High Accidents Research Articles

Liver Transplantation in Malaysia: Needs, Obstacles, and Opportunities.

Liver Transplantation in Malaysia: Needs, Obstacles, and Opportunities.

UNDERSTANDING CONSTRUCTION SITE SAFETY HAZARDS THROUGH OPEN DATA: TEXT MINING APPROACH

Construction is an industry well known for its very high rate of injuries and accidents around the world. Even though many researchers are engaged in analysing the risks of this industry using various techniques, construction accidents still require much attention in safety science. According to existing literature, it has been found that hazards related to workers, technology, natural factors, surrounding activities and organisational factors are primary causes of accidents. Yet, there has been limited research aimed to ascertain the extent of these hazards based on the actual reported accidents. Therefore, the study presented in this paper was conducted with the purpose of devising an approach to extract sources of hazards from publicly available injury reports by using Text Mining (TM) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. This paper presents a methodology to develop a rule-based extraction tool by providing full details of lexicon building, devising extraction rules and the iterative process of testing and validation. In addition, the developed rule-based classifier was compared with, and found to outperform, the existing statistical classifiers such as Support Vector Machine (SVM), Kernel SVM, K-nearest neighbours, Naïve Bayesian classifier and Random Forest classifier. The finding using the developed tool identified the worker factor as the highest contributor to construction site accidents followed by technological factor, surrounding activities, organisational factor, and natural factor (1%). The developed tool could be used to quickly extract the sources of hazards by converting largely available unstructured digital accident data to structured attributes allowing better data-driven safety management.

New Approach to Selecting Civil Defense Centers in Al-Riyadh City (KSA) Based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis and GIS

Maintaining and enhancing the quality of civil defense services are of importance to citizens’ life in any city. During the past few decades, the expansion of settlements in Al-Riyadh City has led to a shortage in the distribution of the civil defense centers (CDCs) there. The main aim of this study is to implement the Weighted Sum Method (WSM) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate the distribution of the CDCs in Al-Riyadh City. Eight criteria (i.e., distance from the existing civil defense center, accident density, population density, distance from the road, distance from commercial centers, distance from educational services, distance from industrial areas, and distance from residential areas) were used. The areas under the curve (AUC) of the Prediction Rate Curve (PRC) show that almost all of the AHP models are better than the WSM model. We suggest establishing five CDCs in Al-Riyadh City in areas that are lacking CDCs and characterized by a high population density and consequently a high rate of accidents. We recommend highly long-term planning for establishing new CDCs in cities where there is rapid areal expansion (e.g., Al-Riyadh City).

Factors of traffic incidents at University General Hospital of Heraklion, March-August 2018

Abstract Background Injury caused by a traffic accident is the leading cause of death in all age groups with a significant impact on public health expenditure. One of the highest accident rates in Greece is recorded in Crete Methods A retrospective archival study. It was carried out at the University General Hospital of Heraklion recording all the incidents in areas of the region of Heraklion and the transits of patients carried out from the rest of Crete. Results From March 2018 to August 2018, 493 cases were recorded in the Orthopedic Clinic by the Emergency Department. 89 incidents related to road accident injuries. Men were more involved in traffic accidents, with an average age of 42.5 years. The monthly allocation was roughly the same for all months. Insurance types were about 73.6% of the public provider, 5.7% of the private body, and 20.7% of the uninsured patients. The two-wheelers had the highest participation with 66.3%, cars with 38.8%, and 3.8% with pedestrians and cyclists. The highest incidence of injuries occurred by 22.7% was about fractures in legs and knees, pelvis, and spine fractures by 19.3%. Hip and thigh fractures followed by 14.8%. As caused factors were referred to the non-use of belts and helmets and alcohol in driving. The average hospitalization duration ranged from 7.6 days to 51 days. The average cost per patient ranged from €1,907 to €18,025. The largest total cost involved the fractures of the legs and knee with €52,315 and the spine and spine fractures with €41,459. The total cost in all three categories of insurance was approximately €25-26,000. Conclusions The percentage of road accidents in Crete remains at a high level. The highest incidence of injuries refers to legs and knee, pelvic and spinal fractures. Their hospitalization cost includes larger amounts in other European countries. Accompanied illnesses seem to have an impact on road behavior increasing the risk of a road accident. Key messages It is highlighted the implementation of more effective prevention programs aimed at youth. The proper management of the problem can bring huge financial relief to health expenditures.

ANALISIS KECELAKAAN KERJA DI BAGIAN PRODUKSI PT. YYY LAMPUNG PLANT DENGAN METODE FMEA DAN FTA

This research discusses the Analysis of Work Accidents with FMEA and FTA Methods in the Production Section of PT. YYY Lampung Plant. The purpose of this study is to determine the risk factors that cause work accidents, types of work accidents, work accident rates, and the root causes of work accidents in the production department. This research is a quantitative descriptive study with data analysis using FMEA and FTA methods. The data collection method used primary data in the form of work accident data and secondary data in the form of questionnaires to 50 employees. The results showed that the risk factors for work accidents exist in 5 production process activities, namely in the process of selecting raw materials, cutting, weighing, product formation, and finishing. The types of work accidents that often occur are pinched, crushed, sliced, and hit the body, while the highest accident rate with an RPN value of 350.6 is pinched in the finishing process. The results of this RPN value indicate that the number of work accidents is a very high number (> 200). And the root cause of work accidents based on Fault Tree Analysis on work accidents in the form of being squeezed with a RPN value of 350.6 caused by lack of concentration, employees not feeling well, sleepy workers, and limited (narrow) work space. Based on these data, it can be concluded that the level of work accidents should receive special attention.

Factors Influencing Safety on Construction Projects (fSCPs): Types and Categories.

Due to the fact of activity, environment and work dynamics, the construction industry is characterised by high accident rates. Different initiatives have emerged to reduce these figures, which focus on using new methodologies and technologies for safety management. Therefore, it is essential to know the key factors and their influence on safety in construction projects (fSCPs) to focus efforts on these elements. Through a systematic literature review, based on PRISMA methodology, this article identifies, describes and categorises 100 factors that affect construction safety. It thus contributes by providing a comprehensive general framework, unifying previous studies focused on specific geographic areas or case studies with factors not considered or insufficiently disaggregated, along with an absence of classifications focused on understanding where and how factors affect the different dimensions of construction projects. The 100 factors identified are described and categorised according to the dimensions and aspects of the project in which these have an impact, along with identifying whether they are shaping or immediate factors or originating influences for the generation of accidents. These factors, their description and classification are a key contribution to improving the systematic creation of safety and generating training and awareness materials to fully develop a safety culture in organisations.

Philippine Urban Infrastructure: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Infrastructure consists of transportation, communications, water supply, wastewater treatment and disposal, drainage, solid wastes management, and energy. This short review focuses on urban infrastructure, its state, issues, and challenges in the megacities of the Philippines, namely, Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao. In terms of transportation, the major cities have been experiencing worsening transport and traffic problems resulting in high rates of traffic accidents and air pollution. In communications, although the liberalization policy of communications allowed more players that provide all types of communication services, the country’s communication, suffers from low internet speed, high infrastructure cost, outdated law, unsatisfactory service, and hackers. Problems for water supply include lack of water supply, high rates of non-revenue water, and increasing demand due to population growth and requirements of agriculture, business, and industrial establishments. Water-related problems are handling of wastewater, drainage, and flooding. On the other hand, solid wastes volume increases with increasing population and industrialization. Strategies to address the problems and challenges caused by rapid urbanization include institutional reforms to create multiple growth centers, improve public transport system and services so that many more people will use it, address the widening water supply/demand gap through water conservation, watershed management, rainwater harnessing, and expansion of the water supply system. To address the widening water supply/demand gap, water conservation, watershed management, rainwater harnessing, and expansion of the water supply system need to be careful, encompassing plan of action and implementation. Communications problems require expanding market liberalization, evaluating policy structures, review of licensing schemes among others. For solid waste management, the government‘s overall policy is shown in the National Solid Waste Management (NSWM) Framework with the key words: avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, treatment, and residues management.

Motorcycle Ban and Traffic Safety: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment at Zhejiang, China

Motorcycle bans have been implemented in many cities across China for long time, one of the main reasons for which is the high death rate of the traffic accidents related to motorcycles’ fast speed and weak safety. This study applies a quasi-experiment on whether or not and when motorcycle bans are implemented in the 11 prefecture cities in Zhejiang Province, taking the prefecture-level cities with motorcycle bans as the experimental group and the others as the control group, so as to identify whether such bans can effectively reduce the number of traffic accidents and deaths, as well as the related internal mechanism. This study concludes that the effect of the motorcycle bans on reducing the number of traffic accident deaths is significant, and their impact does not decrease over time due to the diversity of policies. Further, the mechanism analysis shows that the motorcycle bans have not only reduced the number of motorcycles and thus may improve the traffic safety but also diminished the traffic accidents by reducing the fatality rate. Finally, this study proposes to optimize the motorcycle bans by planning special lanes and strengthening motorcycle management.

Aberrant Behaviors of Heavy Vehicle Drivers Carrying Hazardous Materials at an International Border in Iran

Background: Most road collisions are directly attributed to human factors. Since aberrant behaviors of drivers play a pivotal role in the occurrence of road accidents, it is worth studying driver behaviors in a riskier situation of carrying hazardous materials. This study aimed to evaluate the behaviors of the drivers carrying hazardous materials at the international border of Bashmaq-Marivan, Iran. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 250 Iranian drivers carrying hazardous materials at the international border of Bashmaq-Marivan. The participants were included taking a census. Data were collected using the Manchester Driver Behavior Questionnaire (MDBQ). Data analysis was performed by SPSS v 16. The p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The drivers carrying inflammable liquids had more lapses compared to those carrying inflammable gases. The drivers with less driving experience and higher driving speed had more errors, as well as aggressive and ordinary violations. Higher rates of aggressive violations and errors were detected in young drivers, while the drivers with higher rates of accidents had comparatively more lapses and ordinary violation. Conclusion: Considering the effects of age, driving experience, high speed, and accident experience on aberrant behaviors in driving, it is recommended that public training targeting specific groups be implemented regarding the legal constraints of driving.

Occupational health and safety in agriculture - a brief report on organization, legislation and support in selected European countries.

Agriculture and forestry are among the most dangerous professions in Europe, with a high level of accidents affecting the sustainability and viability of the sector. International conventions, EU directives and national legislation build the fundamental basis for prevention. The aim of the study is to describe and categorize national mechanisms of occupational safety and health (OSH) for agricultural workers in Europe, to assess the extent of implementing safety regulation, the body in charge, and to give examples of health and safety initiatives. Results of a questionnaire-survey on basic safety regulations on farms sent by e-mail to the representatives of 30 participating European countries in the context of the Sacurima COST action network (CA 16123) are presented. Due to the complexity, only selected countries are described in this study highlighting the regulative bodies, occupational health services or specific training offers, as well as the complexity of the mechanisms. One of the most serious issues and deficits of EU OSH regulation is the exclusion of self-employed farmers who compose nearly 90% of the farming population. This leads to serious under-reporting of accidents, and because one of the most common measures for the performance of health and safety initiatives are the injury and ill health statistics, better registration systems are urgently needed in almost all countries as a basis for preventive efforts. The results of the study provide a basis for raising awareness about the current OSH systems in Europe, and the importance of developing sector specific OSH strategies. The proposed activities should assist in tackling high accident rates and poor occupational health for self-employed farmers.

Study on the Correlations among Environmental Protective Factor of Resilience, Social Exclusion, and Hope of Disadvantaged Youths

A needy family is the underprivileged group in the society, in which children and youths growing in a needy family are the most underprivileged group, who have no choice and could not overcome it by themselves. Effects of poverty on children contain malnutrition or disorder, more chronic diseases, higher epidemic disease infection rate, high accident rate, low study preparation, low learning achievement, high social emotion and behavior problems, high risk of domestic violence, and bad parent-child relationship. Discussions about poverty are often related to social exclusion. Some people regard social exclusion as the division of poor people; social exclusion is not simply a result, but a dynamic process; social exclusion is not the result of inequality, but the behavior to separate people and group due to systems. Aiming at disadvantaged youths in southern Taiwan, random sampling is adopted to distribute 450 copies of questionnaire, and 348 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 77%. The retrieved questionnaire data are analyzed with statistics software. The research results show significantly negative correlations between environmental protective factor of resilience and social exclusion, remarkably negative correlations between social exclusion and hope, and notably positive correlations between environmental protective factor of resilience and hope. According to the results to propose suggestions, it is expected to provide various environmental factors in the growing process of youths for reinforcing youths’ confidence and cultivate the resilience.

“Where Have I Heard It?” Assessing the Recall of Traffic Safety Campaigns in the Dominican Republic

Although traffic crashes are the eighth leading cause of death in the world, and are linked to vehicle and infrastructure-related factors, crash-related fatality rates are much higher in low-income countries. Particularly, the Dominican Republic is the country with the highest accident rate in the whole American continent. Therefore, in the past few years, public agencies have been developing different measures aimed at reducing traffic fatalities, including road safety campaigns. The aim of the present study was to assess the recalling of such campaigns among the Dominican population, which may serve as an additional indicator to evaluate their effectiveness in this and other countries of the region presenting similar traffic safety issues. For this cross-sectional study, a nationwide sample composed of 1260 people (50% males and 50% females) with a mean age of 39.3 years was used. The data were collected through personal interviews. Overall, the recall of traffic safety campaigns was found to be very low (9%); male drivers who were employed, possessed a driver’s license and habitually drove were the ones who could commonly remember these campaigns. The results of this study suggest that further evaluation and follow-up could help to maximize the impact of future traffic campaigns and advertisements in the Dominican Republic, as well as in other emerging countries of the region with similar characteristics. Further, key segments of the population such as the female, young, less formally educated and non-driving populations should be also targeted for further actions in this regard.

Stakeholders Awareness of Safety Leadership Through Construction Safety Management System in Indonesia

Construction workplace safety has become serious issues among global companies. Improvement on occupational safety and health has been carried out. However, construction still becomes a sector with the highest accident rate. Particularly in Indonesia, construction contributes to 32% of accident rate followed by transportation, forestry, and mining. Main driver to improve safety performance is safety leadership as the frontline part of Construction Safety Management System (CSMS). Since it is a non-technical aspect, stakeholders’ awareness is doubtful. Therefore, this study aims to describe Indonesia construction stakeholders’ awareness of safety leadership as part of CSMS. Questionnaire was distributed to 693 respondents comprises of government, planners, consultants, private contractors, and State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) contractors. The result was analyzed with descriptive statistic to reveal the stakeholders’ level of awareness. SOE contractor has the highest awareness of safety leadership. It is considered as obvious finding since SOE contractor becomes dominant in Indonesia’s construction industry. The majority of big-classified contractors are SOE. Meanwhile, contractors’ BOD is the lowest. The BOD commonly uses managerial leadership to run the company rather than safety leadership. However, the safety leadership should be owned by every stakeholder in construction industry whether they are in high or low management level.

Lifting path planning of mobile cranes based on an improved RRT algorithm

Lifting operations of mobile cranes are one of the commonly-seen and most important activities for prefabrication housing production (PHP) on sites. However, relevant operations are normally based on the experience of operators or project managers, this often leads to low efficiency as well as high accident rate due to dynamic and complex construction sites. Thus, it is important and necessary to develop an appropriate approach to the lifting planning of mobile cranes so as to guide on-site operations. This paper proposes an improved Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm for lifting path planning of mobile cranes. Considering the critical role of Nearest Neighbor Search (NNS) in the implementation of RRT algorithm, a novel strategy for searching the nearest neighbor is developed, i.e., Generalized Distance Method and Cell Method. Both methods are tested in simulation-based experiments. The results show that 1) the Generalized distance method not only reduces the search time, but also unifies the unit of distance measurement and clarifies the physical meaning of distance; 2) the Cell method dramatically reduces the traversal range as well as the search time; and 3) both methods improve the quality of lifting path planning of mobile cranes. This improved RRT algorithm enables rapid path planning of mobile cranes in a dynamic and complex construction environment. The outcomes of this research not only contribute to the body of knowledge in spatial path planning of crane lifting operations, but also have the potential of significantly improving efficiency and safety in crane lifting practices.

Aviation Safety in South Sudan

Africa contributes only 3.9% in air traffic, but records 19% of aviation accidents, in terms of fatalities. High accident rates are attributed to poor compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). This study analyzed the prevalence of aircraft accidents in the youngest African country, South Sudan, which obtained independence in July 9, 2011. The quantitative study examined aviation accident databases to determine the number of aircraft accidents in South Sudan, the aircraft manufacturers and aircraft models, number of fatalities, and causes of accidents, categorized as pilot error, technical failure, air traffic control, or weather-related events. The accidents were collected from the Aviation Safety Network (ASN) database, which is maintained by the Flight Safety Foundation. A total of 83 accident cases were examined, with 32 satisfying the criteria of accidents covering the July 2011 to May 2021 period. The findings show that Antonov aircrafts account for a majority of the accidents (31.25%), followed by Cessna (21.88%) and LET (15.63%). The 32 aircrafts involved in the accidents were carrying 378 occupants, 72 occupants died, representing a fatality rate of 19.5%. Antonov (66.67%) and LET (27.7%) contributed the greatest fatalities. In terms of accident causes, technical failures (46.9%) and pilot errors (43.8%) were the most dominant causes. Weather-related conditions only contributed to 9.4% of all the cases investigated. These results show that South Sudan continues to suffer from poor aviation infrastructure, poor compliance to internationally recognized SARPs.

Forgotten fatalities: British military, mining and maritime accidents since 1900.

BackgroundComparative long-term trends in fatal accident rates in the UK’s most hazardous occupations have not been reported.AimsTo compare trends in fatal accident rates in six of the most hazardous occupations (the three armed forces, merchant shipping, sea fishing and coal mining) and the general British workforce during peacetime years since 1900.MethodsExaminations of annual mortality reports, returns, inquiry files and statistics. The main outcome measure was the fatal accident rate per 100 000 population employed.ResultsThese six occupations accounted for ~40% of all fatal accidents in the British workforce. Fatal accident rates were highest in merchant shipping to 1914 (400–600 per 100 000) and in the Royal Air Force and sea fishing by the early 1920s (around 300 per 100 000). Since the 1950s sea fishing has remained the most hazardous occupation (50–200). Widespread reductions in fatal accident rates for each occupation have been greatest in recent years in the three armed forces and merchant shipping. Compared with the general workforce, relative risks of fatalities have increased in recent decades in all these occupations except shipping.ConclusionsAll six occupations still have high fatal accident rates. The greatly increased fatalities in sea fishing generally and in the Royal Air Force during its early years reflect, for different reasons, cultures of extreme risk-taking in these two sectors. Reductions in fatality rates in the armed forces over the last 20 years are due largely to decreases in land transport accidents.

Constructiońs health and safety Plan: The leading role of the main preventive management document on construction sites

The European Union's strategic framework seeks to better protect its millions of workers from work-related accidents and illnesses. One of the main challenges, included in the European Strategy 2014–2020, is to improve the application of existing health and safety regulations, one of the strategic objectives being to help small and medium-sized companies to better comply with safety regulations and health. This study focuses on the Construction Sector, considered one of the economic activities with the highest accident rate, hardship and danger. Its objective, based on the regulatory framework that regulates health and safety in the Sector, is to know the effectiveness of the main management tool that construction works have, the Health and Safety Plan. In this study, 3600 Health and Safety Plans were analyzed in the Autonomous Community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. The results show that the Health and Safety Plans are documents that present great deficiencies and that do not comply with the regulatory requirements, putting at risk the management of prevention in the workplace and therefore the health and safety of its workers.

Research trends in mining accidents study: A systematic literature review

Mining is well known as a high-risk industry with high accident rates. However, there is a scarcity of material that aims to investigate and understand the research trends in mining accidents and the current scenarios related to this topic. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review was to investigate the research trends in mining accidents. By applying a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) review method, a systematic literature review (SLR) identified 57 studies related to mining accident issues from 2015 to 2019 from the ScienceDirect and Scopus databases. Based on these 57 studies, four main themes were developed: the main causes of mining accidents (46%), the prevention of mining accidents (20%), and the challenges of (17%) and impacts of post-mining accidents (17%). The four themes produced a total of 35 sub-themes. Mechanical failure was identified as the main cause of mining accidents and the application of software or safety models is essential to minimize the number of mining accidents. Mine owners have the responsibility to provide a safe working environment for mine workers, and face substantial challenges to achieve this. Moreover, the impact of post-mining accidents led to adverse impacts on the environment. This systematic review study aims to assist mine owners by providing a better understanding of mining accident issues. The study also addresses miners, government and policymakers so all groups can collectively target the reduction of mining accidents in the future.

Development of the Level of Preventive Action Method by Observation of the Characteristic Value for the Assessment of Occupational Risks on Construction Sites

The special circumstances of the high accident rate in the construction industry compared to other sectors are significant and represent a major concern for many countries. Construction work involves a large number of risks that cause or may cause accidents with serious consequences for the worker’s health, even death. The Level of Preventive Action is a novel methodology of occupational risk assessment adapted to building works. It is based on the development of the mathematical formulation of William T. Fine’s method. Its implementation covers four of the techniques for combating risk: Safety at Work, Industrial Hygiene, Ergonomics and Psychosociology. It evaluates, quantitatively, the amount of preventive action required based on the characteristic complexity of the work units, their location and their interdependence. The method protocol defines a new observation parameter called Characteristic Value which is inherent to the real situation of the construction process. The aim of this study is to develop the characterisation of the Characteristic Value in the Level of Preventive Action method. It also justifies the procedure to obtain this Characteristic Value and how its implementation and result should be interpreted. Finally, the methodology is applied on a real case.

Severity of occupational agricultural accidents in Spain, 2013–2018

The objective of this paper is to understand the causes of work accidents in Spain in the agricultural sector, and to propose possible plans and actions to improve the sector’s accident rates in the future. The paper analyses the complete pool of accidents in Spain from 2013 to 2018. Fourteen variables are studied, with the influence of each relating to accident severity, divided into three types (light, serious, and fatal). The analysis is based on a total of 158,166 accidents. Results show that the severity of the accident is related to age, gender, nationality, economic activity, company staff, length of service, location of accident, deviation, injury, days of absence, day of the week, injury, and region of Spain. This sector produces a high rate of serious accidents compared to all other sectors, employs the most foreign workers, and uses heavy machinery at work that also serves as a means of transport. We offer conclusions and future lines of research to improve worker safety and also help regulators. These results provide information that should be of use for both companies and regulators, to increase the safety of agricultural activities. This study analyzes accidents in the agriculture sector in Spain in the period between 2013 and 2018, therefore conclusions may be different when other countries of the European Union or of the rest of the world are considered.