• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.505-510
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• 2021

Background: Factors related to root causes can cause commonly occurring accidents such as falls, slips, and jammed injuries. An important means of reducing the frequency of occupational accidents in small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMSEs) of South Korea is to perform intensity analysis of the root cause factors for accident prevention in the cause and effect model like decision models, epidemiological models, system models, human factors models, LCU (life change unit) models, and the domino theory. Especially intensity analysis in a robot system and smart technology as Industry 4.0 is very important in order to minimize the occupational accidents and fatal accident because of the complexity of accident factors. Methods: We have developed the modern cause and effect model that includes factors of root cause through statistical testing to minimize commonly occurring accidents and fatal accidents in SMSEs of South Korea and systematically proposed educational policies for accident prevention. Results: As a result, the consciousness factors among factors of root cause such as unconsciousness, disregard, ignorance, recklessness, and misjudgment had strong relationships with occupational accidents in South Korean SMSEs. Conclusion: We conclude that the educational policies necessary for minimizing these consciousness factors include continuous training procedures followed by periodic hands-on experience, along with perceptual and cognitive education related to occupational health and safety.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2020

Intensity of accidents associated with dangerous machines and devices are (hereafter items), in general, high compared to other industrial accidents. This study focuses on cause analysis of accidents associated with items that are subject to safety certification. The method is based on automated analysis of abstracts of accidents written in descriptive format. The analysis results indicate that more than 50% of accidents associated with items are caused by technical reasons and nearly 50% of accidents were preventable. More effective prevention of industrial accidents would then be realized by safety certification at the stage of danger generation. Transition from the direct regulation on users to manufacturers is also needed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of industrial safety system in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2018

Cause analysis of accidents associated with industrial machines and devices is essential to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of industrial safety system in Korea. This study focuses on cause analysis of accidents associated with industrial machines and devices. In particular, analysis of abstracts of accidents which are written in descriptive format and, therefore, inherently unstructured and exhibits characteristics of big data is suggested and tested. Automatic analysis of such big data performed in this study reveals the consistent results with the manual analysis results in previous studies. Analysis results also suggest that incorporating transition from the current user-oriented indirect regulations to more manufacturer and user balanced direct regulations will guarantee more effective prevention of industrial accidents at the early stage of generation of danger.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Safety certification and inspection of dangerous machines and equipments used in industries are to save lives of workers and properties involved. Cause analysis of industrial accidents is essential to prove the effectiveness of such certification and inspection. This study focuses on suggesting systematic method for cause analysis of industrial accidents associated with dangerous machines and devices. Incorporating transition from the current user-oriented indirect regulations to more manufacturer and user balanced direct regulations, suggested method coupled with safety certification, safety inspection, safety management and safety education will guarantee more effective prevention of industrial accidents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.9-15
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• 2022

The analysis of the causes of accidents in workplaces where machines and tools are used is essential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of safety prevention policies in places of employment in Korea. The causes of workplace accidents are not fully understood mainly due to difficulties in analyzing available descriptive information. This study focuses on the automated accident cause analysis in workplaces based on the accident abstracts found in industrial accident reports written in an unstructured descriptive format. The method proposed in this paper is based on text data mining and uses the keyword search function of Excel software to automate the analysis. The analysis results indicate that the primary reason for the frequency of accidents is related to technical aspects at a stage in which dangerous situations occur in the workplace. Accidents due to managerial causes are typically observed when danger exists in the workplace; however, managerial actions play a more important role in reducing accident severity. A small company tends to use unsafe machines and devices, leading to further accidents due to technical causes, whereas managerial causes are more conspicuous as the company grows. To preclude the occurrence of accidents due to inadequate knowledge, the implementation of safety management and the provision of safety education to elderly workers at the early stage of their employment are particularly important for small companies with less than 100 workers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.37-43
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• 2023

Since 2024, small business are also going to be ruled under the Serious Accident Punishment Act. As the scope of the law expands, the small logistics companies are required to pay more attention on preventing serious accidents on the field. Freight vehicle accidents can cause personnel accidents and cargo accidents which are the two serious accidents that the Serious Accident Punishment Act is trying to prevent. The purpose of this research are to study the factors that cause the serious accidents that happens in the small logistics companies and to suggest preventive. The results of the study shows that fall prevention is the top-priority and then driving experience, safety management, and cargo driving hours. However, the gaps between the evaluation values of each are not huge, which means all the preventives are significant.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.6-11
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• 2010

The continuous fatal accidents like explosion or fire cause huge losses of both life and property in laboratories even though safety management system has been built and periodical checkups and safety diagnosis have been implementing in universities and enterprise-affiliated research institutes since Act on the Establishment of Safe Laboratory Environment was enacted in 2005 to prevent accidents in research laboratories. Cause analysis and safety management measures to prevent recurrence of accidents are urgently needed because accidents in research laboratories occur repeatedly with similar contents. This study will show results of analysis on incidents and accidents occurred in laboratories in universities and enterprise-affiliated research institutes using Root Cause Analysis Method and propose classified map of cause investigation and improvements so as to improve safety management in research laboratories.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.179-187
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• 2020

This paper investigates the construction equipment accidents by time. Construction sites are unique with many different hazardous conditions which cause accidents. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), accidents related to construction equipment are one of the most leading causes of fatal injuries in the construction industry. While there have been many studies investigating the equipment-related accidents, few research studies provided in-depth analyses about the time that accidents frequently occurred. By using the OSHA accidents data collected between 1997 and 2012, this paper analyzed the accidents data by time, equipment type including excavator, backhoe, dozer, and crane, accident cause, and injury class. The analyses revealed that the time window with most accidents was between 13:00 and 13:59. In terms of the injury class, the time windows with the highest numbers of equipment accidents were between 13:00 and 13:59 and between 11:00 and 11:59 for fatality and hospitalization, respectively. For the accident causes, equipment operator's error was the highest number of accident causes. It is expected that findings from the analyses can be used to more strategically develop management plans and guidelines to prevent accidents related to construction equipment to practitioners.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.43-51
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• 2021

Incident investigation is one of the most important processes among various other safety management methods to prevent industrial accidents. Finding the root causes of accidents, eliminating hazards, and improving safety are the most important purposes of investigating accidents. During the investigation process, root cause analysis (RCA) techniques are used to effectively identify RCA. Over the past few decades, over 30 RCA methods have been developed. These techniques are being widely used in some industries, such as the nuclear and aircraft industries; however, most of the RCA techniques require professional knowledge and special training, making it difficult for safety managers in their respective fields to understand and apply them. Therefore, managers of general industrial sites are rarely present at the scene of actual accident investigations, and they cannot contribute much to the purpose and effectiveness of these investigations. In this study, to address these issues, we developed an RCA technique to facilitate root cause investigation of accidents in real-world industrial sites. To develop new techniques, Systematic Cause Analysis Technique (SCAT), one of the RCA techniques, was used to investigate incidents in the enterprise over three years. We also utilized feature analysis and other papers from existing RCA techniques. To verify its effectiveness, the technique proposed was also applied to the accident case. The technique developed can easily identify and analyze the root cause of an accident and help industrial managers. It can also identify the root cause category where accidents are concentrated and use this data to establish guidelines for preventing future accidents and, thus, focus on prioritizing improvement initiatives.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2021

Introduction: Despite huge investments in new technology and transportation infrastructure, terrible accidents still remain a reality of traffic. Methods: Severe traffic accidents were analyzed from four prevailing modes of today's transportations: sea, air, railway, and road. Main root causes of all four accidents were defined with implementation of the approach, based on Flanagan's critical incident technique. In accordance with Molan's Availability Humanization model (AH model), possible preventive or humanization interventions were defined with the focus on technology, environment, organization, and human factors. Results: According to our analyses, there are significant similarities between accidents. Root causes of accidents, human behavioral patterns, and possible humanization measures were presented with rooted graphs. It is possible to create a generalized model graph, which is similar to rooted graphs, for identification of possible humanization measures, intended to prevent similar accidents in the future. Majority of proposed humanization interventions are focused on organization. Organizational interventions are effective in assurance of adequate and safe behavior. Conclusions: Formalization of root cause analysis with rooted graphs in a model offers possibility for implementation of presented methods in analysis of particular events. Implementation of proposed humanization measures in a particular analyzed situation is the basis for creation of safety culture.