Severity of Accidents with Hazardous Materials. A Comparison between Transportation and Fixed Installations

A REVIEW OF ACCIDENT CASE HISTORIES RELEVANT TO HAZARDOUS MATERIALS HAS BEEN PERFORMED. FROM THE LITERATURE, 1793 ACCIDENT CASE HISTORIES INVOLVING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS WERE IDENTIFIED, THE MAJOR PART FROM THE PERIOD 1960 TO 1988. 3% OF THESE 1973 ACCIDENTS HAPPENED DURING TRANSPORTATION. IN 682 ACCIDENTS THE CONSEQUENCES INCLUDED FATALITIES, AND OF THESE 27% INVOLVED THE TRANSPORTATION OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS. THE ACCUMULATED FREQUENCY-FATALITY CURVES (SO-CALLED FN CURVES) HAVE BEEN CONSTRUCTED, AND ARE CLOSE TO STRAIGHT LINES, WITH A SLOPE OF MINUS ONE, INDICATING THAT THE PROBABILITY OF HAVING AN ACCIDENT WITH, FOR INSTANCE, MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED FATALITIES ARE APPROXIMATELY TEN TIMES LOWER THAN THE PROBABILITY OF HAVING AN ACCIDENT WITH MORE THAN TEN FATALITIES. THE ACCIDENTS WERE GROUPED ACCORDING TO TRANSPORTATION TYPE, AND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE VARIOUS GROUPS TESTED USING A STANDARD XI2 APPROACH. NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIXED INSTALLATIONS AND TRANS- PORTATION WAS FOUND FOR ACCIDENTS HAVING CONSEQUENCES ABOVE 3 FATALITIES.

BROCKHOFF Lars; 

1995-03-15

JRC7094