The Failure Route between Active and Latent Error in Bus Accident

Xianyong Zhang,Qingjun Zuo,Ruilin Wu,Zhixin Tang,Jianlan Zhou,Wenwu Hu

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2949858

Abstract

It is imperative to examine the differences between active and latent errors in bus accidents. This research aims to study and assess human factors to determine the impact of behavior has in this domain. For this research we examine a set of 452 bus accident investigation reports. Nine evaluators were invited to assess human factors using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework. The inter-evaluator reliability is assessed using the Krippendorff’s coefficient. Interdependencies between adjacent horizontal factors and the statistics for human factors were analyzed using odds ratios and lambda and chi-square methods. There are twenty-one significant associations between human factors and the adjacent levels of HFACS. Among them, organizational process and inadequate supervision, inadequate supervision and personal readiness, and personal readiness and violations appear to be the most significant. The four most significant HFACS factors are organizational process, personal readiness, inadequate supervision, and violations. These together form a route of failure. The active error of violations is closely related to the latent errors organizational process, inadequate supervision and personal readiness. Efforts to reduce the incidence of these three errors will significantly decrease the rate of bus-related accidents.

Highlights

Transportation by bus is typically regarded as a safe way for people to travel
It is well understood that latent errors can lead to active errors [4], and it is of great importance to explore the interdependencies between these types of errors
There is a fact that the experts have reached a consensus in identifying and classifying the causes of accidents, and the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) structure is highly compatible with bus accidents

Summary

Introduction

Transportation by bus is typically regarded as a safe way for people to travel. When accidents occur there is a significant cost in terms of property loss and personal injury. For accidents that result in fatalities, events such as this are far from negligible [1]. In the interest of mitigating such loss, there has been a push towards enhancing bus safety in various parts of the world [2]. The majority of bus-related accidents are caused by both active and latent errors [3]. It is well understood that latent errors can lead to active errors [4], and it is of great importance to explore the interdependencies between these types of errors

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion