Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 18.1
Accident Statistics from a Country
in Europe
Location
Fatalities Injuries
Slight Injuries
Home
7561
120,000 1,500,000 (estimate)
Road
6810
88,563 253,835
Rail
216
920 11,570
Aircraft
147
? ?
Water transport
158
? ?
Factory
628
? 11,805 (3+ days away from work)
Farm
136
? 8,945 (3+ days away from work)
• Farming accidents, air traffic accidents, and water transportation accidents are about the
same in this particular country.
• There are many question marks in the statistics, since the standards for reporting varies
for different work activities (factory, farming, mining, rail transport, and water
transport). This is because statistics are collected by different authorities with different
legislations. This makes it difficult to compare the hazard of the different work
activities.
• From the statistics one could conclude that the home environment is the most
dangerous, but this is not true. In order to estimate the relative hazard of each
environment one must divide the number of accidents by the number of hours that
people spend in each environment per year. People spend about ten times as much
time at home as they spend in cars. Driving is hence a more dangerous activity than
staying at home.
At home, children and retirees have the most accidents. They spend almost their entire
days at home, and they are therefore relatively overexposed to opportunities for having
accidents. According to the statistics the most common type of home accident is tripping
and falling, and the most frequent cause of fatality is falling down the stairs.
Some accident statistics are relatively unreliable, particularly in the case of developing
countries. A colleague of mine who worked for the World Health Organization (WHO)
found out that statistics on work fatalities are rarely recorded in China. However,
information on widow's pensions could be used, since it mentioned the reason for the
pension. In the Western world it can also be difficult to get reliable statistics. Most safety
experts in the U.S. agree that only about 50% of the fatalities at work are reported. The
main reason seems to be that fatalities at work often lead to lawsuits, and employers
therefore try to protect themselves by not reporting them. Nonetheless, fatality statistics
are more accurate than injury statistics.
18.3
SOCIAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL FACTORS IN ACCIDENT
STATISTICS
There have been interesting trends over the years in accident statistics. Because of
advances in technology society has become more hazardous. In 1870, 8% of the accidents
in France were traffic accidents; today the figure is about 40%. Power hand tools, nuclear
