Learning from Accidents

Learning from Accidents
Author: Trevor Kletz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2007-08-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1136388133

Review of previous edition: "Trevor Kletz's book makes an invaluable contribution to the systematic, professional and scientific approach to accident investigation". The Chemical Engineer Fully revised and updated, the third edition of Learning from Accidents provides more information on accident investigation, including coverage of accidents involving liquefied gases, building collapse and other incidents that have occurred because faults were invisible (e.g. underground pipelines). By analysing accidents that have occurred Trevor Kletz shows how we can learn and thus be better able to prevent accidents happening again. Looking at a wide range of incidents, covering the process industries, nuclear industry and transportation, he analyses each accident in a practical and non-theoretical fashion and summarises each with a chain of events showing the prevention and mitigation which could have occurred at every stage. At all times Learning from Accidents, 3rd Edition emphasises cause and prevention rather than human interest or cleaning up the mess. Anyone involved in accident investigation and reporting of whatever sort and all those who work in industry, whether in design, operations or loss prevention will find this book full of invaluable guidance and advice.

Learning from Accidents

Learning from Accidents
Author: Trevor Kletz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2007-08-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1136388141

Review of previous edition: "Trevor Kletz's book makes an invaluable contribution to the systematic, professional and scientific approach to accident investigation". The Chemical Engineer Fully revised and updated, the third edition of Learning from Accidents provides more information on accident investigation, including coverage of accidents involving liquefied gases, building collapse and other incidents that have occurred because faults were invisible (e.g. underground pipelines). By analysing accidents that have occurred Trevor Kletz shows how we can learn and thus be better able to prevent accidents happening again. Looking at a wide range of incidents, covering the process industries, nuclear industry and transportation, he analyses each accident in a practical and non-theoretical fashion and summarises each with a chain of events showing the prevention and mitigation which could have occurred at every stage. At all times Learning from Accidents, 3rd Edition emphasises cause and prevention rather than human interest or cleaning up the mess. Anyone involved in accident investigation and reporting of whatever sort and all those who work in industry, whether in design, operations or loss prevention will find this book full of invaluable guidance and advice.

Learning from Accidents

Learning from Accidents
Author: Trevor A. Kletz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2001
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 075064883X

This volume shows, by analyzing accidents that have occurred, how we can learn more from them and thus be better able to prevent them occurring again. At all times the book emphasizes cause and prevention rather than human interest or cleaning up the mess.

Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning
Author: Emma Walker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2021-06-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1493052799

It's easier to stay alive if you know what's out there. That's the philosophy behind Dead Reckoning, an honest, unflinching, sometimes-thrilling collection of close calls and catastrophes in the Great Outdoors. Emma Walker's narrative nonfiction covers outdoor activities ranging from hiking to sea kayaking to backcountry skiing, all in accessible, easy-to-understand terms. At the end of each chapter, she distills lessons learned for staying safe in the outdoors––all with a relatable (and occasionally vulnerable) twist.

Know the Risk

Know the Risk
Author: Romney Duffey
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2002-11-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0080509738

We live in a technological world, exposed to many risks and errors and the fear of death. Know the Risk shows us how we can learn from the many errors and tragic accidents which have plagued our developing technological world.This breakthrough volume presents a new concept and theory that shows how errors can and should be analyzed so that learning and experience are accounted for. The authors show that, by using a universal learning curve, errors can be tracked and managed so that they are reduced to the smallest number possible.The authors have devoted a number of years to gathering data, analyzing theories relating to error reduction, design improvement, management of errors and assignment of cause. The analyzed data relates to millions of errors. They find a common thread between all technology-related accidents and link all of these errors (from the headline stories to the everyday accidents). They challenge the reader to take a different look at the stream of threats, risks, dangers, statistics and errors by presenting a new perspective. The book makes use of detailed illustrations and explores many headline accidents which highlight human weaknesses in harnessing and exploiting the technology we have developed; from the Titanic to Chernobyl, Bhopal to Concorde, the Mary Rose to the Paddington rail crash and examine errors over which we have little or no control. By analyzing the vast data society has collected, the authors show how the famous accidents and our everyday risks are related.The authors prove the strength of their observations by comparing their findings to the recorded history of tragedies, disasters, accidents and incidents in chemical, airline, shipping, rail, automobile, nuclear, medical, industrial and manufacturing technologies. They also address the management of Quality and losses in production, the search for zero defects and the avoidance of personal risk and danger.Stresses the importance of a learning environment for safety improvementPlaces both quality and safety management in the same learning contextLearn how to track and manage errors to reduce as quickly as possible

Organizational Learning at NASA

Organizational Learning at NASA
Author: Julianne G. Mahler
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2009-03-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1589016025

Just after 9:00 a.m. on February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart and was lost over Texas. This tragic event led, as the Challenger accident had 17 years earlier, to an intensive government investigation of the technological and organizational causes of the accident. The investigation found chilling similarities between the two accidents, leading the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to conclude that NASA failed to learn from its earlier tragedy. Despite the frequency with which organizations are encouraged to adopt learning practices, organizational learning—especially in public organizations—is not well understood and deserves to be studied in more detail. This book fills that gap with a thorough examination of NASA’s loss of the two shuttles. After offering an account of the processes that constitute organizational learning, Julianne G. Mahler focuses on what NASA did to address problems revealed by Challenger and its uneven efforts to institutionalize its own findings. She also suggests factors overlooked by both accident commissions and proposes broadly applicable hypotheses about learning in public organizations.

Prevention of Accidents Through Experience Feedback

Prevention of Accidents Through Experience Feedback
Author: Urban Kjellen
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 451
Release: 2002-01-04
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0203186176

Providing a practical introduction to the basic theories and principals of accident prevention through diagnosis and feedback control, this book presents the various methods and tools of safety, health, and environment (SHE) practice where experience feedback is employed. These include methods of accident and near accident reporting and investigation, workplace inspection, SHE performance measurement, and safety analysis and auditing. It also assesses potentials and limitations of the different methods and tools, including learning from experience of unwanted events and errors. It includes highly applicable data on developing a computer-supported SHE information system.

Lessons from Disaster

Lessons from Disaster
Author: Trevor A. Kletz
Publisher: Gulf Professional Publishing
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1993
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780884151548

It is by avoiding accidents that the process industries will improve their public image. Lessons from Disaster focuses upon the apparent inability of organizations to learn, and retain in long-term, the lessons drawn from accidents. Incidents of a similar type continue to occur within companies repeatedly. Trevor Kletz illustrates this with detailed cases, which form a gold mine of experience and advice for every engineer. He offers, with his customary vision and imagination, his own advice on how to improve the corporate memory.

Software and System Safety

Software and System Safety
Author: Terry L. Hardy
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012
Genre: Computer software
ISBN: 1468574701

System safety is a widely accepted management and engineering approach to analyze and address risks in complex systems in order to prevent accidents. Because software and computing systems are integral to most systems, software safety has become a critical component of an overall system safety effort. Software and System Safety discusses critical elements of the discipline of system safety and shows how software and computing systems fit in the system safety process. Software-specific aspects of the system safety process are addressed to show concerns common to complex systems. The many accidents and incidents presented in this book illustrate important lessons learned and show how software-related hazards can be misidentified, software risks can be improperly assessed, hazard controls may be misapplied, and software and system testing may not effectively verify that the risk had been reduced. The lessons learned come from a variety of industries and organizations, and include the author’s personal experience. The real-world lessons provided in this book can be used to improve existing software safety and system safety efforts, and can help when planning new system safety programs.

Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents

Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents
Author: James Reason
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-01-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1134855354

Major accidents are rare events due to the many barriers, safeguards and defences developed by modern technologies. But they continue to happen with saddening regularity and their human and financial consequences are all too often unacceptably catastrophic. One of the greatest challenges we face is to develop more effective ways of both understanding and limiting their occurrence. This lucid book presents a set of common principles to further our knowledge of the causes of major accidents in a wide variety of high-technology systems. It also describes tools and techniques for managing the risks of such organizational accidents that go beyond those currently available to system managers and safety professionals. James Reason deals comprehensively with the prevention of major accidents arising from human and organizational causes. He argues that the same general principles and management techniques are appropriate for many different domains. These include banks and insurance companies just as much as nuclear power plants, oil exploration and production companies, chemical process installations and air, sea and rail transport. Its unique combination of principles and practicalities make this seminal book essential reading for all whose daily business is to manage, audit and regulate hazardous technologies of all kinds. It is relevant to those concerned with understanding and controlling human and organizational factors and will also interest academic readers and those working in industrial and government agencies.