Accident rates

Risk indices are usually single-number estimates, which may be used to compare one risk with another or used in an absolute sense compared to a specific target. For risks to employees the fatal accident rate (FAR) is a commonly apphed measure. The FAR is a singlenumber index, which is the expected number of fatalities from a specific event based on 10 exposure hours. For workers in a chemical plant, the FAR could be calculated as follows ... 

Another approach is to use government and private mortality and injury statistics. Calculated absolute risk estimates (the probability per year of a worker being injured or killed) can be compared to those de facto worker risk standards. For example, in the United Kingdom, industry and government alike are using the fatal accident rate (FAR, see Glos-... 

Concern Specific effects, therefore increased costs, accident rate reduced productivity Decreased well-being Non-specific respiratory troubles Irritation of eyes, nose and throat Damage to property and vegetation Injury to animals Decrease in amenity Long-term ecological effects... 

Barges may have fewer accidents than tank trucks, but the severity of a major release from a barge may be great enough to make the higher potential accident rate with tank truck shipments the better choice. 

Provide employee accident experience for the past 5 years, including the current year. The submittal shall specifically include OSHA recordable cases rate, lost and restricted workday cases rate, vehicle accident rate, and number of fatalities with a description of each. The workers compensation interstate experience modification rate should be less than 1.0, and applicable SIC codes should be noted. 

NOTE Contractors unable to meet host organization requirements for accident rates or experience modification rates may submit a written safety enhancement program designed to bring project performance in line with host organization requirements which will be implemented for all work done for the host organization. If approved by the host organization health and safety professional, the safety enhancement plan will become part of the contractor s job-specific safety plan and the contractor may be approved. 

After many years of improvements in technical safety methods and process design, many orgaruzations have found that accident rates, process plant losses and profitability have reached a plateau beyond which further improvements seem impossible to achieve. Another finding is that even in orgarriza-tions with good general safety records, occasional large scale disasters occur which shake public confidence in the chemical process industry. The common... 

The question of the effectiveness of motivational campaigns is not easy to answer. The obvious method would be to look at accident rates. However, recorded accident rates vary widely according to the propensity to report or not report events. 

This increase in productivity is accounted for partly by a decrease in absenteeism and accidents as well as a general increase in working efficiency. For example, Vernon (1918), found that when women in a munitions factory worked a 12-hour day they incurred 2.5 times more accidents than when they worked a 10-hour day. One of the more comprehensive studies of the effects of total hours of work was carried out after World War II by the U.S. Department of Labor (Kossoris and Kohler, 1947). This covered over 3500 men and women in 78 work units. Data were collected on accidents and absenteeism as well as productivity. The overall findings were that exceeding the 8-hour work day, 5 days/40 hours work week resulted in lower productivity and higher absenteeism and accident rates. 

The somewhat controversial theory of risk homeostasis is relevant to a discussion of risk taking. RHT was developed initially in the area of driving behavior (Wilde, 1984). The theory states that accident rates are not determined by actual levels of intrinsic risk but by the levels of risk acceptable to individuals in the situation. The theory implies that people adjust their risk-taking behavior to maintain a constant level of perceived risk. Thus, if improved safety measures are introduced (e.g., better guarding, improved protection systems then individuals will behave in a more risky fashion in order to maintain their accustomed levels of risk. 

Some measures of PSM and ESH performance are easy to identify, establish and track. These include accident rates, effluent tonnages and composition and number of days lost to illness. Almost all of these traditional performance measures are end-of-pipe that is, they measure the output of the management system and allow corrective action only after a failure has occurred. The ideal measurement system identifies potential problems ahead of actual failure allowing corrective action to be taken. This requires using techniques such as audits and hazard assessments. 

Fatal accident rate Lost-time injury rate Capital cost of accidents Number of plant/community evacuations Cost of business interruption Cost of workers compensation claims Number of hazardous material spills (in excess of a threshold) Tonnage of hazardous material spilled Tonnage of air, water, liquid and solid effluent Tonnage of polluting materials released into the environment Employee exposure monitoring Number of work related sickness claims Number of regulatory citations and fines Ecological impact of operations (loss or restoration of biodiversity, species, habitats)... 

Equivalent Social Cost index Fatal accident rate (discussed in Section 18.5) ... 

One of the most popular risk policies employed by industry is tlie FAR Concept (Fatal Accident Rate). FAR represents Uie nmiiber of fatal accidents per 1,000 workers in a working lifetime (10 lu-), where a working lifetime is assumed to be approximately lO lu-s. An acceptable FAR (by industries standards) is 4.0. Tliis is made up of ... 

Calculate tlie Fatal Accident Rate (FAR) for the first kind of accident. 

The Fatal Accident Rate (FAR) is tlie nmiiber of fatal accidents per 1,000 workers in a working lifetime (10 lir). A responsible chemical company typically displays a FAR equal to 2 for chemical process risks such as fires, tovic releases or spillage of corrosive chemicals. Identify potential problem areas tliat may develop for a company if acceptable FAR numbers are e.vceeded. 

Dedicated facilities are often cited for safety purposes, but this, too, is not a simple truth. Most accidents occur at intersections, and dedicated facilities make intersections far more complex. When the Netherlands allowed their moped riders to travel in the auto lanes instead of the bike lanes, the moped accident rate fell by an astounding 70 percent. The bicycle accident rate would be higher if bicyclists tried to ride at brisk speed m these separated bike lanes. The sub-lO-mph speeds that are considered polite in these countries largely allow bicyclists to compensate for the facilities shortcomings, at the expense of travel time. 

The most frequent cause of damage and even explosion in boilers is a low-water condition. This will expose the heating surfaces, which ultimately overheat and rupture under the operating pressure. Experience has shown that since the introduction of controls for unattended automatic operation of boilers the accident rate has increased. Investigation invariably shows that lack of maintenance has been the main contributing factor. It is therefore imperative that personnel responsible for the running of the boiler plant be fully trained and conversant with its safe operation. 

Only the accidents rated with 5 stars (most complete information) are used for this research. In total 260 accidents were shown as 5-star accidents. From these 260 accidents, 91 occurred between 1995 and 2002. In these 91 accidents, 21 accidents involved transport by road, water, rail, or air. As those accidents did not impact on the chemical process industry they were excluded from the analysis. The 70 remaining accidents were distributed all over the world as can be seen from Figure 12. Please note that this figure does not represent the geographical distribution of all accidents in the world, it merely represents a sub selection of FACTS accidents. 

Fatality Accident Rates (FAR) or Potential Loss of Life (PLL) - A mathematical estimation of the level of fatalities that may occur at a location or facility due to the nature of work being performed and protection measures provided, may be calculated at an annual rate or for the life of the project. 

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