Accident Costs Research Articles

Railroad accident analysis using extreme gradient boosting

Railroads are critical to the economic health of a nation. Unfortunately, railroads lose hundreds of millions of dollars from accidents each year. Trends reveal that derailments consistently account for more than 70 % of the U.S. railroad industry’s average annual accident cost. Hence, knowledge of explanatory factors that distinguish derailments from other accident types can inform more cost-effective and impactful railroad risk management strategies. Five feature scoring methods, including ANOVA and Gini, agreed that the top four explanatory factors in accident type prediction were track class, type of movement authority, excess speed, and territory signalization. Among 11 different types of machine learning algorithms, the extreme gradient boosting method was most effective at predicting the accident type with an area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) metric of 89 %. Principle component analysis revealed that relative to other accident types, derailments were more strongly associated with lower track classes, non-signalized territories, and movement authorizations within restricted limits. On average, derailments occurred at 16 kph below the speed limit for the track class whereas other accident types occurred at 32 kph below the speed limit. Railroads can use the integrated data preparation, machine learning, and feature ranking framework presented to gain additional insights for managing risk, based on their unique operating environments.

Identify economic indicators (direct and indirect costs) of occupational accidents

The analysis of HSE events, especially occupational accidents, along with identifying the effective factors on the occurrence of accidents is of crucial importance. The study of events before, during and after their occurrence is one of the requirements of study in accidents field. The present study is aimed to manage direct and indirect accident costs and improve the mechanism of accident management based on critical accident costs in the country. The present study is an analytical study that is a cross-sectional case study in different industries of the country. The statistical population of the research includes experts in oil, gas, petrochemical, cement, steel, power plant and road construction and construction, and university professors related to occupational health, industrial safety, HSE, and finally active professors in crisis management and under emergency conditions. 12 people were selected by theoretical saturation method. This research was conducted during 2018 and 2019 in determining the costs of occupational accidents. The research area is in various upstream industries, oil, gas and petrochemical and steel and cement industries and other industrial and urban areas. The research instrument includes a researcher-made questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using fuzzy Delphi method. In the field studies of the study, 8 important and major groups of indicators in occupational accident costs at workplace were identified. In order to calculate and obtain the amount of each of the mentioned indicators, a number of sub-criteria were determined and by examining economic models and calculation software, accident costs and conventional and valid models that had verified validity and reliability showed that 51 sub-indicators in the above 8 groups were effective on calculating the accidents costs. It was found that out of 51 indicators identified in the direct and indirect costs of accidents, 45 indicators have a greater effect and to calculate and technically and economically investigate the accidents costs, 45 indicators were required to be investigated.

Form and Substance in the “Private Law” of Torts

Abstract Instrumentalist ideas have long been prominent in torts scholarship. Since the rise of legal realism, discussions of deterrence, compensation, the minimization of accident costs, and the distribution of losses have dominated scholarly discourse. In the past several decades, however, wholesale rejections of instrumentalist tort theory have arisen. The most uncompromising of these views rallies around the avowedly formalist battle cry that tort is “private law”. Ernest Weinrib’s elegant and influential book, The Idea of Private Law, declares its allegiance to that thesis in its title, and the idea figures almost as centrally in Arthur Ripstein’s recent and important Private Wrongs. Theorists who rally around the banner of “private law” claim that tort law’s governing principles of right and responsibility tumble out of the field’s characteristic legal form. Law, as they understand it, is constitutive of just relations among persons, not an instrument for the pursuit of independently valuable ends. For scholars like Weinrib and Ripstein, “private law” is the Kantian idea of reason that makes our actual law of torts intelligible. The claim that torts is a law of wrongs where persons bring claims in their own names for harms that they have wrongly suffered against those allegedly responsible for those wrongful harms is powerful and persuasive. The claim that the obligations persons owe one another in tort are obligations owed among equal and independent persons is likewise compelling. But theorists of tort as “private law” overshoot the mark by both asking and making too much of form. They ask too much of form when they attempt to make sense of the private law of torts solely in terms of form—eschewing all talk of interests. We cannot understand or justify the law of torts without attending to the interests that it protects. In tort, as elsewhere, rights and the duties they ground protect important individual interests. For example, it is our interest in the physical integrity of our persons that grounds the law of negligence. Theorist of tort as “private law” make too much of form when they present the legal category as its own private fiefdom walled off from surrounding legal fields. For Ripstein and Weinrib, “private law” is its own autonomous domain, sealed off against infection by any legal field whose form identifies it as “public law”. In our law, the private law of torts cooperates and competes with public law institutions as a response to the pervasiveness of accidental harm in an industrial and technological society. It is one way of institutionalizing our interest in safety. Establishing rightful relations among free and equal persons in civil society requires that institutions protect persons’ urgent interests, not just establish their formal independence. The theoretical understanding that we need will recognize that we misunderstand even the private law of torts itself if we sever it entirely from forms of collective responsibility for avoiding and repairing accidental harm with which it competes and cooperates.

Investing into third generation nuclear power plants - Review of recent trends and analysis of future investments using Monte Carlo Simulation

This paper provides a review of trends in third generation nuclear power plants, and analyzes current and future nuclear power plant investments using Monte Carlo simulations of economic indicators. We first review global trends of nuclear power plant investments, including technical as well as economic trends. The review suggests that cost escalations in the sector observed in previous research continue until today, including the most recent investment projects in the U.S. and in Europe. In order to extend this analysis, we carry out our own investment analysis of a representative third generation nuclear power plant, focusing on the net present value and the levelized cost of electricity. We base our analysis on a stochastic Monte Carlo simulation to nuclear power plant investments. We define and estimate the main drivers of our model: Overnight construction costs, wholesale electricity prices, and weighted average cost of capital, and discuss reasonable ranges and distributions of those parameters. Model runs suggest that investing in nuclear power plants is not profitable, i.e. expected net present values are highly negative, mainly driven by high construction costs, including capital costs, and uncertain and low revenues. Even extending reactor lifetimes does not improve the results significantly. We conclude that our numerical exercise confirms the literature review, i.e. the economics of nuclear power plants are not favorable to future investments, even though additional costs (decommissioning, long-term storage) and the social costs of accidents are not even considered.

Cost-benefit of bicycle infrastructure with e-bikes and cycle superhighways

In this paper a cost-benefit analysis is performed to evaluate an ambitious cycle superhighway infrastructure in the Greater Copenhagen area. In the analysis, we separate the effects of electric and conventional bikes and the estimation of user benefits thus allow differentiation with respect to travel time savings due to different travel speed profiles and different external effects regarding health and safety for different bicycle technologies. The cost-benefit analysis show that the proposed bicycle infrastructure has a positive net present value with an internal rate between 6% and 23% depending on different assumptions. The cost-benefit performance of the analysed bicycle infrastructure thereby exceeds other types of network infrastructure that is often prioritised. At the specific level, it is found that larger shares of e-bikes implies lower benefits as these bikes provide lower health benefits and larger accident costs. These costs exceeds the higher surplus from travel time savings. The study also show that most benefits are non-local benefits, suggesting that it could be relevant to revise the investment strategy to have a national perspective rather than a local perspective at the municipality level, which is the common practise today.

Los accidentes laborales como factor generador de costos en las MIPYMES del sector textil de la provincia de Tungurahua

El objetivo de la investigación es determinar los costos generados por los días perdidos por el trabajador de las MIPYMES del sector textil de la provincia de Tungurahua debido a los sucesos imprevistos y repentinos que causan daño al trabajador (accidentes laborales) debido a que estos se relacionan con la disminución de la rentabilidad. Dentro de la metodología se utilizó un estudio de tipo descriptivo y transversal; además, se consideró la parte cuantitativa y holística que se apoya en la investigación bibliográfica. La población estudiada corresponde a 642 empresas de los 9 cantones de la provincia. Se aplicó al personal de Talento Humano y a los responsables de Seguridad Laboral de las empresas una encuesta estructurada que fue validada previamente por docentes de la Universidad Técnica de Ambato. Entre los resultados más relevantes se obtuvo que el costo de accidentabilidad laboral en las MIPYMES del sector Textil durante el año 2019 asciende a un valor de $4641.20 por un total de 283 días perdidos por el trabajador, valor que influye en la disminución de la rentabilidad de las empresas textileras.

Optimization of Train Operation Scheme for Container Sea- Rail Multimodal Transport

In the past, the external costs, such as transportation costs and transit costs, are usually considered in the model of container sea-rail multimodal transport, without considering the time value cost of goods and the social costs such as traffic accident cost and environmental pollution cost caused by the transportation process. Goods transportation is a kind of social and economic activity. The whole transportation process of goods from the place of departure to the destination needs time. When time is connected with specific social and economic activities, it has value, that is time value. [1] The time value cost of goods will become a large part of the cost in the process of transportation. Improving the efficiency of goods transportation is a major goal of goods transportation. However, while improving the efficiency of goods transportation, we should also take into account the social costs brought about by the transportation of goods. In this paper, the time value of goods and social cost are considered to optimize the operation scheme of container sea-rail multimodal transport trains.

Predictive modeling of maximum injury severity and potential economic cost in a car accident based on the General Estimates System data

In this paper, we aim to identify the significant variables that contribute to the injury severity level of the person in the car when an accident happens and build a statistical model for predicting the maximum injury severity level as well as estimating the potential economic cost in a car accident based on those variables. The General Estimates System data, which is a representative sample of police-reported motor vehicle crashes of all types collected by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, from the years 2012 to 2013 is the main data source. Some other data sources such as the car safety rating from the United State Department of Transformation and the state-specific cost of crash deaths fact sheets are also used in the predictive model building process. An interactive system programmed in HyperText Markup Language, Cascading Style Sheets and JavaScript is developed based on the results of predictive modeling. The system is hosted on a website at http://gessmu.azurewebsites.net for public access. The system allows users to input variables that are significant contributors in car accidents and obtain the predicted maximum injury severity level and potential economic cost of a car accident.

Critically assessing and projecting the frequency, severity, and cost of major energy accidents

Although energy systems are well known to lead to positive or negative externalities, one less explored attribute has been a rigorous historical and future looking assessment of energy accidents. In this study, we analyze an extensive dataset of 4,450 energy accidents from 1800 to 2018 across eleven energy systems. Our analysis reveals that these collective energy systems resulted in more than 278,000 human fatalities and approximately $421.3 billion in economic damages. Historically, coal accidents are the most frequent, accounting for almost half of all accidents. In terms of severity, accidents at hydroelectric dams were the most fatal, accounting for 67 percent. In terms of cost, nuclear power accidents are by far the most expensive, accounting for 62 percent of damages. Coupling our data and an econometric model with future projections of energy demand underscores the magnitude of the trends identified: 986,000 to 1.72 million potential energy accident deaths in 2040, as well as almost $1 trillion in damages. This leads to compelling policy implications, especially concerning the need for safety improvements in energy systems such as bioenergy and nuclear power, as well as the need for the IEA and IRENA, among others, to begin to better track and account for energy accident trends. We find that across all accidents, fuel extraction and processing, transmission and distribution, and transportation have the most fatalities, and yet conversion and operation, transmission and distribution, and transportation have the most damages. Moreover, achieving strong climate goals leads to an unacceptably higher risk of accidents and human health and economic consequences. Finally, as its economic development propels increases in energy consumption, Africa will become the future center for energy accident fatalities.

Reproduction strategy of radiation data with compensation of data loss using a deep learning technique

In nuclear-related facilities, such as nuclear power plants, research reactors, accelerators, and nuclear waste storage sites, radiation detection, and mapping are required to prevent radiation overexposure. Sensor network systems consisting of radiation sensor interfaces and wxireless communication units have become promising tools that can be used for data collection of radiation detection that can in turn be used to draw a radiation map. During data collection, malfunctions in some of the sensors can occasionally occur due to radiation effects, physical damage, network defects, sensor loss, or other reasons. This paper proposes a reproduction strategy for radiation maps using a U-net model to compensate for the loss of radiation detection data. To perform machine learning and verification, 1,561 simulations and 417 measured data of a sensor network were performed. The reproduction results show an accuracy of over 90%. The proposed strategy can offer an effective method that can be used to resolve the data loss problem for conventional sensor network systems and will specifically contribute to making initial responses with preserved data and without the high cost of radiation leak accidents at nuclear facilities.

The costs of accidents in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia construction industry

Considering the construction projects and the current status of occupational safety in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, this article attempts to estimate the costs of accidents in construction. The parameters used in these estimates include the values of the current projects in the three main countries including Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia; and the amount disbursed by the government organizations against injuries, disabilities, and deaths. The total costs of an accident in Oman are estimated at US$ 415,620 with an economic burden of US$ 205.73 Million/year. In Saudi Arabia, the costs of an accident are estimated at US$ 91,940, while the economic burden of the Saudi economy is estimated at US$ 261.11 Million/year. Similarly, the costs of an accident in the Qatari construction industry stand at US$ 205,526. The costs of an accident in these countries are quite higher than the costs in the USA, UK, AUS, and SA.

The costs of accidents in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia construction industry

The costs of accidents in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia construction industry

Costs of Construction Accidents and Factors Affecting The Occupational Safety Ma

Costs of Construction Accidents and Factors Affecting The Occupational Safety Ma

A multi-objective robust optimization approach for green location-routing planning of multi-modal transportation systems under uncertainty

Carbon emission has been widely studied in transportation research in general, yet research on carbon emission specifically in hazardous material transportation remains surprisingly limited. This study presents a multi-objective model for locating transfer points and routing in a multi-modal network of hazardous materials, accounting for multiple different uncertainties, while minimizing carbon emission alongside risk and cost of transportation. This study models uncertainties in accident probabilities, emission factors, and costs of establishing transfer points with polyhedral uncertainty sets, and utilizes robust counterpart optimization to tackle these uncertainties. The application of the proposed approach is examined in a case study of petroleum product transportation. The results of our analyses confirm the effectiveness and robustness of the developed model. Specifically, it is found that the proposed model can reduce carbon emissions by 873 g, and individuals at risk by 0.28, for every additional dollar spent.

Development of intelligent road maintenance system mobile apps for a highway

Roads are one of the main assets of a country where the network infrastructure offers economic and social benefits. It is understood that road maintenance would improve economic development and social benefits, and the poorly maintained road network would destruct mobility, raise accident rates, intensify isolation, poverty and vehicle operating costs. Unidentified road environment covers many aspects and based on that matter, it is important to improve the quality of inspection reports, whereby the efficiencies by mobile application shall be utilized. Developed system mobile apps have been found to be effective, versatile to use, as they can be used anywhere and at any time. The goal was therefore to recognize the types of defects, issues and deficiencies in current road maintenance practices and to develop a computerized highway maintenance program. The scope of the research will be limited to a case study at PLUS highway, connecting the north and south highway of peninsular Malaysia. The findings showed that road maintenance work is not adequately and effectively designed because it requires more time and includes a lot of paperwork. Due to this matter, the proposed mobile application would provide an invaluable added benefit to intelligent system of PLUS highway

A REVIEW ON HUMAN ERROR IN MALAYSIA MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Human error is a serious concern in manufacturing industries. It affects product error and liability and even leads to workplace injuries or fatalities. Malaysia has recorded a worrying figure of workplace accidents and injuries. In 2018 alone, there were more than 2700 workplace accidents which led to disabilities and death. A workplace accident would result in a no-win situation for a company. Manufacturing sectors in Malaysia make the highest claims from the total cost of accidents and injuries. The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) in Malaysia also imposes a fine for companies who breach safety and health regulations in the workplace. Inspections are carried out to ensure that manufacturers obey the rules of occupational safety and health (OSH), and fined for being errant employers. However, these penalisations are often due to the negligence and lack of awareness among employers and employees. Hence, it is of interest for researchers to identify the root causes of human error among manufacturing industries in Malaysia. This review highlights the common causes of workplace accidents and injuries in manufacturing through observation. Several well-known human error models since 1983 are also investigated. The potential outcome of this review is to improve OSH awareness among manufacturers for a more sustainable future in their business, employment, and social well-being.

ANALISIS KARAKTERISTIK DAN BIAYA KECELAKAAN LALU LINTAS DI KABUPATEN JEMBER

menyebabkan kepadatan lalu lintas. Namun, pertumbuhan sarana dan prasarana yang ada tidak sejalan dengan pertumbuhan lalu lintas, mengakibatkan bertambahnya kecelakaan lalu lintas. Dampak dari kecelakaan lalu lintas yaitu kenaikan pada angka kemiskinan karena menimbulkan banyak pengeluaran biaya, seperti biaya ketika kecelakaan maupun biaya sesudah terjadi kecelakaan, serta biaya hilangnya produktivitas akibat terjadinya kecelakaan. Penelitian ini untuk menghitung banyaknya kerugian biaya yang ditimbulkan akibat kecelakaan lalu lintas yang didapat dari menganalisis karakteristik kecelakaan berdasarkan keadaan korban dengan menggunakan metode Gross Output (Human Capital). Hasil dari metode Gross Output (Human Capital) diperoleh angka biaya korban kecelakaan di Kabupaten Jember selama tiga tahun (2017-2019) sebesar Rp. 162,010,233,179 dan angka biaya kecelakaan lalu lintas di Kabupaten Jember selama tiga tahun (2017-2019) sebesar Rp. 192,779,704,983.

Rail versus inland water transport: a comparative costs study based on the movement of coal in India

ABSTRACT This paper makes an attempt to fill some of the gaps present in the literature related to various modes of transport in India. It presents a comparative cost study of rail and Inland Water Transport (IWT) in the Indian context. The case of railway transport is based on the existing construction and operation norms of Indian Railways. In contrast, IWT cost parameters are based on discussions with manufacturers of barges in India and operators of barges carrying coal for Frakka Thermal Power Plant in the Ganges. The estimated results suggest that water ways in India have a comparative advantage over the rail in terms of capital costs (including its various components), climate change cost of environmental costs and social (health and accident) costs as these costs are much lower in case of IWT as compared to railways. However, IWT has no comparative advantage in operation. Estimates indicate that operation and maintenance cost of railways with electric traction is lower than that of IWT mainly because of less fuel consumption. All this indicates that there is a need to develop given waterways and introduce efficient barges in water transport so that it can compete with other modes of transport like Railways. In fact, IWT has characteristics to facilitate a system that meets the requirement of an efficient and sustainable transport system which is cost-effective in operation when compared with railways.

Analysis of work accident cost on occupational safety and health risk handling at construction project of Hasanuddin University the Faculty of Engineering

To analyze the work accident cost on occupational safety and health risk handling at the construction project of Hasanuddin University Faculty of Engineering. An explorative study with a retrospective approach, analyzed the occupational accident records and Microsoft Excel for the safety cost data. The case samples were: 80 workers at ADHI Company Hasanuddin University Engineering Faculty Construction Project who experience occupational health during the project. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire and interviews. The results showed that the cost of OSH risk handling in this project is around IDR 956.4 million, the cost of work accidents handling is around IDR 64,534 million, the opportunity cost is around IDR 3475 million, cost of OSH risk controlling program is around IDR 724,275 million. The value of the benefit-cost ratio is 1.2 or ≥1, which means the OSH program cost investment by ADHI Company is categorized as beneficial for the company. The safety cost data presented in this paper may be useful for practitioners to direct resource investment.

Using Weighted Data Envelopment Analysis to Measure Occupational Safety and Healthy Economic Performance of Taiwan’s Industrial Sectors

The socioeconomic costs of occupational accidents represent an important factor in the safety and healthy development of a country’s economy. Insurance payments (which cover workplace incidents, such as wounds or illness, disability and fatality) can be considered a proxy for the socioeconomic cost of occupational accidents. Occupational accidents in different industries cause important variations in these three socioeconomic costs—for example, in their frequency and severity. One of the most commonly used mathematical programming approaches that analyze the performance of inputs, economic outputs and occupational accidents is data envelopment analysis (DEA), which has also been used in recent years to estimate the relative performance related to occupational injuries. This study measures the safety and healthy economic performance of Taiwan’s 17 industrial sectors by incorporating the varying importance of the three socioeconomic costs of occupational accidents into a weighted DEA Model. The empirical results demonstrate that integrating the varying importance of the three socioeconomic costs of occupational accidents in the evaluation of safety and healthy economic performance is very important. To improve the occupational safety and healthy economic performance of Taiwan’s main industrial sectors, efforts should focus on reducing fatalities, which are very costly. These findings could help Taiwan’s policy makers effectively improve their safety and healthy economic performance, based on the specific context of each industry, especially the mining and quarrying industry.