In Europe and in the rail transport sector, there are three main principles of safety. In Germany, we apply the MEM principle (Minimum Endogenous Mortality) which claims that we continue to improve the level of safety if only if the mortality rate due to technological events (exogenous to the organism) is lower than the endogenous mortality rate (in a specific place and space of time). In the United Kingdom, the principle is more economic. Indeed, the ALARP principle (As Low As Reasonably Practicable) applied there requires that a level of risk is acceptable if the cost due to the risk reduction is disproportionate compared to the improvement gain. In France, the GAME principle (Globally At Least Equivalent) is used. This principle stipulates that the level of security of a new system must be at least equivalent to that of a comparable system already in existence and deemed to be safe.
Published in Chapter:
Human Factors Affecting Railway Safety: Approach for Considering Human Errors in Investigations
Habib Hadj-Mabrouk (University Gustave Eiffel, France)
Copyright: © 2021
|Pages: 32
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8040-0.ch004
Abstract
While the consideration of human factors in the railway feedback of experience (REX) process is becoming a new priority, the procedures are far from systematic, and the methodologies remain uncertain. Inspired in particular by the works of Reason and Rasmussen and supported by application examples from the field of railway safety, the human error analysis approach proposed to improve the level of safety of rail transport systems involves three complementary levels. Before the accident, the first level of “contextual analysis” makes it possible to study the various factors favouring the production of the human error at the origin of the accident. During the accident and in the face of a critical situation, the second level of “cognitive analysis” focuses on finding and examining the human errors involved in the human cognitive process. Finally, after the accident, the last level of “behavioural analysis” focuses on the evaluation of the consequences and damage caused to humans, to the system, and to their environment.