushima Daiichi accident. On the day, the earthquake and tsunami caused severe damages to the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS). All the units in operation, namely Units 1 to 3, were automatically shut down on seismic reactor protection system trips but the earthquake led to the loss of all off-site electrical power supplies to that site. The subsequent tsunami inundated the site up to 4 to 5 m above its ground level and caused, in the end, the loss of core cooling function in Units 1 to 3, resulting in severe core damages and containment vessel failures in these three units. Hydrogen was released from the containment vessels, leading to explosions in the reactor buildings of Units 1, 3 and 4. Radioactive materials were released to the atmosphere and were deposited on the land and in the ocean. One of the most important lessons learned is an importance to prevent such large scale common cause failures due to extreme natural events. This leads to a conclusion that application of the defense-in-depth philosophy be enhanced because the defense-in-depth philosophy has been and continues to be an effective way to account for uncertainties associated with risks. From the human and organizational viewpoints, the final report from the Investigation Committee of the Government pointed out so-called "safety myth" that existed among nuclear operators including TEPCO as well as the government, that serious severe accidents could never occur in nuclear power plants in Japan. After the accident, the

  9. Review and evaluation of the Millstone Unit 3 probabilistic safety study. Containment failure modes, radiological source - terms and offsite consequences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khatib-Rahbar, M.; Pratt, W.; Ludewig, H.

    1985-09-01

    A technical review and evaluation of the Millstone Unit 3 probabilistic safety study has been performed. It was determined that; (1) long-term damage indices (latent fatalities, person-rem, etc.) are dominated by late failure of the containment, (2) short-term damage indices (early fatalities, etc.) are dominated by bypass sequences for internally initiated events, while severe seismic sequences can also contribute significantly to early damage indices. These overall estimates of severe accident risk are extremely low compared with other societal sources of risk. Furthermore, the risks for Millstone-3 are comparable to risks from other nuclear plants at high population sites. Seismically induced accidents dominate the severe accident risks at Millstone-3. Potential mitigative features were shown not to be cost-effective for internal events. Value-impact analysis for seismic events showed that a manually actuated containment spray system might be cost-effective

  10. Effect of engineered safety features on the risk of hypothetical LMFBR accidents

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cybulskis, P.

    1978-01-01

    The risks of hypothetical core-disruptive accidents in liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactors which involve meltthrough of the reactor vessel are compared for two plant designs: one design without specific provisions to accommodate such an accident and the other design with an ex-vessel core catcher and a cvity hot liner. The approach to risk analysis used is that developed in the Reactor Safety Study (WASH-1400). Since the probability of occurrence of such an event has not been evaluated, however, insight into the potential risk is gained only on a relative basis. The principal conclusions of this study are: (1) adding a core catcher--hot liner reduces the probabilty of accidents having major consequences; (2) the degree to which hot liner--core catcher systems can reduce the risk of melt-through accidents is limited by the failure probability of these systems; (3) fractional radioactive releases to the environment in the liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactor accidents considered are comparable to those from the light-water reactors evaluated in WASH-1400; (4) since sodium--concrete reactions are a dominant driving force during the accident, the integrity of the cavity liner is as important as the function of the core catcher; (5) there may be other accidents or paths to radioactive releases that are not affected by the addition of a hot liner--core catcher

  11. European Union research in safety of LWRs with emphasis on accident management measures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bermejo, J.M.; Van Goethem, G.

    1998-01-01

    On April 26th 1994 the European Union (EU) adopted via a Council Decision a multiannual programme for community activities in the field of nuclear research and training for the period 1994 to 1998. This programme continued the EU research activities of the 1992-1995 Reactor Safety Programme which was carried out as a Reinforced Concerted Action (RCA), and which covered mainly research activities in the area of severe accident phenomena, both for the existing and next-generation light water reactors. The 1994-1998 Framework programme includes activities regarding Research and Technological Development (R and TD), such as demonstration projects, international cooperation, dissemination and optimization of results, as well as training, in a wide range of scientific fields, including nuclear fission safety and controlled thermonuclear fusion. The 1994-1998 specific programme for nuclear fission safety has five main activity areas: (i) Exploring Innovative Approaches, (ii) Reactor Safety, (iii) Radioactive Waste Management, Disposal, and Decommissioning, (iv) Radiological Impact on Man and Environment, and (v) Mastering Events of the past. The specific topics included in this work programme were chosen in consultation with the EU Joint Research Centres (JRC), and with experts in the different fields taking into account the needs of the end users of the Community research, i.e. vendors, utilities and licensing and regulators authorities. This paper briefly discusses the objectives and achievements of the 1992-1995 RCA and also describes the projects being (or to be) implemented as part of the 1994-1995 programme in the areas of R eactor Safety/Severe Accidents , particularly those related to Accident Management (AM) Measures. In addition to this, some relevant projects related to AM which have been funded via independent PHARE/TACIS assistance programmes will also be mentioned

  12. Comparative risk assessment of severe accidents in the energy sector

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burgherr, Peter; Hirschberg, Stefan

    2014-01-01

    Comparative assessment of accident risks in the energy sector is a key aspect in a comprehensive evaluation of sustainability and energy security concerns. Safety performance of energy systems can have important implications on the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability as well as availability, acceptability and accessibility aspects of energy security. Therefore, this study provides a broad comparison of energy technologies based on the objective expression of accident risks for complete energy chains. For fossil chains and hydropower the extensive historical experience available in PSI's Energy-related Severe Accident Database (ENSAD) is used, whereas for nuclear a simplified probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is applied, and evaluations of new renewables are based on a combination of available data, modeling, and expert judgment. Generally, OECD and EU 27 countries perform better than non-OECD. Fatality rates are lowest for Western hydropower and nuclear as well as for new renewables. In contrast, maximum consequences can be by far highest for nuclear and hydro, intermediate for fossil, and very small for new renewables, which are less prone to severe accidents. Centralized, low-carbon technology options could generally contribute to achieve large reductions in CO 2 -emissions; however, the principal challenge for both fossil with Carbon Capture and Storage and nuclear is public acceptance. Although, external costs of severe accidents are significantly smaller than those caused by air pollution, accidents can have disastrous and long-term impacts. Overall, no technology performs best or worst in all respects, thus tradeoffs and priorities are needed to balance the conflicting objectives such as energy security, sustainability and risk aversion to support rationale decision making. - Highlights: • Accident risks are compared across a broad range of energy technologies. • Analysis of historical experience was based on the

  13. Securing the safety of our most precious cargo: SAFE KIDS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vick, Judith W

    2010-01-01

    There are staggering and tragic statistics involving children, car seats, and motor vehicle accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children from 0 to 15 years of age, and in the United States during 2005, 1,335 children ages 14 years and younger died as occupants in motor vehicle accidents; approximately 184,000 were injured. That is an average of 4 deaths and 504 injuries each day. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics show that nearly one-half of deaths and injuries in children occurred because they were not properly restrained. Child safety seats and safety belts, when installed and used properly, can prevent injuries and save lives. Among children under age 5, an estimated 425 lives were saved in 2006 by child restraint use. Research on the effectiveness of child safety seats has found them to reduce fatal injury by 71% for infants, and by 54% for toddlers in passenger cars. This article discusses the need for increased education of parents and healthcare professionals about selection and installation of car safety restraints, and the importance of developing a child safety restraint program.

  14. Macroeconomic fluctuations and motorcycle fatalities in the U.S.

    Science.gov (United States)

    French, Michael T; Gumus, Gulcin

    2014-03-01

    The effects of business cycles on health outcomes in general, and on traffic fatalities in particular, have received much attention recently. In this paper, we focus on motorcycle safety and examine the impact of changing levels of economic activity on fatal crashes by motorcyclists in the United States. We analyze state-level longitudinal data with 1,104 state/year observations from the 1988-2010 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Using the extensive motorcycle crash characteristics available in FARS, we examine not only total fatality rates but also rates decomposed by crash type, day, time, and the level of the motorcycle operator's blood alcohol content. Our results are consistent with much of the existing literature showing that traffic fatality rates are pro-cyclical. The estimates suggest that a 10% increase in real income per capita is associated with a 10.4% rise in the total motorcycle fatality rate. Along with potential mechanisms, policymakers and public health officials should consider the effects of business cycles on motorcycle safety. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Childhood and adolescent fatalities at the Pretoria Medico-Legal ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    in children <12 years, found the leading external cause of death to be road traffic fatalities (22% of cases). In Nigeria, Nwafor et al.[9] reviewed deaths in children ≤14 years; in a 20-year period, road traffic accidents ..... We thank Ms B English,.

  16. Accidents - Chernobyl accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-01-01

    This file is devoted to the Chernobyl accident. It is divided in four parts. The first part concerns the accident itself and its technical management. The second part is relative to the radiation doses and the different contaminations. The third part reports the sanitary effects, the determinists ones and the stochastic ones. The fourth and last part relates the consequences for the other European countries with the case of France. Through the different parts a point is tackled with the measures taken after the accident by the other countries to manage an accident, the cooperation between the different countries and the groups of research and studies about the reactors safety, and also with the international medical cooperation, specially for the children, everything in relation with the Chernobyl accident. (N.C.)

  17. Predominance of alcohol and illicit drugs among traffic accidents fatalities in an urban area of Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelição, Fabrício Souza; Peres, Mariana Dadalto; Pissinate, Jauber Fornaciari; de Paula, Daniela Mendes Louzada; de Faria, Maria das Graças Corrêa; Nakamura-Palacios, Ester Miyuki; De Martinis, Bruno Spinosa

    2016-10-02

    The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of alcohol and illicit drug use among victims of fatal traffic accidents in the Metropolitan Region of Vitória, Brazil, during the period 2011-2012. Blood samples were collected and analyzed for the presence of drugs from 391 deceased victims of traffic crashes that occurred in the Metropolitan Region of Vitória, Brazil. The victims included drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, day of the week, and period of the year in which the accidents occurred were recorded. The analyses were performed by a gas chromatography-flame ionization method for alcohol and by a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for amphetamines, cocaine, and cannabis. The results showed that 44.8% (n = 175) of all cases were positive for alcohol and/or illicit drugs. The detection of alcohol and/or drugs was more frequent in young males, aged 17 to 34, whose samples were positive in 46.8% of cases. Small differences among drivers, passengers, and pedestrians were observed (drivers = 45.9%, passengers = 46.4%, and pedestrians = 45.6%). In general, the most prevalent drug was alcohol, with 141 positive cases (36.1%), followed by cocaine, with 47 positive cases (12%). Amphetamines and cannabis had positivity rates of 4.1 and 4.3%, with 16 and 17 positive cases, respectively. The combined use of alcohol and other drugs was found in 36 cases (9.2%). Crack cocaine use was observed in 27.7% of the positive cases for cocaine. For the effective reduction of traffic accidents related to driving under influence of drugs (DUID), we suggest the intensification of enforcement actions against the use of alcohol by drivers, the definition of which illicit drugs should be surveyed, as well the cutoff values, the promotion of changing legislation to oblige drivers to provide samples for toxicological testing, and the establishment of public information programs and specific actions aimed at young drivers to

  18. NAVFAC Safety performance and the use of best practices to reduce lost workhours and accidents

    OpenAIRE

    Stone, James Treacy.

    1998-01-01

    CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis document This thesis analyzes the safety performance of several U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) projects as they compare to the construction industry as a whole and to the Construction Industry Institute (CII) Member companies. Safety success on a construction project is measured by examining the Lost Workday Case Incident Rate (LWCIR), Recordable Incident Rate (RIR), and the Fatality Incident Rate (FIR). This thesis will endeavor to...

  19. Worksite element as causes of occupational accidents and illnesses in Malaysian residential construction industry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hafiidz, J. Mohd; Arifin, K.; Aiyub, K.; Razman, M. R.; Samsurijan, M. S.; Syakir, M. I.

    2017-09-01

    Construction industry is an important sector that contributes to the development of economy and socioeconomy in Malaysia. It is a vital component in achieving the developed country status. However, fatalities in the Malaysian construction industry are a critical problem. Number of fatalities in this industry is the highest compared to other industries registered in Malaysia under the investigation of Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). Worksite element (worksite conditions, poor site management, construction tasks, and equipment & materials) was identified as one category of causes of occupational accidents and illnesses in Malaysian construction industry. The main objective of this study is to understand the perception of local construction personnel in terms of worksite element as causes of occupational accidents and illnesses in Malaysian residential construction industry. 13 housing projects that were registered with Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government and being permitted to perform construction work in 2012 were selected in Pulau Pinang to be studied using questionnaire survey. Worksite condition and poor site management was perceived as the most significant with the mean values of 3.68 and 3.61 respectively.

  20. Lessons learned from accidents in radiotherapy. An IAEA Safety Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ortiz, P.

    1998-01-01

    Radiotherapy is a very special application from the view point of protection because humans are deliberately exposed to high doses of radiation, and no physical barrier can be placed between the source and the patient. It deserves, therefore, special considerations from the point of view of potential exposure. An IAEA's Safety Report (in preparation) reviews a large collection of accident information, their initiating events and contributing factors, followed by a set of lessons learned and measures for prevention. The most important causes were: deficiencies in education and training, lack of procedures and protocols for essential tasks (such as commissioning, calibration, commissioning and treatment delivery), deficient communication and information transfer, absence of defence in depth and deficiencies in design, manufacture, testing and maintenance of equipment. Often a combination of more than one of these causes was present in an accident, thus pointing to a problem of management. Arrangements for a comprehensive quality assurance and accident prevention should be required by regulations and compliance be monitored by a Regulatory Authority. (author)

  1. Safety Management. An Introduction to a Frame of Reference Exemplified with Case Studies from Non-Nuclear Contexts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Svensson, Ola (Risk Analysis, Social and Decision Research Unit, Dept. of Psychology, Stockholm Univ., Stockholm (Sweden)); Salo, Ilkka (Dept. of Psychology, Lund Univ., Lund (Sweden))

    2004-11-15

    A systems perspective on safety management is introduced followed by two briefly presented case studies of safety management in non-nuclear contexts. The first study concerns a car manufacturer and the second study a road traffic tunnel system. The risks of a car accident in the first case study are evident. The great exposure generates many incidents and accidents. In the second study, the rather low traffic intensity through the tunnel produces few incidents and accidents and only a few fatal accidents over the years. Yet, the risk of the individual traveler is much greater in the tunnel than on the average road. The case studies are presented in a systems perspective with emphasis on information feedback about the risks of the systems. The first case study illustrates high quality safety management, while the second case study shows many weaknesses of the safety management in the tunnel system. Some differences in safety management between the case studies are noted. The last part of the study presents an organizational perspective on safety management and offers alternative theoretical perspectives on the concept of safety management. The report shows that further studies are needed both (1) to develop a frame of reference for describing safety management across industries and activities and (2) to collect data illustrating of good and poor safety management. Then, the results can be used to strengthen and/or improving safety management in the nuclear power industry and its regulators

  2. Safety Management. An Introduction to a Frame of Reference Exemplified with Case Studies from Non-Nuclear Contexts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Svensson, Ola; Salo, Ilkka

    2004-11-01

    A systems perspective on safety management is introduced followed by two briefly presented case studies of safety management in non-nuclear contexts. The first study concerns a car manufacturer and the second study a road traffic tunnel system. The risks of a car accident in the first case study are evident. The great exposure generates many incidents and accidents. In the second study, the rather low traffic intensity through the tunnel produces few incidents and accidents and only a few fatal accidents over the years. Yet, the risk of the individual traveler is much greater in the tunnel than on the average road. The case studies are presented in a systems perspective with emphasis on information feedback about the risks of the systems. The first case study illustrates high quality safety management, while the second case study shows many weaknesses of the safety management in the tunnel system. Some differences in safety management between the case studies are noted. The last part of the study presents an organizational perspective on safety management and offers alternative theoretical perspectives on the concept of safety management. The report shows that further studies are needed both (1) to develop a frame of reference for describing safety management across industries and activities and (2) to collect data illustrating of good and poor safety management. Then, the results can be used to strengthen and/or improving safety management in the nuclear power industry and its regulators

  3. Safety-critical human factors issues derived from analysis of the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi accident investigation reports

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakuda, Hiroshi; Takeuchi, Michiru

    2013-01-01

    The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident on March 11, 2011 had a large impact both in and outside Japan, and is not yet concluded. After Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO's) Fukushima accident, electric power suppliers have taken measures to respond in the event that the same state of emergency occurs - deploying mobile generators, temporary pumps and hoses, and training employees in the use of this equipment. However, it is not only the “hard” problems including the design of equipment, but the “soft” problems such as organization and safety culture that have been highlighted as key contributors in this accident. Although a number of organizations have undertaken factor analysis of the accident and proposed issues to be reviewed and measures to be taken, a systematic overview about electric power suppliers' organization and safety culture has not yet been undertaken. This study is based on three major reports: the report by the national Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (the Diet report), the report by the Investigation Committee on the Accident at Fukushima Nuclear Power Stations of Tokyo Electric Power Company (Government report), and the report by the non-government committee supported by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation (Non-government report). From these reports, the sections relevant to electric power suppliers' organization and safety culture were extracted. These sections were arranged to correspond with the prerequisites for the ideal organization, and 30 issues to be reviewed by electric power suppliers were extracted using brainstorming methods. It is expected that the identified issues will become a reference for every organization concerned to work on preventive measures hereafter. (author)

  4. Safety demonstration analyses on criticality for severe accident during overland transport of fresh nuclear fuel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takahashi, Satoshi; Okuno, Hiroshi; Yamada, Kenji; Watanabe, Kouji; Nomura, Yasushi; Miyoshi, Yoshinori

    2005-01-01

    Criticality safety analysis was performed for transport packages of uranium dioxide powder or of fresh PWR fuel involved in a severe accident during overland transportation, and as a result, sub-criticality was confirmed against impact accident conditions such as loaded by a drop from high position to a concrete or asphalt surface, and fire accident conditions such as caused by collisions with an oil tank trailer carrying lots of inflammable material in open air, or with a commonly used two-ton-truck inside an unventilated tunnel. (author)

  5. Implementing and measuring safety goals and safety culture. 4. Utility's Activities for Better Safety Culture After the JCO Accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Omoto, Akira

    2001-01-01

    The criticality accident at the JCO plant prompted the Government to enact a law for nuclear emergency preparedness. The nuclear industry established NSnet to facilitate opportunities for peer review among its members. This paper describes the activities by NSnet and TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station (NPS) for a better safety culture. Created as a voluntary organization by the nuclear industry in 1999, NSnet has 35 members and is assisted by CRIEPI and NUPEC for its activities relevant to human factors. Given the fact that nuclear facility operators not belonging to WANO had no institutional system available for exchange of experiences and good practices for better safety among themselves, NSnet's activities focus on peer review by member organizations and onsite seminars. Starting April 2000 with visits to three fuel fabricators, NSnet intends to have 23 peer-review visits in 2 yr (Ref. 1). The six-member review team stays on-site for 4 days, during which time they review-using guidelines available from WANO and IAEA-OSART-six areas: organization/management, emergency preparedness, education/training, operation/ maintenance, protection against occupational radiation exposure, and prevention of accidents. A series of on-site seminars is held at members' nuclear facilities, to which NSnet dispatches experts for lectures. NSnet plans to hold such seminars twice per month. Other activities include information-sharing through a newsletter, a Web site (www. nsnet.gr.jp), and others. Although considerable differences exist in the design and the practices in operation/maintenance between power reactors and JCO, utilities can extract lessons from the accident that will be worth consideration for their own facilities in the areas of safety culture, education and training, and interface between design and operation. This thinking prompted the Nuclear Safety Promotion Center at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa NPS, to which the author belonged at that time, to launch the

  6. Quantifying Pilot Contribution to Flight Safety During an In-Flight Airspeed Failure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etherington, Timothy J.; Kramer, Lynda J.; Bailey, Randall E.; Kennedey, Kellie D.

    2017-01-01

    Accident statistics cite the flight crew as a causal factor in over 60% of large transport fatal accidents. Yet a well-trained and well-qualified crew is acknowledged as the critical center point of aircraft systems safety and an integral component of the entire commercial aviation system. A human-in-the-loop test was conducted using a Level D certified Boeing 737-800 simulator to evaluate the pilot's contribution to safety-of-flight during routine air carrier flight operations and in response to system failures. To quantify the human's contribution, crew complement was used as an independent variable in a between-subjects design. This paper details the crew's actions and responses while dealing with an in-flight airspeed failure. Accident statistics often cite flight crew error (Baker, 2001) as the primary contributor in accidents and incidents in transport category aircraft. However, the Air Line Pilots Association (2011) suggests "a well-trained and well-qualified pilot is acknowledged as the critical center point of the aircraft systems safety and an integral safety component of the entire commercial aviation system." This is generally acknowledged but cannot be verified because little or no quantitative data exists on how or how many accidents/incidents are averted by crew actions. Anecdotal evidence suggest crews handle failures on a daily basis and Aviation Safety Action Program data generally supports this assertion, even if the data is not released to the public. However without hard evidence, the contribution and means by which pilots achieve safety of flight is difficult to define. Thus, ways to improve the human ability to contribute or overcome deficiencies are ill-defined.

  7. Safety demonstration analyses for severe accident of fresh nuclear fuel transport packages at JAERI

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yamada, K.; Watanabe, K.; Nomura, Y.; Okuno, H.; Miyoshi, Y.

    2004-01-01

    It is expected in the near future that more and more fresh nuclear fuel will be transported in a variety of transport packages to cope with increasing demand from nuclear fuel cycle facilities. Accordingly, safety demonstration analyses of these methods are planned and conducted at JAERI under contract with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan. These analyses are conducted part of a four year plan from 2001 to 2004 to verify integrity of packaging against leakage of radioactive material in the case of a severe accident envisioned to occur during transportation, for the purpose of gaining public acceptance of such nuclear fuel activities. In order to create the accident scenarios, actual transportation routes were surveyed, accident or incident records were tracked, international radioactive material transport regulations such as IAEA rules were investigated and, thus, accident conditions leading to mechanical damage and thermal failure were selected for inclusion in the scenario. As a result, the worst-case conditions of run-off-the-road accidents were incorporated, where there is impact against a concrete or asphalt surface. Fire accidents were assumed to occur after collision with a tank truck carrying lots of inflammable material or destruction by fire after collision inside a tunnel. The impact analyses were performed by using three-dimensional elements according to the general purpose impact analysis code LS-DYNA. Leak-tightness of the package was maintained even in the severe impact accident scenario. In addition, the thermal analyses were performed by using two-dimensional elements according to the general purpose finite element method computer code ABAQUS. As a result of these analyses, the integrity of the inside packaging component was found to be sufficient to maintain a leak-tight state, confirming its safety

  8. Biomechanical analysis of protective countermeasures in underride motor vehicle accidents - biomed 2009.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Sri; Enz, Bruce; Ponder, Perry L; Anderson, Bob

    2009-01-01

    Traffic safety has been significantly improved over the past several decades reducing injury and fatality rates. However, there is a paucity of research effort to address the safety issues in underride accidents, specifically the side underride crashes. It is well known that the compromise of occupant space in the vehicle leads to a higher probability of serious or fatal injuries. A better understanding of occupant protection and mechanism of injuries involved in side underride accidents assists in the advancement of safety measures. The present work evaluates the injury potential to occupants during side underride crashes using the car-to-trailer crash methodology. Four crash tests were conducted into the side of a stationary trailer fitted with the side underride guard system (SURG). The SURG used in these tests is 25% lighter than the previous design. A 5th percentile hybrid III female dummy was placed in the driver seat and restrained with the three-point lap and shoulder harness. The anthropometric dummy was instrumented with a head triaxial accelerometer, a chest triaxal accelerometer, a load cell to measure neck force and moment, and a load cell to measure the femur force. The vehicle acceleration was measured using a traxial accelerometer in the rear center tunnel. High speed, standard video and still photos were taken. In all tests, the intrusion was limited to the front structure of the vehicle without any significant compromise to the occupant space. Results indicate that the resultant head and chest accelerations, head injury criterion (HIC), neck force and moment, and femur force were well below the injury tolerance. The present findings support the hypothesis that the SURG not only limits or eliminates the intrusion into the occupant space but also results in biomechanical injury values well below the tolerance limit in motor vehicle crashes.

  9. One in a Million Given the Accident: Assuring Nuclear Weapon Safety

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Weaver, Jason [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2015-08-25

    Since the introduction of nuclear weapons, there has not been a single instance of accidental or unauthorized nuclear detonation, but there have been numerous accidents and “close calls.” As the understanding of these environments has increased, the need for a robust nuclear weapon safety philosophy has grown. This paper describes some of the methods used by the Nuclear Weapon Complex today to assure nuclear weapon safety, including testing, modeling, analysis, and design features. Lastly, it also reviews safety’s continued role in the future and examines how nuclear safety’s present maturity can play a role in strengthening security and other areas and how increased coordination can improve safety and reduce long-term cost.

  10. The effectiveness of automatic belts in reducing fatality rates in Toyota Cressidas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nash, C E

    1989-12-01

    Toyota Cressidas have had motor driven automatic belts since 1981. Their observed use rates have been consistently close to 100%. This paper compares fatality rates in Toyota Cressidas with those in the similar Nissan Maximas (which are equipped with three-point manual belts) using the latest data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System. After making adjustments for differences in the average ages of front seat occupants of the two fleets, the Toyotas have a fatality rate that is about three-quarters that of the Nissans. From this, the fatality-reducing effectiveness for the Toyota automatic belts is estimated to be 40% with an uncertainty of +/- 8%. This effectiveness estimate is consistent with earlier estimates of automatic belt effectiveness.

  11. Distribution and optical purity of methamphetamine found in toxic concentration in a civil aviation accident pilot fatality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaturvedi, Arvind K; Cardona, Patrick S; Soper, John W; Canfield, Dennis V

    2004-07-01

    Toxicological evaluation of postmortem samples collected from a pilot involved in a unique fatal civil aircraft accident is described in this paper. A one-occupant airplane was substantially damaged upon colliding with terrain in poor visibility. Remains of the pilot were found outside the aircraft. Pathological examination revealed multiple blunt force injuries and vascular congestion. The fluorescence polarization immunoassay disclosed 8.0 microg/mL amphetamines in urine. Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analyses determined the presence of methamphetamine (1.13 microg/mL in blood and 59.2 microg/mL in urine) and amphetamine (0.022 microg/mL in blood and 1.50 microg/mL in urine). Methamphetamine was distributed throughout the body, including the brain. The amount of methamphetamine in gastric contents was 575-fold higher than that of amphetamine. The (+)- and (-)-forms of methamphetamine were present in equal proportions in gastric contents. The methamphetamine concentration found in blood was in the range sufficient to produce toxic effects, causing performance impairment.

  12. Defining safety goals. 2. Basic Consideration on Defining Safety Goals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hakata, T.

    2001-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to develop basic safety goals that are rational and consistent for all nuclear facilities, including nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities. Basic safety goals (risk limits) by an index of radiation dose are discussed, which are based on health effects of detriment and fatality and risk levels presumably accepted by society. The contents of this paper are the personal opinions of the author. The desirable structure of safety goals is assumed to be 'basic safety goals plus specific safety goals (or supplemental safety goals) for each sort of facility, which reflects their characteristics'. The requisites of the basic safety goals must include (a) rational bases (scientific and social), (b) comprehensiveness (common to all sorts of nuclear facilities covering from normal to accidental conditions), and (c) applicability. To meet the requirements, the basic safety goals might have to be a risk profile expression by an index of radiation dose. The societal rationality is consideration of absolute risk levels (10 -6 or 10 -7 /yr) and/or relative risk factors (such as 0.1% of U.S. safety goals) that the general public accepts as tolerable. The following quantitative objectives are adopted in this study for protection of average individuals in the vicinity of a nuclear facility: 1. The additive annual radiation dose during normal operation must be -4 /yr (health detriment), 2x10 -6 /yr (latent cancer and severe hereditary effects), and 10 -7 /yr (acute fatality) from the statistics in Japan. The radiation effects on human beings are determined by recommendations of UNSCEAR (Ref. 1) and ICRP. The health effects considered are non-severe stochastic health detriment, i.e., detectable opacities of lens of eye (threshold 5 0.5 to 2 Sv), depression of hematopoiesis of bone marrow (0.5 Sv), and depression of reproductive capability (temporary sterility of testes ) (0.15 Sv). The LD 50/60 of acute fatality is ∼4 Sv, and fatalities by latent

  13. Severe accidents at nuclear power plants. Their risk assessment and accident management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abe, Kiyoharu.

    1995-05-01

    This document is to explain the severe accident issues. Severe Accidents are defined as accidents which are far beyond the design basis and result in severe damage of the core. Accidents at Three Mild Island in USA and at Chernobyl in former Soviet Union are examples of severe accidents. The causes and progressions of the accidents as well as the actions taken are described. Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) is a method to estimate the risk of severe accidents at nuclear reactors. The methodology for PSA is briefly described and current status on its application to safety related issues is introduced. The acceptability of the risks which inherently accompany every technology is then discussed. Finally, provision of accident management in Japan is introduced, including the description of accident management measures proposed for BWRs and PWRs. (author)

  14. Effects of urban sprawl and vehicle miles traveled on traffic fatalities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeo, Jiho; Park, Sungjin; Jang, Kitae

    2015-01-01

    Previous research suggests that urban sprawl increases auto-dependency and that excessive auto use increases the risk of traffic fatalities. This indirect effect of urban sprawl on traffic fatalities is compared to non-vehicle miles traveled (VMT)-related direct effect of sprawl on fatalities. We conducted a path analysis to examine the causal linkages among urban sprawl, VMT, traffic fatalities, income, and fuel cost. The path diagram includes 2 major linkages: the direct relationship between urban sprawl and traffic fatalities and the indirect effect on fatalities through increased VMT in sprawling urban areas. To measure the relative strength of these causal linkages, path coefficients are estimated using data collected nationally from 147 urbanized areas in the United States. Through both direct and indirect paths, urban sprawl is associated with greater numbers of traffic fatalities, but the direct effect of sprawl on fatalities is more influential than the indirect effect. Enhancing traffic safety can be achieved by impeding urban sprawl and encouraging compact development. On the other hand, policy tools reducing VMT may be less effective than anticipated for traffic safety.

  15. Analysis of multiple failure accident scenarios for development of probabilistic safety assessment model for KALIMER-600

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, T.W.; Suk, S.D.; Chang, W.P.; Kwon, Y.M.; Jeong, H.Y.; Lee, Y.B.; Ha, K.S.; Kim, S.J.

    2009-01-01

    A sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), KALIMER-600, is under development at KAERI. Its fuel is the metal fuel of U-TRU-Zr and it uses sodium as coolant. Its advantages are found in the aspects of an excellent uranium resource utilization, inherent safety features, and nonproliferation. The probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) will be one of the initiating subjects for designing it from the aspects of a risk informed design (RID) as well as a technology-neutral licensing (TNL). The core damage is defined as coolant voiding, fuel melting, or cladding damage. Accident scenarios which lead to the core damage should be identified for the development of a Level-1 PSA model. The SSC-K computer code is used to identify the conditions which lead to core damage. KALIMER-600 has passive safety features such as passive shutdown functions, passive pump coast-down features, and passive decay heat removal systems. It has inherent reactivity feedback effects such as Doppler, sodium void, core axial expansion, control rod axial expansion, core radial expansion, etc. The accidents which are analyzed are the multiple failure accidents such as an unprotected transient overpower, a loss of flow, and a loss of heat sink events with degraded safety systems or functions. The safety functions to be considered here are a reactor trip, inherent reactivity feedback features, the pump coast-down, and the passive decay heat removal. (author)

  16. Current statistical tools, systems and bodies concerned with safety and accident statistics.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koornstra, M.J.

    1996-01-01

    There are a wide range of differences in the methods used nationally to classify and record road accidents. The current use of road safety information systems and the few systems available for international use are discussed. Recommendations are made for a more efficient, less costly, and improved

  17. The development of an inherent safety approach to the prevention of domino accidents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cozzani, Valerio; Tugnoli, Alessandro; Salzano, Ernesto

    2009-11-01

    The severity of industrial accidents in which a domino effect takes place is well known in the chemical and process industry. The application of an inherent safety approach for the prevention of escalation events leading to domino accidents was explored in the present study. Reference primary scenarios were analyzed and escalation vectors were defined. Inherent safety distances were defined and proposed as a metric to express the intensity of the escalation vectors. Simple rules of thumb were presented for a preliminary screening of these distances. Swift reference indices for layout screening with respect to escalation hazard were also defined. Two case studies derived from existing layouts of oil refineries were selected to understand the potentialities coming from the application in the methodology. The results evidenced that the approach allows a first comparative assessment of the actual domino hazard in a layout, and the identification of critical primary units with respect to escalation events. The methodology developed also represents a useful screening tool to identify were to dedicate major efforts in the design of add-on measures, optimizing conventional passive and active measures for the prevention of severe domino accidents.

  18. A statistical description of the types and severities of accidents involving tractor semi-trailers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clauss, D.B.; Wilson, R.K.; Blower, D.F.; Campbell, K.L.

    1994-06-01

    This report provides a statistical description of the types and severities of tractor semi-trailer accidents involving at least one fatality. The data were developed for use in risk assessments of hazardous materials transportation. Several accident databases were reviewed to determine their suitability to the task. The TIFA (Trucks Involved in Fatal Accidents) database created at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute was extensively utilized. Supplementary data on collision and fire severity, which was not available in the TIFA database, were obtained by reviewing police reports for selected TIFA accidents. The results are described in terms of frequencies of different accident types and cumulative distribution functions for the peak contact velocity, rollover skid distance, fire temperature, fire size, fire separation, and fire duration

  19. The relationship between the implementation of voluntary Five-Star occupational health and safety management system and the incidence of fatal and permanently disabling injury

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hedlund, Frank Huess

    2014-01-01

    This paper examines two properties of the South African NOSA 5-Star System, a voluntary occupational health and safety (OHS) management system. The first property is the association between system implementation and final OHS outcomes measured as incidence rates of fatal and permanently disabling...... of their positive impact on OHS. It is clear though, that such systems cannot substitute authority enforcement activities.......This paper examines two properties of the South African NOSA 5-Star System, a voluntary occupational health and safety (OHS) management system. The first property is the association between system implementation and final OHS outcomes measured as incidence rates of fatal and permanently disabling...... injury. The second is the association between the Star audit rating and rates of serious occupational injury. Although there are many uncertainties involved the paper argues that companies committed to the NOSA system experienced fewer fatal and permanently disabling injuries than the general...

  20. Summary of the consequences for safety which result from the Three-Mile-Island accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smidt, D.

    1982-01-01

    The paper focusses on the Three-Mile-Island (TMI) accident in terms of reactor safety, and describes the first stage of the event's course (the first 2 hours and 18 minutes), the second stage (up to 16 hours after accident onset) and the stage till ultimate transition to stationary cooling. Conclusions are drawn for plant design and control room concepts. In conclusion, problems of staff training for critical situations are discussed. (HAG) [de