Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
from Lyon, which took place in 1966 and cost the lives of 18 persons, for example,
is considered the
rst industrial disaster of recent French history. Other serious
incidents were recorded in the United States (respectively in Kingman, Arizona,
1974, Texas City, Texas in 1978, Murdock, Illinois, 1983). The most serious
disaster, however, happened in 1984 in San Juan Ixhuatepec, a center near Mexico
City. The chain of explosions of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) from the tanks of the
facilities struck the nearby village, causing death (from 500 to 600 deaths) and
destruction. Equally devastating explosions were recorded in 1989 in the Houston
Ship Channel in Texas (23 victims), and in 2000 in the Nigerian oil pipelines (over
300 victims).
Shipping casualties have continued to be even at this stage a signi
cant part of
technological accidents related to transports. This kind of disaster has affected not
only merchant ships but also ferries and passengers ships, often with dramatic
consequences. In the latter case, the main causes of disasters are not so much been
strictly technical in nature but have often been determined, especially in disasters
occurred in developing countries, by lack of maintenance of the ferries, over-
crowding, severe negligence and errors for maneuver. In this type of disaster, the
increase of traf
c by sea and especially the need for continuous supply of crude oil
by the most developed countries has added more advanced ones caused by the
sinking of the supertankers. These technological accidents are particularly feared
for their environmental consequences, immediate and in the long term.
The sinking of the Exxon Valdez in March of 1989 off the coast of Alaska, is
considered one of the most serious environmental disaster in history until BP
s
Deepwater Horizon oil rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico of 2010. The tanker
spilled about 40 million liters of crude oil into the sea, and the oil eventually
polluted large parts of the coasts. Quite similar to the Exxon Valdez disaster were
the
'
re and oil spill of the Norwegian tanker Mega Borg, off the coast of Texas
(1990), the Haven oil tanker disaster in the Gulf of Genoa, Italy (1991), the Aegeum
Sea disaster, off the Spanish port of La Coruna (1992), the sinking of the Liberian
tanker Braer off Shetland Islands (1993), the Sea Express oil spill, off the coast of
Wales (1996), and the Prestige sank in face of the Spanish coast (2002), that
polluted the coasts of Galicia, as also as those of Portugal and France.
22
Technological progress, the lowering in airfares and the process of globalization
have also determined the rise in the traf
cking of goods and passengers by air.
Among the various consequences, this process, which began at the end of the
1970s, called into question the air safety standards. According to some interpre-
tations, policies for reducing costs of management adopted by airlines during these
years had as a consequence a reduction of the inspections and maintenance pro-
cedures and therefore a reduction of safety standards, especially in the low cost
airlines or in those in greater
culties. All this would have accordingly
led to an increased risk of accidents. The disaster of ValuJet
nancial dif
ight 592, crashed in
the Everglades in southern Florida in May of 1996 is, according to some
22
Silei (
2011
).
