The human factor in industrial disaster

Abstract

So much attention is devoted to the cost of industrial disasters in financial terms and to the technologies that fail at times, that it is possible to lose sight of the fact that disasters involve people, individually and in societal groups. Although awareness and concern about the human factor in industrial disaster has grown considerably over the last 15‐20 years, many continue to see human error in a very narrow perspective. People, however, play a key role in causing disasters, must cope with them when they occur, and bear the consequences in their aftermath. Consideration of the human factor in industrial disaster has focused primarily on input in causing disasters. Two additional phases of human involvement in industrial disaster, their coping and their reaction to the outcome, must be included. At every stage of its occurrence, industrial disaster is truly about people and their behaviour.