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Safety in our badly designed and immoral world: Why USCAR research is saving lives and stopping the blame game
Conference presentation

Safety in our badly designed and immoral world: Why USCAR research is saving lives and stopping the blame game

Paul M Salmon
USC Research Conference, 2014 (Sunshine Coast, Australia, 14-Jul-2014–18-Jul-2014)
University of the Sunshine Coast
2014
url
https://www.usc.edu.au/View
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Abstract

Transportation and Freight Services
Background: Most of the systems that we take for granted in our everyday lives are killers; they kill and injure people on a regular basis. For example, transportation systems, workplaces of all kinds, the home, and even warehouse superstores all have a long history of killing and injuring people. The issue that this overall program of research tackles is the fact that the approach to safety management in these systems is out of date with our current understanding of how safety should be managed. Systems are often badly designed yet the blame falls on the human operators closest to the accident (e.g. the driver, the pilot, the worker). In short, systems thinking is required, but is rarely implemented in practice. Research aims: The program of research discussed in this presentation aims to develop the theory and practical methodologies that will enable systems thinking to be applied in practice. USCAR research matters because we are helping understand why systems kill people and are developing the practical tools for organisations wishing to use systems thinking to improve safety - to stop killing people. This is a critical gap that has to date prevented systems thinking from being realised in practice: organisations don't understand the range of factors influencing performance, and they don't understand how best to improve performance and safety. Methods: As an overall program of research is being described a range of methods are covered including on-road studies of road user behaviour, systems analyses of accidents, development of new incident reporting systems, systems analysis and design methods etc. Applications in road, rail, and aviation, will be described. Research findings: The research findings come in various forms ranging from a new understanding of performance in a particular system and identification of systemic issues that adversely impact safety to the specification of new system design concepts that will improve performance and safety. In addition, often the findings are practical tools, for example a new incident reporting system for organisations to report and analyse their own accidents in a way that supports development of countermeasures that will prevent accidents moving forward. The findings matter because they enable organisations to improve their systems in a way that enhances safety.

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