The Great East Japan Earthquake hit Fukushima Prefecture on March 11, 2011, just over 3 years ago and it continues to affect our lives. In Fukushima, many people are confirmed dead or still missing due to the earthquake and/or tsunami. Additional "disaster-related deaths" have been attributed to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) accident. Mortality among the institutionalized elde...

The epidemiology of sudden death, the etiology of inflight sudden incapacitation, and the influence of pilot age and experience on air accident rates are reviewed in order to determine the aeromedical emphasis needed to minimize accidents. Sudden deaths in men over age 35 are nearly all due to coronary artery disease, whereas in those under 35 years they are mostly due to hypertrophic cardiomyo...

BACKGROUND Recent research has indicated that transitions into and out of daylight saving time (DST) unbalance the physiological circadian rhythm and may lead to sleep disturbance. Sleep deprivation may have negative effects on motivation, attention and alertness and thus it is possible that transitions into and out of DST may increase accident rates. AIMS To explore the impact of DST transit...

This paper deals with a study to gain a better understanding about traffic accident phenomena in Bandung City, the capital of West Java. The principal concern, which is very important for traffic management, is on the following traffic accident parameters; daily accident rate, daily accidenthazard-level, probability of daily fatal accidents and daily fatal victim rates. This study includes data...

The annual frequency of accidents and incidents which occur in the chemical and petroleum industries is small, but their consequences can be great. Incidents which result in fatalities, serious injuries or property damage are usually investigated in great depth since the injured party, the regulatory organisations and insurance companies are interested in determining liability. The aims of acci...

The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of freeway lighting. To achieve this, a case study on traffic accident characteristics was conducted that utilized a suburban freeway area west of Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany, between 1972 and 1981. The study revealed that (a) the effects of lighting on suburban freeway accident rates was positive--there was a reduction in a...

Elderly drivers have a high accident rate per kilometer driven, though not per person per year, and elderly pedestrians and transit users also have above average accident rates. The potential of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to enhance vehicle safety for elderly and less able travellers is examined. For car drivers, Advanced Vehicle Control and Safety Systems (AVCSS) and Advanced Tra...

Safety on highways is one of the most important subjects in Transportation Engineering. The increasing rate of vehicles and the needs to design or geometrically modify the highways has been emphasized in the safe-design of roadways more than before. Between the constructive components of the highway, due to the increasing occurrences of accidents the horizontal curves are of great importance. T...

The assessment of harsh working conditions requires a correct evaluation of the metabolic rate. This paper revises the basis described in the ISO 8996 standard for the evaluation of the metabolic rate at a work station from the recording of the heart rate of a worker during a representative period of time. From a review of the literature, formulas different from those given in the standard are ...

Underground coal mining is a dangerous industry where the regulatory state may impose tradeoffs between productivity and safety. We recover the marginal tradeoffs using disasters near a mine as shocks that increase future accident costs. We find that in the second year after a disaster, productivity decreases 11% and accident rates decrease 18-80% for mines in the same state, with some evidence...