ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN

There were 114 people killed and almost 200 others injured, and it was estimated that approximately half of Kansas City s population was directly or indirectly touched by the tragedy. Survivors everywhere wondered how such a terrible thing could have happened, and the national news media covered the incident intensely for several days. But soon the story was driven off the front page and received less and less notice, except in the Kansas City newspapers, which of course had a more immediate interest in the story. The newspapers engaged consulting engineers to review the evidence and advise their readers of the causes of the accident, and 

In the modified connection system, one support rod extended from the ceiling through holes in the top walkway s beam, which rested on a washer and nut threaded onto the end of the rod. Through another set of holes a few inches toward the inside of the upper walkway, a second rod was hung down, prevented from being pulled through by another washer and nut, and a lower walkway beam was supported from this rod in the same way the upper one was from the upper rod. This was certainly an easier way of assembling the skywalks, for it is a much more familiar task 

There were apparently several incidents during construction of 

Within a month of the letters pondering the Hyatt Puzzle of putting a nut fifteen feet up a rod, a second volley of letters 

The letters to the editor and many editorials and articles in the pages of professional engineering publications inspired by the Hyatt Regency accident suggested that it would not have happened were experienced designers and detailers involved. They 

---

This is a good example of an accident waiting to happen. Sooner or later the check valve was bound to fail, and a spillage was then inevitable. 

Policy makers, practitioners, and scholars from a variety of disciplines have recently embraced a new approach to risk reduction in health care—a "systems approach"—without proposing any specific reforms of medical liability law. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) placed its imprimatur on this approach in its recent reports (Kohn et al., 2000 IOM, 2001). In its simplest form, a systems approach to risk reduction in health care posits that an injury to a patient is often the manifestation of a latent error in the system of providing care. In other words, a medical mishap is the proverbial "accident waiting to happen" because the injury-preventing tools currently deployed, including medical liability law, are aimed at finding the individuals at fault rather than the systemic causes of error. Coexistence of a systems approach to error reduction and medical liability law as a conceptual framework for policy makers implies that the latter is likely to evolve in an incremental fashion as the former makes more visible different aspects of the medical error problem. 

Identify possible indicators that could signal that there was an accident waiting to happen based on a theoretical imderstanding of the root causes and the chain of events... 

Near Miss Medical Accident (Good Catch/Accident Waiting to Happen). Any... 

Vehicle maintenance Some experts indicate that about 90% of accident investigations reveal that a human serves as one of the primary causes. Proper vehicle maintenance and documentation is critical. Drivers must use a vehicle inspection checkhst and do a daily inspection. Fleet repair shops must employ qualified mechanics that conduct periodic maintenance. Drivers can perform only as good as their equipment. Poorly maintained equipment is an accident waiting to happen. 

It is critical that everyone knows the exact same procedures and are performing them the same, otherwise the program is ineffective and an accident waiting to happen. 

It s important that your employees do housekeeping on a daily basis. Leaving waste and trash laying around for three or four days is an accident waiting to happen. Workers should pick up after themselves at the end of each shift. The consequences for failing to do this could be foot puncture woiinds, cuts and bruises on the legs, and even broken arms, ankles, or collar bones. 

Why do people behave as they do What makes them tick Some people never seem to have a problem. Others seem to be accidents waiting to happen. Some get along with everyone. Others are impossible to deal with. Some days we feel good and enjoy family, work, and life. Some days we do not feel good and become irritable to everyone. 

Using the comment data will allow site personnel to target areas of improvement and demonstrate to workers that their input is critical and an important component of the program. If at-risk behaviors are occurring in certain areas, then this is an accident waiting to happen. If there are barriers to safe performance, then continuous improvement is deterred. The most common barriers to safe performance are... 

Baumann J, Orum P. Accidents waiting to happen hazardous chemicals in the U.S. fifteen years after bhopal. U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Working Group on Community Right-to-Know 1999. 

February 1 STS-107 Columbia disaster. NASA finds other accidents waiting to happen ... 

The Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003. While tracing the causes of the accident, the CAIB investigation revealed several other accidents waiting to happen. More recently, it was found that the shuttles have flown for decades with a potentially fatal flaw in the speed brakes (Leary, 2004). 

O Keefe shifts money from the space iaunch initiative to the space shuttle and ISS programs. Cancelled safety upgrades. STS-107 - Columbia disaster. Findings of other accidents waiting to happen. ... 

Then, look at the driver s ability to follow traffic regulations. This is also important because repeat regulation violators are just accidents waiting to happen. If you have such individuals driving for your company, it can be a public relations liability. 

Brooks, D.R. and Ferrao, A. (2005) The historical biogeography of co-evolution Emerging infectious diseases are evolutionary accidents waiting to happen. Journal of Biogeo g raphy, 32 1291-1299. 

For example, factors that may have led to a failure to cany out a risk assessment may exist in other parts of the operation, with the result that there is a catalogue of other accidents, waiting to happen. It is possible that the accident occurred due to a failure in the process at corporate level, in which the potential for similar accidents may exist at other sites. 

---