• Safety and Health at Work
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.189-197
• /
• 2017

Background: Despite the recent efforts to prevent industrial accidents in the Republic of Korea, the industrial accident rate has not improved much. Industrial safety policies and safety management are also known to be inefficient. This study focused on dynamic characteristics of industrial safety systems and their effects on safety performance in the Republic of Korea. Such dynamic characteristics are particularly important for restructuring of the industrial safety system. Methods: The effects of damping and elastic characteristics of the industrial safety system model on safety performance were examined and feedback control performance was explained in view of cost and benefit. The implications on safety policies of restructuring the industrial safety system were also explored. Results: A strong correlation between the safety budget and the industrial accident rate enabled modeling of an industrial safety system with these variables as the input and the output, respectively. A more effective and efficient industrial safety system could be realized by having weaker elastic characteristics and stronger damping characteristics in it. A substantial decrease in total social cost is expected as the industrial safety system is restructured accordingly. Conclusion: A simple feedback control with proportional-integral action is effective in prevention of industrial accidents. Securing a lower level of elastic industrial accident-driving energy appears to have dominant effects on the control performance compared with the damping effort to dissipate such energy. More attention needs to be directed towards physical and social feedbacks that have prolonged cumulative effects. Suggestions for further improvement of the safety system including physical and social feedbacks are also made.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.726-734
• /
• 2020

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze and classify the characteristics of potential damage from hazardous chemical accidents in 229 administrative units in South Korea by reflecting the social and environmental characteristics of areas where chemical accidents can occur. Methods: A number of indicators were selected through preceding studies. Factor analysis was performed on selected indicators to derive factors, and cluster analysis was performed based on the factor scores. Results: As a result of the cluster analysis, 229 administrative units were divided into three clusters, and it was confirmed that each cluster had its own characteristics. Conclusions: The first cluster, "areas at risk of accident occurrence and spread of damage" was a type with a high potential for accident damage and a high density of hazardous facilities. The second cluster, "Urban infrastructure damage hazard areas" appeared to be a cluster with high urban development characteristics. Finally, the third cluster 'Urban and environmental damage hazard areas' appeared to be a cluster with an excellent natural environment. This study went further from the qualitative discussion related to existing chemical accidents to identify and respond to accident damage by reflecting the social and environmental characteristics of the region. Distinct from the previous studies related to the causes of accidents and the response system, it is meaningful to conduct empirical research focusing on the affected areas by analyzing the possibility of accident damage in reflection of the social and environmental characteristics of the community.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.97-107
• /
• 2018

PURPOSES : The effects on traffic accidents change with the changing environment. Accordingly, this study analyzes the characteristics of traffic accidents based on the personal characteristics (gender and age) of drivers, and those of 25 autonomous districts in Seoul, and suggests improvements. METHODS : Based on data pertaining to traffic accidents in Seoul, the analysis of accident characteristics was conducted by categorizing the types of traffic accidents according to the drivers' gender and age, and characteristics of 25 autonomous districts in Seoul. Further, for statistical verification, the SPSS software was used to derive influence variables through a multinomial logistic regression analysis, and a method for reducing traffic accidents was proposed. RESULTS : Analysis results show that males tend to be more involved in speed-related accidents and females in low-experience driving-related accidents such as those during parking and alleyway driving. In addition, variables such as age, automobile type, district, and day of the week are found to influence accident types. CONCLUSIONS : This study analyzed the accident characteristics based on personal and city characteristics to reflect the sociological characteristics that influence traffic accidents. The number of traffic accidents in Korea could be decreased drastically by implementing the results of this study in customized safety education and traffic maps.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.11 no.6
• /
• pp.145-154
• /
• 2012

This paper analyzed the characteristics of traffic accidents in all tunnels on nationwide freeways and selected some various independent variables related to accident occurrence in tunnels. The study aims to develop reliable accident forecasting models using the various dependent variables such as the number of accident (no.), no./km, and no./MVK. Finally, reliable multiple linear regression models were proposed in this paper. This study tested the validity verification of developed models through statistics such as $R^2$, F values, multicollinearity, residual analysis. The paper selected the accident forecasting models considering the characteristics of tunnel accidents and two models were finally proposed according to two groups of tunnel length. In the selected models, natural logarithm of ln(no./MVK) is used for the dependent variable and AADT, vertical slope, and tunnel hight are used for the independent variables. The reliability of two models was proved by the comparison analysis between field data and estimating data using RMSE and MAE. These models may be not only effective in evaluating tunnel safety under design and planning phases of tunnel but also useful to reduce traffic accidents in tunnels and to manage the traffic flow of tunnel.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.43 no.3
• /
• pp.371-380
• /
• 2023

Currently, as construction projects in Korea are becoming larger and more complex, the hazard rate of the construction industry is steadily increasing, contrary to other industries. This can be seen as an indication that the safety technology and safety consciousness of construction workers are insufficient compared to the improved construction technology. In addition, due to the characteristics of the construction industry based on manpower, most accidents appear in conventional forms such as fall and trip due to human errors. Therefore, analyzing the relationship between the characteristics of human resources and accidents and establishing detailed safety plans is an essential part of reducing construction accidents. In this study, a correlation analysis was conducted using 62,805 cases of construction accident cases over 3 years to derive the characteristics of accident occurrence focusing on the age of workers. As a result of the analysis, the relationship between the age of workers and the frequency and severity of accidents for each accident type was derived, focusing on the top 10 accident types.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.57-66
• /
• 2015

This study was performed to provide efficient fund managing plans for hospitals by looking into the management of medical fees for accident insurance. Car insurance, industrial accident insurance and seamen's insurance at a general hospital which is located in Busan during 29 months from January 1, 2009 to May 31, 2011 were assessed. The research data is the total number of 6,293 cases, including 2,251 car insurance cases, 2,350 industrial accident insurance cases, and 1,692 seamen's insurance cases. There were some significant differences found, as car insurance and seamen's insurance, including accident insurance, are types of insurance for which employers or traffic accidents offenders shall be the final premium payer. In addition, medical examination fees or premium payers are applied under their respective related laws. The findings suggest that it is necessary for managers of hospitals to prepare differentiated management schemes based on the characteristics of each insurer and schemes to ensure proper recovery strategies of uncollected medical account receivables.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.83-89
• /
• 2012

In order for start-up establishment to enter the business market, it has to get over the first mover advantage of the existing establishment. As a result, its working condition deteriorates and a great deal of occupational accidents take place. Based on 2009 standard, the occupational accident rate of start-up establishment is 1.28%, which is two times higher than existing establishment and the gap between manufacturing and service industry has been getting wide. For the characteristic of injured person in start-up establishment, it is showed that the occupancy rate of women and people with less than 30 age starting out in a career is high and the occupancy rate of occupational accident for holiday and night work is high. Therefore, the act for occupational accident prevention is needed in the early period of business and underprivileged group for occupational accident.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 2015

PURPOSES : This study tries to develop the accident models of 4-legged signalized intersections in Busan Metropolitan city with random parameter in count model to understanding the factors mainly influencing on accident frequencies. METHODS : To develop the traffic accidents modeling, this study uses RP(random parameter) negative binomial model which enables to take account of heterogeneity in data. By using RP model, each intersection's specific geometry characteristics were considered. RESULTS : By comparing the both FP(fixed parameter) and RP modeling, it was confirmed the RP model has a little higher explanation power than the FP model. Out of 17 statistically significant variables, 4 variables including traffic volumes on minor roads, pedestrian crossing on major roads, and distance of pedestrian crossing on major/minor roads are derived as having random parameters. In addition, the marginal effect and elasticity of variables are analyzed to understand the variables'impact on the likelihood of accident occurrences. CONCLUSIONS : This study shows that the uses of RP is better fitted to the accident data since each observations'specific characteristics could be considered. Thus, the methods which could consider the heterogeneity of data is recommended to analyze the relationship between accidents and affecting factors(for example, traffic safety facilities or geometrics in signalized 4-legged intersections).

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.52 no.5
• /
• pp.975-983
• /
• 2020

Since the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, concerns for the safety of multi-unit Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) sites have risen. This is because more than 70% of NPP sites are multi-unit sites that have two or more NPP units and a multi-unit accident occurred for the first time. After this accident, Probability Safety Assessment (PSA) has been considered in many countries as one of the tools to quantitatively assess the safety for multi-unit NPP sites. One of the biggest concerns for a multi-unit accident such as Fukushima is that the consequences (health and economic) will be significantly higher than in the case of a single-unit accident. However, many studies on multi-unit PSA have focused on Level 1 & 2 PSA, and there are many challenges in terms of public acceptance due to various speculations without an engineering background. In this study, two kinds of multi-unit Level 3 PSA for multi-unit site have been carried out. The first case was the estimation of multi-unit risk with conservative assumptions to investigate the margin between multi-unit risk and QHO, and the other was to identify the effect of time delays in releases between NPP units on the same site. Through these two kinds of assessments, we aimed at investigating the level of multi-unit risk and understanding the characteristics of risk in a multiunit context.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Nursing Research
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.79-91
• /
• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of children who visited the pediatric emergency department (PED) following an accident. Method: Data were obtained from the medical records of 4,010 children who visited the PED from January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2006. Data were analyzed using SPSS WIN 13.0 version. Results: The percentage of children who visited the PED for treatment following an accident was 14.9%. There were more boys (63.5%) than girls. The largest age group for children visiting the PED was preschool aged children. Slip downs were the most frequent accident (37.1%). The face was the most frequently injured area of the body (26.0%). Most (93.3%) of the children who visited the PED were classified as non-emergency, 6.5% as emergency and 0.2% as urgent. About 70.0% of children were examined and 50% of children were medicated. Fifty percent stayed in the PED department for less than 2 hours, and 88.0% of children were discharged to home. Nine percent were admitted, and 2.2% were transferred to other hospitals. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest the need for accident prevention education for parents, and the need to develop effective education for clinical nurses working in PED.