Accident Statistics Research Articles

The role, importance and impact of the methane hazard on the safety and efficiency of mining production

Abstract Underground mining production is an extremely important process for the economy and carried out in very difficult and complex environmental conditions. The disturbance of the balance of this environment makes it also a very dangerous process. Due to the importance of coal, mainly as an energy raw material, the process of its exploitation is carried out all over the world. The specificity of its production is mainly determined by mining and geological conditions, which determine the method of operation and the selection of machines and devices for this process. One of the most dangerous natural hazards associated with this process are ventilation hazards, including methane hazard. The reason for this threat is methane, an odorless and colorless gas, which becomes a flammable and explosive gas under certain criteria. These features make this gas a huge threat to mining operations. Its huge amounts, contained in coal seams, are released into the mine atmosphere during the exploitation process, causing a very high threat to work safety. Events related to the occurrence of methane are most often the cause of mining disasters, in which people die and the technical and mining infrastructure is destroyed. The reason for the growing methane hazard is the increasingly difficult mining conditions, and mainly the increasing depth of mining, and thus also the increase in methane-bearing capacity of the seams. Taking into account the huge impact of methane hazard on the mining process, the article discusses its impact on the safety and efficiency of this process. The results of the literature review with regard to this risk are presented and the accident statistics are presented. On the basis of actual data, an analysis of interruptions in the exploitation process related to exceeding the permissible methane concentrations was carried out in one of the mines. The problem of limiting the production process due to these exceedances is an important factor reducing the efficiency of this process. The obtained results clearly indicate that the losses resulting from these breaks deteriorate the profitability of the entire process and affect the economic efficiency of the industry. In order to effectively counteract the dangerous phenomena related to the methane hazard and to improve the efficiency of the mining production process, solutions were proposed to improve this state and the directions for further research were proposed.

A data-driven method for modeling human factors in maritime accidents by integrating DEMATEL and FCM based on HFACS: A case of ship collisions

A data-driven method is proposed to measure the static and dynamic interrelations between human factors contributing to maritime accidents. The proposed method integrates the superiorities of the HFACS (Human Factors Analysis and Classification System), DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory), and FCM (Fuzzy Cognitive Map). First, a maritime accident scenario is defined based on 240 ship collision accident reports, then the human factors at different levels are identified and structured within the HFACS framework under the guidance of grounded theory. Second, the DEMATEL method is adopted to determine the causal relationship between human factors and the importance ranking of each factor based on historical accident statistics. The FCM model is developed in the end to realize dynamic prediction and diagnostic inference of human factors involved in maritime accidents. More objective and realistic results are presented by applying the proposed method without the necessity of expert judgment. The results show that “Lookout negligence”, “Poor safety management practice of the shipping company”, and “Failure to take effective collision avoidance actions promptly” are the top three important human factors, additionally, “Not familiar with COLREG” has the highest influencing degree and “Lookout negligence” has the highest influenced degree in the human factors network.

Analysis of the Relationship between Age and Violation of Traffic Laws and Ordinances in Traffic Accidents on Children

In Japan, where the birthrate continues to decline, various initiatives are underway to promote traffic safety for children. Although these efforts have helped reduce the number of traffic accidents involving children, an examination of the circumstances under which children were killed or injured in traffic accidents in recent years shows that accidents in which children were riding bicycles accounted for the highest percentage of accidents. We investigated the relationship between the ages of children involved in traffic accidents and violations of traffic laws using traffic accident statistics maintained by the Ishikawa Prefectural Police Headquarters. These records revealed that 16-year-olds were most likely to be involved in traffic accidents. Our analysis of the violations of laws and ordinances with respect to the ages of bicyclists involved in car accidents at intersections found that, of all the age categories, elementary school students had the lowest rate of accidents with no violations and the highest rate of accidents involving a failure to stop. Junior and senior high school students had lower rates of accidents involving a failure to stop than elementary school students. Moreover, at non-intersections, driving safety violations were notably higher for accidents involving bicycling elementary school students than for those in other age groups.

Violations of social regulation and traffic accidents in road freight transport

The aim of the work is to analyze violations of social regulation in road freight transport and to propose solutions to prevent these violations. In the first part, we devoted ourselves to the processing of knowledge about road freight transport based on the legislation of the European Union, which is directly oriented to the conditions for the operator of road freight transport with vehicles over 3.5-tons of total weight. Since compliance with the rules also comes with their violations, it is also necessary to consider the traffic accident rate in road freight transport, we specifically identified and compared the traffic accident rate in road freight transport based on traffic accident statistics published on the website of the Ministry of the Interior. In the second part, we gradually processed and evaluated a questionnaire survey, which consisted of questions focused on the violation of social legislation by drivers. In the final part of the work, based on the analysis from the first part of the work and the results from the questionnaire survey in the second part, we proposed solutions to prevent the most frequent violations of social legislation by drivers and carriers.

Comparison of the theoretical elements and application characteristics of STAMP, FRAM, and 24Model: A major hazardous chemical explosion accident

Owing to the flammable, explosive, and toxic characteristics of hazardous chemicals, chemical accidents always result in significant losses. Analysis of the parameters of process safety is an effective way to prevent hazardous chemical accidents and reduce losses. To promote the application of systemic accident models in practice, in this study, we clarify the theoretical elements of such models based on the development of system thinking and system science. Then, we discuss the characteristics of a new systemic model called 24Model and its systems thinking. We explore the differences in the practical application of different systemic models (System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP), Functional Resonance Accident Model (FRAM), and 24Model by analyzing a major hazardous chemical explosion accident that occurred in Tianjiayi Chemical Co., Ltd. in China. The results show that the elements of the systemic accident model are the system structure, component relationship, and dynamic behaviors. 24Model is proven to be a new systemic accident model developed by utilizing sequential models. The comparative results of the three analysis methods show that FRAM is suitable for accident prediction rather than accident analysis. STAMP and 24Model perform better in terms of the usability and reliability of accident analysis. Although STAMP fails to elaborately indicate the internal organizational causes of the accident, it is suitable for a small number of accidents in socio-technical systems. 24Model is a structured method for accident analysis and safety management frame of organization. With the classified accident causes and fewer training resources, it is more suitable for a number of accidents statistics and analysis. Finally, a universal frame to prevent hazardous chemical accidents is provided for companies and regulators.

DRIVING TIREDNESS – THE END ENEMY OF THE DRIVER

In modern society, little or no sleep at all has become a habit, almost a good tradition. Fulfilled sleep is one of the key factors of a healthy lifestyle and longevity, along with proper nutrition, physical activity and that one is fighting stress. Driver fatigue reduces the level of traffic safety, having a negative impact on all psychophysical qualities. Fatigue at the wheel, like driving under the influence of alcohol, is a major factor in road accidents and should not be neglected, regardless of the experience of the driver, the car driven or, the road he travels. A moment of inattention at the wheel can turn the driver, passengers or other innocent people into a simple statistics of road accidents. The article describes the signs and causes of fatigue, measures to prevent and restore the driver’s work capacity, as well as warning systems introduced by several manufacturers on keeping the car on the lane, monitoring the driver’s fatigue etc.

Using a decision tree to compare rural versus highway motorcycle fatalities in Thailand

Thailand ranks first in Asia and ninth in the world in term of road accident. As of 2020, the number of vehicles registered in Thailand was over 41 million, with motorcycles accounting for half of all vehicles. This study aimed to determine the cause of fatalities to reduce motorcycle accidents. The research entailed separating the accidents and fatalities into those occurring on highways (HWs) versus those occurring on rural roadways (RRs) and focused solely on rider at fault accidents to involve any confounding factors related to passengers or others involved. In Thailand, HWs have higher speed limits and allow more vehicle types than some RRs. Thailand’s Department of Public Disaster Prevention and Mitigation recorded 115,154 motorcycle accidents from 2015 to 2020. Decision trees allow for processing large amounts of data to drill down into associations between the individual variables in a large data set; in this study, the tree also separated accidents into whether or not the driver was exceeding the speed limit. The model’s performance for HWs, predicted misclassifications were found to be 28.3% (fatality to nonfatality) and a 44.5% (nonfatality to fatality) while predicted misclassification for RRs were 15.5% (fatality to nonfatality) and 60% (nonfatality to fatality). At all ages, the most fatalities were among male riders on dry straightaways in clear daytime weather; notably, however, on RRs, even when the rider was driving responsibly, fatalities were high at night on roads with no light. Following the presentation of the study findings, suggestions are made for ways the Thai government can improve the motorcycle accident and fatality statistics, including increasing the age limit for a motorcycle license, with engine size limits further divided according to age; proper enforcement of the existing rules will also improve the country’s accident statistics. It will also be highly effective to improve road lighting, particularly on RRs.

MANAGEMENT OF THE WORKPLACES BY THE FACILITIES OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH

The optimal location of workplaces plays an important role in the structure of occupational safety. The design of the workspace should ensure the optimal distribution of functions between person and machine in order to create safe working conditions, reduce the severity of work and the level of production injuries. Most often, workplace planning is carried out manually, by simple calculation, and then the rationality of workplace planning is evaluated, based on statistics of industrial accidents and occupational diseases, as well as indicators of labor productivity, for example, the ratio of compliance with norms. To solve the problem of optimal placement in the work mathematical models are built that can take into account various regulatory restrictions and are simple for further software implementation. It is proposed to choose the theory of φ-functions as a basis, which can be characterized as measures of proximity of objects. Thus, the set task of optimal placement of workplaces is reduced to the task of mathematical programming. The objective function determines the criterion of optimality – the minimization of the area or perimeter that will be occupied by the objects. This formulation of the problem is relevant because the use of the smallest production area, taking into account safety requirements, is an economic condition for effective production management. The constraint on the relative location of workplaces is set using φ-functions, which defines the decision domain. That, when formalizing restrictions, you can take into account all regulatory safety distances between workplaces, equipment, walls, etc. Thus, the work explores an approach that will allow automatic planning of the placement of a large number of technological objects, workplaces in accordance with occupational safety standards. Use of the software application, which can be implemented on the basis of the φ-functions apparatus, will significantly reduce the time of workplaces planning and increase its efficiency.

Health effects of a ban on late-night alcohol sales.

This paper studies the impact of a ban on late-night off-premise alcohol sales between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. in Germany. We use three large administrative data sets: (i) German diagnosis related groups-Statistik, (ii) data from a large social health insurance, and (iii) Road Traffic Accident Statistics. Applying difference-in-differences and synthetic-control-group methods, we find that the ban had no effects on alcohol-related road casualties, but significantly reduced alcohol-related hospitalizations (doctor visits) among young people by around 9 (18) percent. The decrease is driven by fewer hospitalizations due to acute alcohol intoxication during the night-when the ban is in place-but not during the day.

Trends in Occupational Infectious Diseases in South Korea and Classification of Industries According to the Risk of Biological Hazards Using K-Means Clustering.

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is necessary to identify these risks and determine whether the current level of management is appropriate to respond to the risk of biological hazards depending on the occupation. In this study, the incidence and fatality rates of occupational diseases were calculated using industrial accident statistics of South Korea, and trends by year using joinpoint regression and relative risk by industry using k-means clustering were evaluated for infectious diseases. We found that infectious diseases had the third highest incidence and fourth highest fatalities among all occupational diseases. In the incidence rate, joinpoints appeared in 2009 and 2018, and the annual percent change changed to 7.79, −16.63, and 82.11. The fatality rate showed a consistent increase with an annual percent change of 4.37, but it was not significant. Industries were classified into five groups according to risk, and the legal control measures of certain industries were not sufficient. Follow-up studies are needed to rectify the structural limitations of industrial accident statistics.

Evaluation of the efficiency of a motorcycle-specific pausing area at the traffic signals on the urban road

The objective of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of the motorcycle-specific pausing zone under the Bike Box Project (BBP). This zone is designated at the very front of the waiting line for the traffic light. The indicators used to measure the efficiency comprised the lost time when starting up at the beginning of the green light, the change of the proportion of the motorcycle pausing points, the accident statistics, and the worthiness for investment. Two intersections in urban areas were used for the analyses and evaluation, which were carried out to compare between the period prior to and after the project began. The study indicated that after the project began, the start-up lost time could be reduced by roughly 31-46% during peak hours, with approximately 73-78% of motorcycles pausing in the green zone (Bike Box Zone). The number and severity of the traffic accidents after 1-year of BBP implementation significantly decreased. The results of the study showed the efficiency of traffic management, safety, and worthiness for investment. It is thus appropriate to extend the project to other areas in the country and abroad, especially in urban areas where motorcycles are greatly used.

Holistic digital-twin-based framework to improve tunnel lighting environment: From methodology to application

The design of the lighting environment inside the tunnel has a profound impact on the long-term operation of the tunnel. The existing field studies, full-scale experiments and simulation methods, mostly focus on the luminance level inside the tunnel, ignoring the effect of the luminaires and decorations from the visual perspective. This paper proposed a novel digital-twin-based integral method, including virtual world design (the virtual reality (VR) experiment and the numerical simulation) and real-world validation (the tunnel mock-up experiment and the field experiment), to improve the design of the luminaires and decorations in the interior zone of the tunnel. The VR experiment and numerical simulation in lighting software were firstly conducted to determine the lighting parameters. Then the obtained lighting scheme was tested and validated in the real scenarios, where tunnel mock-up experiments and field experiments were conducted respectively. According to the results from the numerical simulations and VR experiments, the double-side luminance scheme is more conducive to driving safety and once the power of the luminaires is excessive low, the driver's attention variation rate is also unsatisfied. Moreover, the use of the anti-collision lower-side luminaires enhances the luminance level of the road surface and the sidewall to a certain level. The obtained lighting scheme was applied in a newly built tunnel in Hangzhou. The statistics of accidents data indicate that the installed luminaires and decorations, which are obtained from virtual simulation, can provide a considerably safe lighting environment. Ten months of accident statistics show that the breakdown rate in this tunnel was only 10% of the similar tunnels, and the accident rate was only 3%, thus the safety and environmental performance have been proved to be significantly improved.

Fire retardant performance, toxicity and combustion characteristics, and numerical evaluation of core materials for sandwich panels

According to fire accident statistics, fires in buildings are increasing. The flame-retardant performance of insulation materials is considered an important factor for preventing the spread of fire and ensuring evacuation. This study evaluated the flame-retardant performance and combustion characteristics of four types of organic thermal insulation used as core materials in sandwich panels. The flame-retardant performance evaluation based on total heat release and heat release rate revealed that phenolic foam (PF) satisfied the criteria for non-combustible grade insulation. An analysis of the hazardous gases released while combustion of the four insulation materials indicated that a significant amount of CO was released—an average of 19,000 ppm or higher—in the rigid urethan foam (PIR) and spray-type polyurethane foam (SPU). The fractional effective dose (FED) value was derived from the gas analysis results according to ISO 13344. PIR and SPU had an average FED value of 2.0 or higher and were identified as very dangerous in the case of fire accidents. Moreover, the evacuation time in the case of a fire in a warehouse-type building was comprehensively analyzed considering the material, size, and height for the four types of insulation. PIR was the most vulnerable to fire, and for PF, the danger limit was not reached until the end of the simulation.

Accidental safety factors and prevention techniques for high-rise building projects – A review

Construction is a dangerous occupation due to the unique nature of the activities involved and the repetition of several construction activities. The development of construction industry has a direct impact on the country's economy and thus plays an important role in its growth. The construction industry, on the other hand, is dangerous due to the high rate of accidents and fatalities, as evidenced by alarming accident and fatality statistics. This scenario emphasizes the importance of identifying the safety factors that contribute to accidents in high-rise building projects. As a result, the research was split into two phases. The first phase of the study was concerned with the safety factors that influence accidents in high-rise building projects, and the second phase was concerned with safety prevention techniques that can be used to mitigate the safety factors that influence accidents in high-rise building projects. In addition, a framework has been proposed to aid construction project managers in evaluating the safety factors associated with high-rise building projects. As a result, this framework established a foundation for future researchers to use in high-rise building projects.

Risk assessment of marine accidents with Fuzzy Bayesian Networks and causal analysis

Marine shipping is a high-risk mode of transportation in a complex environment. Most risk analyses of marine shipping are based on historical accident statistics or expert opinions rather than available evidences that reflect more realistic scenarios. In this paper, an evidence-based Fuzzy Bayesian Network approach was proposed to construct probabilistic models of marine accidents. Marine accident reports from 2001 to 2020 were utilized to build causal networks from a systematic perspective. The quantitative relationships of contributing factors in the accident networks were evaluated by experts with different backgrounds. The reliability of the Fuzzy Bayesian Networks of accidents was also verified by three axioms. The results of the sensitivity analysis revealed that distraction, heavy weather, inadequate safety/risk awareness, and maintenance failure are closely related to a majority of high-consequence marine accidents. In particular, the occurrence of heavy weather has a relatively higher impact on contact, flooding/foundering, and grounding. Overall, this paper contributes to a practical direction of ocean and coastal shipping safety management strategies and the quantitative effects of safety measures considering the allocation of limited resources.

Analysis of Traffic Accident Based on Knowledge Graph

Traffic accident data include multidimensional dynamic and static factors such as “people, vehicles, roads, and environment” at the time of the accident, which is one of the important data sources for improving the traffic safety environment. Based on the case data of traffic accidents and the construction idea of knowledge graph, the knowledge demand, knowledge modeling, knowledge extraction, and knowledge storage of traffic accidents are analyzed in detail. Finally, the traffic accident knowledge graph is constructed. The visualization analysis of accident is carried out from four angles: accident portrait, accident classification, accident statistics, and accident correlation path. The visualized graphic network displayed by the traffic accident knowledge combines human cognition with machine cognition, which improves human’s ability to understand massive and complicated data. The theoretical system of constructing traffic accident knowledge graph has certain reference significance in the follow-up research on the analysis of massive traffic accident data.

Professional social rating as an innovative tool for reducing losses in the water transport economy

Aim. The presented study aims to analyze the statistics of water transport accidents to identify the most common cause of such accidents and to propose an innovative solution to this problem. Tasks. The authors investigate the frequency of water transport accidents in 2017–2021; systematize their causes and identify the most common ones; examine the statutory regulation and supervision of water transport; identify its drawbacks and propose an unconventional solution to the problem of regulation and supervision of water transport, which can be considered as innovative. Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition: analysis, synthesis, generalization, visualization, and forecasting to analyze data on water transport accidents in 2017–2021, establish cause-and-effect relationships of accidents, and predict the dynamics of individual indicators. Results. Data on water transport accidents are grouped, the causes of accidents on river and sea vessels are ranked, and the vector of changes in the accident rate is predicted (adjusted for the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic). The authors propose the idea of combating the main cause of most water accidents – the human factor. Conclusions. The human factor causes 74% of water transport accidents, and existing methods of supervision and control are not effective enough. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a professional social rating for workers and employees in water transport and its infrastructure. This will make it easier for shipowners to hire personnel, improve control and supervisory procedures and investigation of incidents, and increase the motivation of personnel to perform their duties diligently, while also positively affecting the level of safety and economic efficiency of water transport enterprises and their infrastructure. This proposal seems appropriate in the context of the national project “Digital Economy”.

선박 화재 시 제연경계벽 길이와 간격이 온도 및 가시거리에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구

According to the accident statistics of the Korean Maritime Safety Tribunal, a total of 13,687 marine accidents occurred over the past 5 years (2016~2020) of which 588 cases were fire and explosion, accounting for 4.3% of the total. In particular, fire and explosion accidents accounted for 4.3% of accidents while large-scale marine casualties such as fatalities accounted for 5.6%, which was higher than other accidents. In this study, the optimal installation conditions are proposed by analyzing the effects of smoke draft curtains, which are not installed on ships on changes in temperature and visibility in case of fire. As a result, in the presence of draft curtains, the temperature one of the verification factors for the evacuation limit value, did not reach the standard value under all conditions. However, in the case of visibility most directly related to survival in case of fire, it was confirmed that the installation of draft curtains helps to improve the survival rate. The results of analyzing the optimal installation conditions for the length and spacing of draft curtains under the physical settings in this study are as follows. In the condition of 10m spacing of draft curtains, 30cm was the optimal condition, and when the spacing was 20m or 30m, 40cm in length was found to be optimal. Since the various size and type of fire are very important factors in the analysis of the survival rate by fire, further research is needed.

Automotive Security using CAN

According to today’s upcoming technologies vehicle is one of the important necessity of human being. A vehicle dynamics, economy and comfort are improved by traditional electronic control but some problems comp up and they are very dangerous. Hence in-vehicle networking protocol gives benefits to many faults so we can inhibit problems such as the body wiring complexity, space constraints and some reliability issues. Therefore Alarming statistics of accidents and increased number of vehicles on road demands for an intelligent safety mechanism that helps the driver in handling immediate precarious situations. The Main motivation of this proposed system is to reduce fatal incidents happen in car accident. Controller area network (CAN) has been widely used for in-vehicle network. The demand of data rate of in-vehicle network has risen sharply, while traditional CAN communication cannot support this demand of data rate with limited bandwidth around DC. CAN which connects the ECUs (Electrical Control Units) embedded in the automobiles. The Main motivation of this project is to reduce fatal incidents after a car accident.

A Rapid Review of Collision Avoidance and Warning Technologies for Mining Haul Trucks.

Given the recent focus on powered haulage incidents within the US mining sector, an appraisal of collision avoidance/warning systems (CXSs) through the lens of the available research literature is timely. This paper describes a rapid review that identifies, characterizes, and classifies the research literature to evaluate the maturity of CXS technology through the application of a Technology Readiness Assessment. Systematic search methods were applied to three electronic databases, and relevant articles were identified through the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sixty-four articles from 2000 to 2020 met these criteria and were categorized into seven CXS technology categories. Review and assessment of the articles indicates that much of the literature-based evidence for CXS technology lies within lower levels of maturity (i.e., components and prototypes tested under laboratory conditions and in relevant environments). However, less evidence exists for CXS technology at higher levels of maturity (i.e., complete systems evaluated within operational environments) despite the existence of commercial products in the marketplace. This lack of evidence at higher maturity levels within the scientific literature highlights the need for systematic peer-reviewed research to evaluate the performance of CXS technologies and demonstrate the efficacy of prototypes or commercial products, which could be fostered by more collaboration between academia, research institutions, manufacturers, and mining companies. Additionally, results of the review reveal that most of the literature relevant to CXS technologies is focused on vehicle-to-vehicle interactions. However, this contrasts with haul truck fatal accident statistics that indicate that most haul truck fatal accidents are due to vehicle-to-environment interactions (e.g., traveling through a berm). Lastly, the relatively small amount of literature and segmented nature of the included studies suggests that there is a need for incremental progress or more stepwise research that would facilitate the improvement of CXS technologies over time. This progression over time could be achieved through continued long-term interest and support for CXS technology research.