• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제10권2호
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• pp.151-165
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• 2019

Background: Despite improvements in safety performance, the number and severity of mining-related injuries remain high and unacceptable, indicating that further reduction can be achieved. This study examines occupational accident statistics of the Ghanaian mining industry and identifies priority areas, warranting intervention measures and further investigations. Methods: A total of 202 fatal and nonfatal injury reports over a 10-year period were obtained from five mines and the Inspectorate Division of the Minerals Commission of Ghana, and they were analyzed. Results: Results of the analyses show that the involvement of mining equipment, the task being performed, the injury type, and the mechanism of injury remain as priorities. For instance, mining equipment was associated with 85% of all injuries and 90% of all fatalities, with mobile equipment, component/part, and hand tools being the leading equipment types. In addition, mechanics/repairmen, truck operators, and laborers were the most affected ones, and the most dangerous activities included maintenance, operating mobile equipment, and clean up/clearing. Conclusion: Results of this analysis will enable authorities of mines to develop targeted interventions to improve their safety performance. To improve the safety of the mines, further research and prevention efforts are recommended.

• Journal of Trauma and Injury
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• 제36권3호
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• pp.165-171
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• 2023

Trauma remains a significant healthcare burden, causing over five million yearly fatalities. Notably, the liver is a frequently injured solid organ in abdominal trauma, especially in patients under 40 years. It becomes even more critical given that uncontrolled hemorrhage linked to liver trauma can have mortality rates ranging from 10% to 50%. Liver injuries, mainly resulting from blunt trauma such as motor vehicle accidents, are traditionally classified using the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma grading scale. However, recent developments have introduced the World Society of Emergency Surgery classification, which considers the patient's physiological status. The diagnostic approach often involves multiphase computed tomography (CT). Still, newer methods like split-bolus single-pass CT and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) aim to reduce radiation exposure. Concerning management, nonoperative strategies have emerged as the gold standard, especially for hemodynamically stable patients. Incorporating angiography with embolization has also been beneficial, with success rates reported between 80% and 97%. However, it is essential to identify the specific source of bleeding for effective embolization. Given the severity of liver trauma and its potential complications, innovations in diagnostic and therapeutic approaches have been pivotal. While CT remains a primary diagnostic tool, methods like CEUS offer safer alternatives. Moreover, nonoperative management, especially when combined with angiography and embolization, has demonstrated notable success. Still, the healthcare community must remain vigilant to complications and continuously seek improvements in trauma care.

• 대한안전경영과학회지
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.49-57
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• 2012

Proportion of falling from height accident at construction work accounts for more than 40%, and the number of injuries is getting increased. So without considering falling from height, we can say that it's hard to achieve our goal(accident prevention). Another critical point that we have to think about theses days is the fact that construction workers are getting older. To be specific, the number of workers who are above 50 years old accounts for 65.6% among the fatalities(2007~2011, KOSHA inspection). Accordingly, to effectively prevent construction accedents, especially falls from height, we need to focus on motion analysis of older construction workers and then make suitable measures for growing accident rates at construction work.

• 대한안전경영과학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.121-128
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• 2023

Construction industry is considered as one of the most high-risk industries for work-related injuries and fatalities, accounting for more than half of fatalities in Korea. Advanced countries have recognized the critical role of designers in preventing construction accidents and have established regulations on design for safety. In line with this, the Korean government have also implemented regulations that require owners and designers to review the safety of design outcomes. However, it has been observed that designers face challenges in identifying hazards and integrating design solutions at the design stage mainly due to their shortage of required knowledge and skills. This study aimed to examine design solutions that can be applied to prevent fall accidents in the construction industry, and to establish a relationship between these solutions and fatal fall accidents occurred over the past three years in Korea. This study also analyzed the relationships of four variables (construction type, cost, work type, and fall location) with design solutions. The results indicated that all four variables have significant relationships with design solutions, with fall location showing the strongest relationship. The design solutions and their relationships with fatal fall accidents identified in this study can be utilized in identifying hazard and integrating design solutions to ensure design for safety.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• 제14권3호
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• pp.295-302
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• 2023

Background: Fisheries and aquaculture are statistically acknowledged to be among the most dangerous occupations. Yet, industrial safety and health precautions against occupational accidents within the sector are not sufficiently implemented in many parts of the world. The present study aims to provide a quantified overview of work accident statistics in the Turkish fisheries and aquaculture industry. Methods: This article presents an overview of reported injuries and fatalities in the Turkish fisheries and aquaculture industries from 2006 to 2020. Incident, permanent incapacity, and fatality rates were calculated, and the difference between fisheries and aquaculture was statistically examined. Results: The overall incident, permanent incapacity, and fatality rates were 449.4, 4.7, and 5.7 per 100,000 worker years, respectively, over the 15-year period. With these fatality rates, fisheries and aquaculture are two of the industries with the highest fatality rates among comparable industries in Turkey. Incident rates in fisheries and aquaculture indicated that aquaculture work is more dangerous and risky. The data set includes 25 fatalities and 22 permanent incapacity cases over 15 years and shows an increase in fatality rates and occupational accidents in the last 8 years. Conclusion: present study showed that the quality of data and reporting in the Turkish fisheries and aquaculture industries including occupational illnesses, must be improved in order to be more preventative and to develop efficient safety management in the sector. Incentives for providing thorough data on occupational incidents must be enhanced to improve occupational safety awareness in Turkish fisheries and aquaculture.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제28권6호
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• pp.84-89
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• 2013

The main causes of traffic accidents can be classified by 3 factors - human error, vehicle deficiency and road environmental problem and most accidents occurs not only 1 factor but combination of 2 or 3-factors. Among these factors, road environmental factor is the most important factor due to influence the behavior of cars and road users and road environmental factor affects 30% of total accidents approximately. The 5 years traffic accidents data analyzed to verify the accidents severity on Korea National Highways. In order to analyze the severity, Ordered Probit Model was used. As a independent variables of this model the number of lane, neighbor road environments, sight distance, vertical grade, lane width, shoulder width and traffic volume were used and as a dependent variables the minor injuries, serious injuries and fatalities were used. Research results shows that sight distance and lane width are identified as significant factors for the traffic accident severity and lesser sight distance and lane width shows greater traffic accident severity.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.123-131
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• 2006

The majority of pedestrian fatalities and injuries are caused by vehicle-pedestrian accidents. Recently, it has been recognized as a serious problem. Injuries of occupants in a vehicle have been decreased considerably. However, efforts for protection of pedestrians are still insufficient. These days, many advanced industries are striving for a better protection of pedestrians by using an active hood lift system, rather than reforming the existing structure. In this research, the active hood lift system is designed to enhance the performance for protection. The active hood lift system is analyzed by using the nonlinear finite element method. An optimization problem is formulated by incorporation of the analysis results. Orthogonal arrays are utilized to solve the formulated problem. An iterative optimization algothrithm using orthogonal arrays is utilized for design in the discrete space. It is found that the method can remarkably decrease the number of function evaluations.

• 국제학술발표논문집
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• The 8th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management
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• pp.96-102
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• 2020

The construction industry remains serious accidents, injuries, and fatalities due to it's unique, dynamic, and temporary nature. On workplace sites, Safety pre-task planning is one of the efforts to minimize injuries and help construction personnel to identify potential hazards. However, the working conditions are complicated. Many activities, including tasks or job steps, are executing at the same time and place. It may lead to an increase in the risks from simultaneous tasks. This paper contributes to addressing this issue by introducing a safety risk interaction analyzing framework. To accomplish this objective, accident reports of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are investigated. The pairs of task incompatibility, which have time-space conflicts and lead to incidents, are found. Ontology technology is applied to build the risk database, in which the information is acquired, structuralized. The proposed system is expected to improve pre-task planning efficiency and relieve the burdens encountered by safety managers. A user scenario is also discussed to demonstrate how the ontology supports pre-task planning in practice.

• 한국안전학회지
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• 제27권5호
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• pp.22-29
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• 2012

Robot related injuries in industrial accidents statistics during 2008~2010 have accounted for a total of 109 cases equivalent to 30~40 cases for each of those years. The number of injured compared to the dissemination of industrial robots(51,302 units/2004) can be regarded as quite low. However, the fatal injuries sustained by 7 (6.4%) out of 109 cases paints the stark reality of robot-related accident fatalities. It is a sad probability that as the automation process expands its use of industrial robots which have increased significantly in demand, the incidence of workplace accidents will also increase. Therefore, the incidence of accidents throughout the period of 2008~2010 has been analysed to prevent the injuries due to the increased use of industrial robots. In the analysis, the injuries occurred during the industrial robot operation accounted for 45.9% of the entire accidents. Thus, we examined the present status of the industrial robot operation to analyze the root cause of accidents occurred in our studied time period. We looked at a total of 469 workplaces. 456 workplaces responded in the year 2009 and survey studies were implemented at 13 of the 29 workplaces where work injuries were sustained in the year 2010. Even where protective measures and interlock devices were in place, our studies indicated that workers could access the robot area to perform the tasks in 188 sites(40.1%). Also, the 143 sites(30.5%) had control measures and equipment located in the safety fence. In addition, the robots found at 164 sites(35.0%) could be restarted without additional restarting operation. These three causes accounted for most of the workplace injuries during the industrial robot operations. Futhermore, we confirmed the fact that the protective measures of the current safety regulations were not strictly enforced. Based upon our studies and the investigation of the present status of the industrial robot operation, higher standards in training and supervision of workers in the robot operation must quickly be met in order to prevent these industrial injuries.

• 한국자동차공학회논문집
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• 제13권3호
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• pp.162-170
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• 2005

Although the numbers of pedestrian fatalities and injuries are steadily declining worldwide, pedestrian protection is still an important issue. Extensive researches have been carried out in the field of pedestrian protection in order to establish pedestrian safety regulations. The automobile hoods and bumpers, which pedestrians frequently run into during accidents, should be safely designed for pedestrians. Two analysis methods are utilized to design safe structures of the hood and the bumper. They are real experiment and computer simulation. In this research, a method is developed to simultaneously utilize the results from the experiment and the simulation. For design, orthogonal arrays are employed to combine the two methods. Based on this method, a hood and a bumper are designed to protect pedestrians.