A case study of the accidents of visually impaired persons' falling from a railway platform was conducted. In this study, 15 subjects were interviewed in 38 cases. This research revealed that (1) 89% of the cases we surveyed occurred while they were moving along a platform; (2) the walking distance before the fall was less than 20 meters in 70% of the studied cases; (3) 47% of the victims fell while using a white cane on a platform paved with textured blocks; (4) typical causes were inappropriately designed or laid blocks, and victims' over-habituation; (5) 58% were helped back to the platform after fall (not returning by themselves) and (6) 16% suffered broken bones or were wounded seriously.

A level crossing on a Japanese Railways line was improved from the human factors point of view. Improved features of the warning system installed there are outlined and effects of the changes are reported. Various good effects of the renewal were found in visibility of the warning lights, appraisal by road users, and video-recorded crossing behaviour. It was concluded that the renewal was highly successful and we advised the Japanese Railways to improve other level crossings similarly.

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Problems in incident survey and analysis in Japan are discussed and a new method of 'survey and analysis of presumed accidents' is proposed. The survey is conducted with an anonymous questionnaire method on workers in 3 Japanese Railways factories. Workers are asked to describe the presumed accident, to which the highest priority of measures should be given, and the accidents are analyzed statistically. As a result, it is shown that an accident pattern can be selected to focus on in safety management. This method can be used for substantial preventive safety management based on features of workplaces.

No abstract