Why Do We Need Safety Engineering

In 1995, the Air Route TrafQc Control Center, Fremont, CaUfomia, lost power, causing radar screens covering Northern California, Western Nevada, and 18 million square miles of Padlic Ocean to go dark for 34 min while 70 planes were in the air, almost resulting in two separate midair collisions. In another incident, a worker in downtown Chicago cut into a cable and brought down the entire Air Route Traffic Control Systan for thousands of square miles. 

Some of these accidents occurred many years ago. Some of them occurred recently. Many of the accidents crossed international borders and affected millions of people in other countries. Many more did not extend beyond national borders but still affected a great number of people. And some of the accidents did not kiU anyone. 

We all know how quickly technology is changing as engineers, it is difficult just to keep up. As technology advances by leaps and bounds, and business competition heats up with the globalization of the economy, turnaround time from product design to market launch is shrinking dramatically. The problem quickly becomes evident 

How do we build products with high quality, cheaply, quickly, and still safely Bnt also, we have to ask, how do governments protect the public and regulate industry without negatively impacting competitiveness or the national economy  

So how do engineers design, build, and operate systems safely if they have never really been prepared for it And, to make matters worse, engineers are now more frequently called to testify in court about failures in their designs. And how do governments protect the public without damaging the economy or national competitiveness It almost seems that these ends are mutually exclusive. But they are not. 

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