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Accident

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A memorial to the 97 victims of theHillsborough disaster.

Anaccidentis an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans.[1]The termaccidentimplies that nobody should beblamed,but the event may have been caused byunrecognized or unaddressed risks.Most researchers who studyunintentional injuryavoid using the termaccidentand focus on factors that increase risk of severe injury and that reduce injury incidence and severity.[2]For example, when a tree falls down during awind storm,its fall may not have been caused by humans, but the tree's type, size, health, location, or improper maintenance may have contributed to the result. Mostcar wrecksare not true accidents; however, English speakers started using that word in the mid-20th century as a result ofmedia manipulationby the US automobile industry.[3]

Types[edit]

Unintentional injury deaths per million persons in 2012
107–247
248–287
288–338
339–387
388–436
437–505
506–574
575–655
656–834
835–1,165

Physical and non-physical[edit]

Physical examples of accidents include unintended motor vehicle collisions, tongue biting while eating, electric shock by accidentally touching bare electric wire, drowning,falls,being injured by touching something sharp or hot, or bumping into something while walking.

Non-physical examples are unintentionally revealing asecretor otherwise saying something incorrectly, accidental deletion of data, or forgetting an appointment.

Accidents by activity[edit]

Accidents by vehicle[edit]

Versailles rail accidentin 1842

It has been argued by some critics that vehicle collisions are not truly accidents, given that they are mostly caused by preventable causes such asdrunk drivingand intentionally driving too fast, and as such should not be referred to asaccidents.[3]Since 1994, the USNational Highway Traffic Safety Administrationhas asked media and the public to not use the wordaccidentto describe vehicle collisions.[3]

Aviation accidents and incidents[edit]

Bicycle accidents[edit]

Maritime incidents[edit]

Traffic collisions[edit]

Train wrecks[edit]

Domino effect accidents[edit]

In the process industry, a primary accident may propagate to nearby units, resulting in a chain of accidents, which is calleddomino effect accident.

Common causes[edit]

Incidence of accidents (of a severity of resulting in seeking medical care), sorted by activity (in Denmark in 2002)

Poisons, vehicle collisions and falls are the most common causes of fatal injuries. According to a 2005 survey of injuries sustained at home, which used data from the National Vital Statistics System of the United StatesNational Center for Health Statistics,falls, poisoning, and fire/burn injuries are the most common causes of death.[5]

The United States also collects statistically valid injury data (sampled from 100 hospitals) through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System administered by theConsumer Product Safety Commission.[6]This program was revised in 2000 to include all injuries rather than just injuries involving products.[6]Data onemergency departmentvisits is also collected through theNational Health Interview Survey.[7]In The U.S. theBureau of Labor Statisticshas available on their website extensive statistics on workplace accidents.[8]

Accident models[edit]

Accident triangleshave been proposed to model the number of minor problems vs. the number of serious incidents. These include Heinrich's triangle[9]and Frank E. Bird's accident ratio triangle (proposed in 1966 and shown above).

Many models to characterize and analyze accidents have been proposed,[10]which can be classified by type. No single model is the sole correct approach.[11]Notable types and models include:[12]

Ishikawa diagramsare sometimes used to illustrateroot-cause analysisandfive whysdiscussions.

See also[edit]

General[edit]

Transportation[edit]

Other specific topics[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Woodward, Gary C. (2013).The Rhetoric of Intention in Human Affairs.Lexington Books. p. 41.ISBN978-0-7391-7905-5.Since 'accidents' by definition deprive us of first-order human causes…
  2. ^Robertson, Leon S. (2015).Injury Epidemiology: Fourth Edition.Lulu Books.Archivedfrom the original on 2018-01-26.Retrieved2017-12-09.
  3. ^abcStromberg, Joseph (2015-07-20)."We don't say" plane accident. "We shouldn't say" car accident "either".Vox.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-09-07.Retrieved2021-09-07.
  4. ^"ILO Safety and Health at WorkArchived2022-01-19 at theWayback Machine".International Labour Organization (ILO)
  5. ^Runyan CW, Casteel C, Perkis D, et al. (January 2005). "Unintentional injuries in the home in the United States Part I: mortality".Am J Prev Med.28(1): 73–9.doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2004.09.010.PMID15626560.
  6. ^abCPSC.National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS)Archived2013-03-13 at theWayback Machine.Database query available through:NEISS Injury DataArchived2013-04-23 at theWayback Machine.
  7. ^NCHS.Emergency Department VisitsArchived2017-07-11 at theWayback Machine.CDC.
  8. ^"Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities".www.bls.gov.Archivedfrom the original on 2019-06-02.Retrieved2014-04-02.
  9. ^abH.W. Heinreich (1931).Industrial Accident Prevention.McGraw-Hill.
  10. ^A long list of books and papers is given in:Taylor, G.A.; Easter, K.M.; Hegney, R.P. (2004).Enhancing Occupational Safety and Health.Elsevier. pp.241–245, see also pp. 140–141, 147–153, also on Kindle.ISBN0750661976.
  11. ^Kjellen, Urban; Albrechtsen, Eirik (2017).Prevention of Accidents and Unwanted Occurrences: Theory, Methods, and Tools in Safety Management, Second Edition.CRC Press. p. 75.ISBN978-1-4987-3666-4.
  12. ^Yvonne Toft; Geoff Dell; Karen K Klockner; Allison Hutton (2012). "Models of Causation: Safety". In HaSPA (Health and Safety Professionals Alliance) (ed.).OHS Body of Knowledge(PDF).Safety Institute of Australia Ltd.ISBN978-0-9808743-1-0.Archived(PDF)from the original on 2017-02-25.Retrieved2017-03-25.
  13. ^Bird, Frank E.; Germain, George L. (1985).Practical Loss Control Leadership.International Loss Control Institute.ISBN978-0880610544.OCLC858460141.
  14. ^Gibson, Haddon, Viner
  15. ^Viner
  16. ^Svenson, Ola (September 1991). "The Accident Evolution and Barrier Function (AEB) Model Applied to Incident Analysis in the Processing Industries".Risk Analysis.11(3): 499–507.Bibcode:1991RiskA..11..499S.doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.1991.tb00635.x.PMID1947355.
  17. ^Reason, James T. (1991). "Too Little and Too Late: A Commentary on Accident and Incident Reporting". In Van Der Schaaf, T.W.; Lucas, D.A.; Hale, A.R. (eds.).Near Miss Reporting as a Safety Tool.Butterworth-Heinemann. pp. 9–26.
  18. ^Perrow, Charles (1984).Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies.Basic Books.ISBN978-0465051434.
  19. ^Leveson, Nancy (April 2004). "A new accident model for engineering safer systems".Safety Science.42(4): 237–270.CiteSeerX10.1.1.141.697.doi:10.1016/S0925-7535(03)00047-X.
  20. ^Hollnagel, 2012
  21. ^Dekker 2011

External links[edit]