Indonesian railway accidents – utilizing Human Factors Analysis and Classification System in determining potential contributing factors

Abstract

The prevalence of Indonesian railway accidents has not been declining, with hundreds of fatalities reported in the past decade. As an effort to help the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), this study was conducted that aimed at understanding factors that might have contributed to the accidents. Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) was utilized for this purpose. A total of nine accident reports (provided by the Indonesian NTSC) involving fatalities were studied using the technique. Results of this study indicated 72 factors that were closely related to the accidents. Of these, roughly 22% were considered as operator acts while about 39% were related to preconditions for operator acts. Supervisory represented 14% of the factors, and the remaining (about 25%) were associated with organizational factors. It was concluded that, while train drivers indeed played an important role in the accidents, interventions solely directed toward train drivers may not be adequate. A more comprehensive approach in minimizing the accidents should be conducted that addresses all the four aspects of HFACS.

New Aspects of Socioeconomic Assessment of the Railway Infrastructure Project Life Cycle

“…A second significant part of the publication deals with the factors influencing the occurrence emergence from railway infrastructure. In their study, Iridiastadi and Ikatrinasari [7] presented a classification system, including subfactors, with the potential to influence the occurrence emergence. Zhou and Lei also addressed the causes of occurrences on the railway in their article [8].…”

Developing Rail Safety Competencies Based on Accident and Incident Investigations: Using Root Cause Taxonomies to Learn from Accidents

“…Almost all adverse events ensue as a result of interaction between two sets of factors: Active failures are the results of unsafe actions of people who are in direct contact with the system whereas; latent conditions are the dormant characteristics of the system such as technical or organizational weaknesses [12]. According to the research [3,4,[15][16][17] over the last two decades, human factor considerations in advanced technological systems have become increasingly important and there is not so much doubt about the effects of human error to the majority of railway accidents and incidents. Traditional safety analyses have tended to address safety by focusing mainly on technical aspects and investigating the immediate causes of accidents and incidents [18].…”

“…According to the research [3,4,[15][16][17] over the last two decades, human factor considerations in advanced technological systems have become increasingly important and there is not so much doubt about the effects of human error to the majority of railway accidents and incidents.…”

Involvement of Human and Organizational Factors in Railway Accidents: Application of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System and Bayesian Network

“…Using HFACS-RR for investigation guaranteed the consistency, objectivity, and openness of the data collecting and analysis procedures and mitigated some of the inherent subjectivity in accident investigation and analysis. Iridiastadi and Ikatrinasari ( 8 ) studied the potential contributing factors in Indonesian railway accidents utilizing the HFACS framework. The framework was applied to nine fatal accident reports and 72 human and organizational factors were identified.…”