Exploring the organisational preconditions for occupational accidents in food industry: A qualitative approach

The continuing high frequency of occupational accidents in the Swedish food industry calls for new approaches to better understand the underlying factors. In the present study, 54 accidents involving hand injuries were investigated from the operators’ perspective, to explore the organisational preconditions. In-depth interviews were conducted with operators and their supervisors, and 24 of these interviews were analysed using the grounded theory method. The core category ‘safety as a process’ was identified encompassing the perception of the process of the accident at operative level and organisational preconditions that increased the risk of occupational accidents. These preconditions were open factors: deficiencies in technical/physical environment and work organisation; and concealed factors: insufficient communication and learning, a high level of responsibility in combination with low control, conflicting goals and a gap between procedures and practice. These preconditions lead to risk acceptance, resignation towards improved safety and normalisation of risk. Through the analysis a five-step hypothesis was empirically generated.     

Under-Reporting of Accidents Involving Biological Material by Nursing Professionals at a Brazilian Emergency Hospital

Background. Pathogens can be transmitted to health professionals after contact with biological material. The exact number of infections deriving from these events is still unknown, due to the lack of systematic surveillance data and under-reporting. Methods. A cross-sectional study was carried out, involving 451 nursing professionals from a Brazilian tertiary emergency hospital between April and July 2009. Through an active search, cases of under-reporting of occupational accidents with biological material by the nursing team were identified by means of individual interviews. The Institutional Review Board approved the research project. Results. Over half of the professionals (237) had been victims of one or more accidents (425 in total) involving biological material, and 23.76% of the accidents had not been officially reported using an occupational accident report. Among the under-reported accidents, 53.47% were percutaneous and 67.33% were bloodborne. The main reason for nonreporting was that the accident had been considered low risk. Conclusions. The under-reporting rate (23.76%) was low in comparison with other studies, but most cases of exposure were high risk.     

Road traffic accident severity analysis: A census-based study in China

Background: In China, despite the decrease in average road traffic fatalities per capita, the fatality rate and injury rate have been increasing until 2015. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the road traffic accident severity in China from a macro viewpoint and various aspects and illuminate several key causal factors. From these analyses, we propose possible countermeasures to reduce accident severity. Method: The severity of traffic accidents is measured by human damage (HD) and case fatality rate (CFR). Different categorizations of national road traffic census data are analyzed to evaluate the severity of different types of accidents and further to demonstrate the key factors that contribute to the increase in accident severity. Regional data from selected major municipalities and provinces are also compared with national traffic census data to verify data consistency. Results: From 2000 to 2016, the overall CFR and HD of road accidents in China have increased by 19.0% and 63.7%, respectively. In 2016, CFR of freight vehicles is 33.5% higher than average; late-night accidents are more fatal than those that occur at other periods. The speeding issue is severely becoming worse. In 2000, its CFR is only 5.3% higher than average, while in 2016, the number is 42.0%. Conclusion and practical implementation: A growing trend of accident severity was found to be contrasting to the decline of road traffic accidents. From the analysis of casual factors, it was confirmed that the release way of the impact energy and the protection worn by the victims are key variables contributing to the severity of road traffic accidents.     

An algorithm for assessing the risk of traffic accident

INTRODUCTION: This study is aimed at developing an algorithm to estimate the number of traffic accidents and assess the risk of traffic accidents in a study area. METHOD: The algorithm involves a combination of mapping technique (Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques) and statistical methods (cluster analysis and regression analysis). Geographical Information System is used to locate accidents on a digital map and realize their distribution. Cluster analysis is used to group the homogeneous data together. Regression analysis is performed to realize the relation between the number of accident events and the potential causal factors. Negative binomial regression model is found to be an appropriate mathematical form to mimic this relation. Accident risk of the area, derived from historical accident records and causal factors, is also determined in the algorithm. The risk is computed using the Empirical Bayes (EB) approach. A case study of Hong Kong is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. RESULTS: The results show that the algorithm improves accident risk estimation when comparing to the estimated risk based on only the historical accident records. The algorithm is found to be more efficient, especially in the case of fatality and pedestrian-related accident analysis. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The output of the proposed algorithm can help authorities effectively identify areas with high accident risk. In addition, it can serve as a reference for town planners considering road safety.     

Driving circumstances and accidents among novice drivers

OBJECTIVE: The study evaluated the accident risk of certain driving circumstances and driving motives among novice drivers. METHODS: Self-reported exposure and accidents according to driving circumstances and driving motives were compared between young (n = 6,847) and middle-aged (n = 942) male and female novice drivers. For young drivers, self-reported accidents were further compared to fatal accidents (n = 645) in terms of the driving conditions in which they occurred. The survey was conducted in 2002 and the questions regarding the quantity and quality of driving exposure and accidents covered the first four years of the novice drivers' driving career after licensing. Data on fatal accidents related to the period of 1990 to 2000. RESULTS: Leisure-time driving, driving just for fun, and driving with passengers and during evenings and at night was more typical for young drivers than for middle-aged drivers. For middle-aged drivers, the most typical driving was driving to or from work. Driving on errands was more typical for females than males. Nighttime driving was overrepresented in young drivers' self-reported and fatal accidents, compared to the share of young drivers' driving at night. Slippery road conditions were over-represented in young male drivers' self-reported accidents, but not in their fatal accidents, whereas for young females slippery road conditions seemed to increase the propensity of fatal accidents. CONCLUSIONS: The study concluded that some driving conditions increase the risk of certain types of accidents among certain driver groups, but not among all drivers. For example, slippery road conditions were overrepresented in young male drivers' minor (self-reported) accidents, but not in their fatal accidents. For young female drivers slippery road conditions seem to increase the propensity of fatal accidents. Driving circumstances are different in minor (self-reported) and fatal accidents. When drawing conclusions regarding accident risk, it is important to determine the seriousness of the accidents which take place.     

Work-Related Accidents Among Young Workers in Finland

The aim of this study was to discover accident factors specific to young workers, using two accident data sets gathered at the same time but with different methods. The first data set consisted of 99 serious occupational accidents, which occured in Southern Finland in 1988 and 1989. The second data set was based on the interview study of over 13,000 people of whom 792 were involved in an accident at work. Both data sets showed consistently that the accident frequency of young workers was higher than that of older workers. The accidents of young workers, however, were less severe. Young accident victims hurt themselves more often when feeding or cleaning machines. Incautiousness contributed more often to accidents of young workers. In order to prevent occupational accidents of young workers, companies should introduce training programmes for new employees.     

The role of behavioral factors on safety management in underground mines

Traditional approaches on the prevention of accidents/injuries in mines reached its limit of effectiveness in improving safety performance and a fresh approach is utmost required. Behavioral safety analysis has been identified as an effective alternative in many industries. This paper is therefore sought to examine the role of behavioral factors on the occurrence of mine accidents and injuries through a case study. Data were collected from two neighboring underground coalmines operating under a large public sector organization of India. High–low plots and t-test were done to explore the differences between behavioral characteristics of accident involved (case) and non-involved (control) workers. How these differences could cause accidents/injuries in mines was estimated through structural equation modeling. The case study results show that accident group of workers (cases) are more job dissatisfied, negatively affected, and highly risk taking compared to the non-accident group of workers (controls). The accident model path analysis shows that negative affectivity, job dissatisfaction, and risk taking behaviors predict an increased number of injuries in mines. Apart from direct influences to work injuries, negative affectivity and job dissatisfaction make workers to take more risks and behave unsafely. These findings contribute to the design of safety programs including safety training, which should be behaviorally motivated. Mine safety management of the case study mines should outskirt their age old belief that accidents/injuries are due to hazardous nature of mining and only engineering control and regulatory monitoring are sufficient for improving safety of the mines. The multivariate analysis also shows that experience bears no relationships with work injury indicating that a less experienced worker is equally likely to be injured as an experienced worker. It implies that experience though helps workers in understanding the physical hazards, however, avoiding the imminent danger is much more behavioral. The variables negative affectivity, job dissatisfaction, and risk taking behaviors are therefore crucial in avoiding accident/injuries in mines.     

Fatal workplace accidents in outsourced operations in the manufacturing industry

Several studies have indicated that outsourcing increases the risk of accidents and presented some explanations for this phenomenon. For example, higher accident proneness of external employees has been presented, but the common causes of accidents have not been reviewed in depth. This paper provides information about typical accidents, the contributing factors, and preventive measures of fatal occupational accidents that occurred in outsourced manufacturing tasks. This paper also compares whether these factors differ from accidents that occurred when tasks were performed in-house in the manufacturing industry. The focus is on operations executed in the factory area for or by an organization operating in the manufacturing business. The accident analysis is based on information gathered from accident reports for fatal workplace accidents that occurred in Finland during 1999–2008. At outsourced operations in manufacturing, accidents occur most commonly when installations or work preparations are being performed. According to the reports, dangerous work practices and insufficient hazard identification most frequently contributed to accidents. In order to prevent typical accidents, e.g., occupational instructional and guidance, hazard identification, work practices, supervision, and task planning should be improved. Statistical differences between outsourced and in-house operations were also found, mainly within the contributing factors. Therefore, the safety of outsourced manufacturing operations should be considered in detail in order to prevent accidents and ensure occupational safety also when operated with other performers.     

基于半定量的FRAM道路危险品运输事故分析方法研究*

为弥补事故分析法在道路危险品运输事故致因研究方面的缺失,解决传统事故分析方法分析结果不全面、防控措施不具体且针对性较差的问题,引入半定量功能共振事故模型（FRAM）,通过定量化功能上下游耦合变异性,阐述事故发生机理同时,找到系统关键功能和关键链路,制定防控措施重点监控。结果表明:基于半定量的FRAM道路危险品运输事故分析方法能够更快、更准确地找出事故发生的关键功能和关键链路,制定针对性防控措施,有效提高道路危险品运输系统安全性。研究结果可为道路事故分析提供参考。     

Applying Hierarchical Loglinear Models to Nonfatal Underground Coal Mine Accidents for Safety Management

Underground mining is considered to be one of the most dangerous industries and mining remains the most hazardous occupation. Categorical analysis of accident records may present valuable information for preventing accidents. In this study, hierarchical loglinear analysis was applied to occupational injuries that occurred in an underground coal mine. The main factors affecting the accidents were defined as occupation, area, reason, accident time and part of body affected. By considering subfactors of the main factors, multiway contingency tables were prepared and, thus, the probabilities that might affect nonfatal injuries were investigated. At the end of the study, important accident risk factors and job groups with a high probability of being exposed to those risk factors were determined. This article presents important information on decreasing the number accidents in underground coal mines.     

Differences in the lethality of occupational accidents in OECD countries

International comparisons of the frequency of occupational accidents are rare because figures reported by each country are influenced by factors other than differences in the occurrence of actual accidents. In this study, we performed an international comparison of occupational accidents which distinguishes between fatal cases and all reported accidents, in order to control for the effects of other factors in accident reporting. Annual data on the numbers of fatal and non-fatal occupational accidents in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) between 1993 and 1998 were obtained from the Labour Statistics Database, which is operated by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The average incidence of all accidents across OECD countries ranged from 17 to 4608 per 100,000 persons in the labor force, whereas the incidence of fatal accidents across OECD countries ranged from 1 to 12 per 100,000 persons in the labor force. Lethality rates per 10,000 total accident cases ranged from 9 (Germany) to 3252 (Turkey). When comparing countries using the same statistical definition of accidents, three or more absence days, the difference in lethality of reported accidents within the same industrial sector is reduced to a sixfold difference (49 for the United Kingdom versus 333 for Ireland). Furthermore, the difference in lethality decreased to about twofold (18 for Spain versus 35 for Czech Republic) in the group using definitions with a criteria of one absent day. The results suggest that reported differences in lethality can reflect artificial administrative factors rather than the harmful factors that cause actual occupational accidents. To make more valid comparison of occupational accident between countries, harmonization of accident statistics is required.     

基于贝叶斯网的交通事故机理分析

针对道路交通事故的形成机理进行定性、定量研究,根据我国道路交通事故记录数据特征,应用贝叶斯网对事故发生概率进行定量分析.引入"驾驶员紧张度"和"道路线形合理度"两个隐节点,建立了事故分析的贝叶斯网多层隐类模型,采用最大似然估计方法确定了模型的边缘概率和条件概率.将贝叶斯网模型应用于国道104二级公路(K1310+000～K1330+000)的事故分析中,运用贝叶斯网分析软件包Netica对其历史事故记录数据进行分析.结果表明: 贝叶斯网不仅可以定量计算某种道路交通状态下的事故发生概率,而且可以找出影响事故概率的关键原因和最不利状态组合(事故概率最大时的道路交通状态).     

基于孕灾环境的沿海城市安全生产风险评价指标体系研究

针对沿海城市安全生产事故孕灾环境体系的构建问题,将孕灾环境理论拓展到安全生产事故,全面分析沿海城市的安全生产事故孕灾环境因素,建立沿海城市安全生产风险评价指标体系。通过相关性分析,剔除信息重复指标,保留包括自然因素、技术因素、人类因素在内的27个指标,并以某沿海县为例进行实例探讨。结果表明:该县各区域安全生产风险等级总体处于中等到中下段,风险分布从中心城区向外呈辐射递减趋势,并且沿海区高于内陆,这是由于沿海地区大力发展港口工业的结果,该评价对于沿海城市安全生产事故风险评价具有一定的参考价值。     

Research on the prediction model of hazardous chemical road transportation accidents

In recent years, hazardous chemicals road transport accidents have occurred frequently, causing huge casualties and property losses, and accident risk assessment has become the focus of researchers' research. To predict the risk probability value of hazardous chemical road transport accidents, first, we compiled data on road transportation accidents of hazardous chemicals in China in the past five years. And the nine nodes in the Bayesian network (BN) structure were defined in combination with relevant classification standards. The optimal Bayesian network structure for hazardous chemical road transport accidents was determined based on the K2 algorithm and the causalities between the nodes. Second, the node conditional probabilities were derived by parameter learning of the model using Netica, and the validity of the model was verified using the 5-fold cross-validation method. Last, the Bayesian network model of hazardous chemical road transport accidents is used to analyze accident examples, and the accident chain of “rear-end-leakage” is predicted, and the accident is most likely to be disposed of within 3–9 h. The study shows that the derived accident prediction model for hazardous chemical road transportation can reason reasonably about the evolution of accident scenarios and determine the probability values of accident risks under different parameter conditions.     

Personal exposure risk factors in pedestrian accidents in Bahrain

Pedestrians are involved in traffic accidents due to many reasons. It is generally thought that personal background of pedestrians has an effect on their involvement rate in the road traffic accidents. Identifying these characteristics would lead to a better understanding of pedestrian accident pattern so that the resources in the field of education, engineering, and enforcement could be used in better ways. This study attempts to test the hypothesis mentioned earlier. The investigated personal background includes the following characteristics: gender, type, age, nationality, and educational background. The data was reduced from vast number of pedestrian injury accident reports in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The actual accident records were categorized according to these characteristics and compared to their exposure risk. It was assumed that the exposure risk, which is the expected number of accidents for each category of the pedestrians, was in proportion to their presence in the pedestrian population. Another study was carried out in parallel to observe the pedestrian characteristics in Bahrain. The results of the two studies were analyzed statistically using Chi-square method to compare the actual to the expected accident frequencies. The whole Kingdom of Bahrain population statistics were used wherever the information on the pedestrian population was not available. The findings revealed that personal characteristics considered in this study have significant influence on pedestrian’s involvement in traffic accidents. The results also showed that pedestrians with the following characteristics were probably showing risk to exposure to accidents more than other categories: male, young (0–12 years) and old (50 years and over), non-local, and those with low educational background.     

基于最优尺度Logit模型的交通事故形态致因分析

为剖析典型交通事故形态致因,在利用最优尺度分析法诊断交通事故形态致因共线性的基础上,筛选关键影响因素,构建无序多分类Logit交通事故致因模型并对模型进行参数标定,并选择100个交通事故样本对模型进行精度验证,该模型相对误差仅为4.0％,能够较为准确地分析典型交通事故形态致因.研究结果表明:路侧及中央隔离设施、照明是事...     

A case study analysis to examine motorcycle crashes in Bogota,Colombia

IntroductionContributory factors to motorcycle crashes vary among populations depending on several aspects such as the users' profiles, the composition and density of traffic, and the infrastructure features. A better understanding of local motorcycle crashes can be reached in those places where a comprehensive analysis is performed. This paper presents the results obtained from a case study analysis of 400 police records of accidents involving motorcycles in Bogota.MethodTo achieve a deeper level of understanding of how these accidents occur, we propose a systemic approach that uses available crash data. The methodology is inspired by accident prototypical scenarios, a tool for analysis developed in France.ResultsWhen grouping cases we identified three categories: solo motorcycle accidents, motorcyclist and pedestrian accidents, and accidents involving a motorcycle and another vehicle. Within these categories we undertook in-depth analyses of 32 groups of accidents obtaining valuable information to better comprehend motorcyclists' road crashes in a local context. Recurrent contributory factors in the groups of accidents include: inexperienced motorcyclists, wide urban roads that incite speeding and risky overtaking maneuvers, flowing urban roads that encourage high speed and increased interaction between vehicles, and lack of infrastructure maintenance.Practical ApplicationsThe results obtained are a valuable asset to define measures that will be conveniently adapted to the group of accident on which we want to act. The methodology exposed in this paper is applicable to the study of road crashes that involve all types of actors, not only the motorcyclists, and in contexts different than those presented in Bogota.     

Driver Fatigue and Road Safety on Poland’s National Roads

This paper presents an overview of factors causing driver fatigue as described in the literature. Next, a traffic crash database for 2003–2007 is used to identify the causes, circumstances and consequences of accidents caused by driver fatigue on Poland’s national roads. The results of the study were used to build a model showing the relationship between the concentration of road accidents and casualties, and the time of day. Finally, the level of relative accident risk at night-time versus daytime is defined. A map shows the risk of death and severe injury on the network of Poland’s national roads. The paper suggests to road authorities steps to reduce fatigue-related road accidents in Poland.