Models of drift: man-made disaster & incubation, systemic migration, normalisation of deviance, practical drift

More extracts from Foundations of Safety Science, this time some points around the different perspectives of drift and disaster incubation. Some points: ·        “Disasters do not come out of the blue, says man-made disaster theory” but are “preceded by sometimes lengthy periods of gradually increasing risk” ·        These risks often go unnoticed or unrecognised – incubation period… Continue reading Models of drift: man-made disaster & incubation, systemic migration, normalisation of deviance, practical drift

Doctors are more dangerous than gun owners: a rejoinder to error counting

This 2006 paper from Sid Dekker critically challenges the assumptions underlying “error counting” in safety. Some points: (Not a summary) Error background Error counts by organisations are seen to have numerous benefits – providing “an immediate, numeric estimate of the probability of accidental death, injury or other undesirable event” However, categorising errors requires “a number… Continue reading Doctors are more dangerous than gun owners: a rejoinder to error counting

The Shift from System to Individual in Safety Approaches

I found these extracts interesting from Foundations of Safety Science – summarising some key developments and interpretations from over a century of safety-scientific approaches. They observe that despite a myriad of approaches, and developments, “almost every approach seems to end up reverting, one way or another, to the people who work in that system”. As… Continue reading The Shift from System to Individual in Safety Approaches