About accident report recommendations

In the United States in 1996, Wu and Yan-Go (31) also reported a higher accident rate in patients with OS AS. The best predictors for car accidents were falling asleep at the wheel and driving past destinations. This driving risk appeared so important that the American Thoracic Society published recommendations about driving safety among apneic subjects (32). 

The principal role of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is investigating accidents to identify the conditions and circumstances that led to the events. It also investigates hazardous conditions that could lead to accidents. The agency uses root cause analysis and other methods to identify causes to prevent events. It makes recommendations to government agencies, companies, trade associations, labor unions, and other groups. It publishes reports and offers DVDs about cases it investigates. 

The King s Cross report made 157 recommendations and the Clapham Junction Inquiry resulted in 93 recommendations. These covered a wide range of issues such as those addressing the immediate cause of the accident recommendations to improve the response of the railway companies staff, training, communications, and management of safety and recommendations about the role of the Railway Inspectorate. I want to focus briefly on the Clapham recommendations as it is these which are most pertinent for this study. They are particularly interesting as they are another source of information about occupational health and safety on BR and one which was contemporaneous with this study. 

Safety case regulation modelled on the Seveso directives has been developing in Australia in recent years. From about 1995 Australian offshore petroleum production has been subject to a safety case requirement, while on shore, a major federal government report in 1996 recommended that the Australian states should introduce safety case requirements for major hazard facilities (NOHSC, 1996). Little progress had been made in implementing this recommendation by the time of the accident at the Esso Longford gas plant in Victoria in 1998. A Royal Commission of inquiry into this accident recommended the implementation of a safety case regime for major hazard... 

In one report of a serious diazomethane explosion, an investigation into the accident concluded that a static charge had built up on the chemist s polyester-and-cotton lab coat when the chemist had walked about in the laboratory just prior to pouring a 3% diazomethane solution. When the solution was poured, a spark may have discharged and initiated the explosion [27], The use of all-cotton lab coats was recommended at that time. However, today polyester and other synthetics are so generally worn that other measures to prevent static discharge will have to be found. 

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