Transport fatal accidents

The effects of transport on economy, people and on the environment are manifold. They include the consequences of transport accidents and fatalities, nuisance and health effects caused by steady noise exposure, air emissions and the exhaust and resuspension of particles, climate impacts by the emission of greenhouse gases, soil and water contamination, and the deterioration of natural habitats. Moreover, the financial burden of infrastructure provision and the additional travel and production costs caused by congestion should be mentioned but these items are mainly borne by transport users themselves and thus are only partly imposed on society as a whole. Not all of these effects are equally relevant for all means of transport. While accidents constitute the major problem of car travel, the railways definitely face a noise problem and air transport contributes most to the emission of climate gases. 

Webb cited data from the CARfile study of the U.S. Department of Transportation in 1985, which reported 1.4% of total accidents and 1.75% of fatal accidents were directly related to sleepiness (7). Lavie and Pollack studied 13,152 reports by the Israeli Police Department of hourly distribution of sleep-related motor vehicle accidents for 8 years, and found 390 injuries directly attributable to sleepiness (8). A special examiner at the scene assigned the reason for the accident. Lavie reported a highest yearly estimate of 1.0% motor vehicle accidents attributable to sleepiness (personal communication to Webb). 

In 1995, a study by the National Transportation Safety Board on fatal accidents in professional trucks drivers (27) showed that the mean duration of sleep among drivers was below 6 hr of sleep in the last 24 hr before the accident. Connor et al. (8) showed that sleepiness at the wheel increased the risk of causing a traffic accident by 8.2-fold. Sleeping less than 5 hr in the 24 hr before the accident and driving between 2 and 5 a.m. were also significant risk factors for accidents [odds ratio (OR) = 2.7 and OR = 5.6, respectively],... 

In 1990, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) completed a study of 182 fatal-to-the-driver truck accidents to investigate the probable cause of the accidents. While the study was designed under the assumption that most fatal heavy truck crashes may be related to alcohol and other drugs, it was found that the most frequently determined probable cause was fatigue (12). A 1993 analysis of the Fatal Accident Report System (FARS) also suggested that truck driver fatigue is a contributing factor in about 30% of heavy truck accidents. 

Table 5.1 sutmnarizes a number of risk measures defined in the Guidelines for Chemical Process Quantitative Risk Analysis, Second Edition (CCPS, 1989) and illustrates the advantages and disadvantages when used for transportation risk analyses. Since measures such as the fatal accident rate (FAR) are geared toward estimating risk to employees at fixed facilities, this measure has not been included as it does not generally apply to transportation risk analysis. 

Figure 6.1, which is taken from National Transportation Safety Board data, shows the dramatic improvement in airline safety over the past 60 years. The ordinate (y axis) shows the number of fatal accidents per million scheduled departures. In the past 50 years the value has dropped from 2.8 to 0.2. (The data from 2000 to 2005 show a leveling out, which is analogous to the occupational safety rate in the process industries shown in Chapter 1.)... 

As can be seen in any other mode of transportation, accidents do happen involving ships. There seems to be rise in the fatal accidents in recent times, despite technological development. The following Fig. 1 describes the statistics of number of fatalities reported for last decade. As can be seen, although overall trend is towards reduction, there is scope for further improvement with regard to maritime safely. 

Chapter 8 reviews the Finnish investigation procedure for fatal accidents and analyses four actual instances related to the truck transport of hazardous liquids, especially in service operations after the unloading phase. Content analysis is applied to identify the accident factors from the investigation reports, for the purpose of finding prevention measures for future accidents. 

Abstract The aim of this study was to review the Finnish investigation procedme for fatal accidents and to analyse four actual fatal accidents related to the transport of hazardous liquids, especially to service operations after the miloading phase. Content analysis was applied to identify the accident factors from the investigation reports. The accident factors were classified into two main classes, in which the factors related to safety cultore and safely attitudes were discussed. The accident factors were also considered according to five elements of the work system model. Finally, as in the Finnish investigation procedure, the prevention measures of accidents were presented in condensed form. 

In this study, four existing fatal accident at work investigation reports were used. These are generally available on the Internet by FAII (Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions 2014a). AU these four documents are related to transportation of hazardous liquids, and to work tasks which have been carried out after the unloading operation. 

ATSB (Australia Transport Safety Bureau) (2004), General Aviation Fatal Accidents How Do They Happen , A Review of General Aviation Fatal Aecidents 1991 to 2000, Aviation Research Paper B2004/0010, Canberra Australian Transport Safety Bureau. 

Transport Kills A Study of Fatal Accidents in Industry, 1978-1980 (1982)... 

In 2000 commercial air carriers transported 1.1 billion people on 18 million flights but there were only 20 fatal accidents. 

A number of accidents have occurred during chlorine production and transport, which occurs primarily by rail. In a recent fatal accident in January 2005, 9 people died and nearly 600 required medical attention when a chlorine tank ruptured from a train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina (Van Sickle et al., 2009 Jones et al., 2010). However, due to its great utility as a water disinfectant, bleaching agent, and industrial chemical, chlorine continues to be produced, transported, and used in great quantities worldwide, making it a persistently hazardous material (HAZMAT) threat (Jones et al., 2010). 

Matteson, A., D. Blower, D. Hershberger, and J. Woodrooffe. 2005. Buses involved in fatal accidents Fact book 2001. Center for National Truck and Bus Statistics, Transportation Research Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

DfT. 1987. Herald of Free Enterprise Fatal accident investigation. Report No. 8074. United Kingdom Department for Transport, Her Majesty s Stationery Office (HMSO), London. 

The causality of accidents in modern transportation systems may be difficult to determine. Investigations of past accidents and incidents have led to the development of improved system defences, which have significantly reduced the incidence of fatal accidents. When accidents occur they tend to exhibit complex causalities. Reason [1] referred to such accidents in modern well-defended systems as organizational accidents. These accidents are typically multi-faceted, and they may involve unexpected interactions or unforeseen propagation of failures [2]. 

Given the leadmg role which trends in the fatal accident rate played in the hearings which precipitated modern traffic safety policy it is remarkably how little effort has been made within the Department of Transportation to understand fatality trends. The record at NHTSA is dismal. An exchange between the GAO and NHTSA illustrates the agency s recalcitrance toward comprehensive analysis of accident rates, llie GAO reviewed several safety programs and commented on the lack of analysis of fatality rates. The reply from NHTSA was ... 

U. S. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Fatal Accident Reporting System 1984 DOT HS 806 919 (February 1986). Chapter 2, p. 1. 

The majority of the fatal accidents in excavation work occur as a result of men being buried by the collapse of narrow trenches and this aspect of safety is discussed in some detail. However, because of the continuing increase in mechanization of construction work there has been an increase in the number of accidents concerned with transport and mobile plant. Fatalities from these causes increased from 18 in 1968 to 35 in 1969. The accidents included the death or injury of men run down by vehicles, crushed by mobile plant or falling with their vehicles into unguarded excavations. 

When organizations focus on the root causes of worker injuries, it is helpful to analyze the manner in which workplace fatalities occur (see Figure 1-4). Although the emphasis of this book is the prevention of chemical-related accidents, the data in Figure 1-4 show that safety programs need to include training to prevent injuries resulting from transportation, assaults, mechanical and chemical exposures, and fires and explosions. 

The airline industry claims commercial airline transport has fewer deaths per mile than any other means of transportation. Do the accident statistics support this claim In 1984 the airline industry posted 4 deaths per 10,000,000 passenger miles. What additional information is required to compute a FAR a fatality rate ... 

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