Accident and Catastrophes Investigation Summaries - Report Example

Accident and Catastrophes Name Institution Course Date Introduction An accident is a precise, identifiable, unexpected, strange and involuntary external event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effects to people, animals and property. A catastrophe is any dangerous and severe event that involves more than hundred people or causes more than one million dollars' worth of damage to property or the environment and can be caused by both humans and nature. Accidents and catastrophes happen every moment and most often unexpectedly. Some can be through carelessness of man while others are natural. Civilization has passed so many accidents and catastrophes to lives of people. Such disasters can be man-made for example explosions, fires, terrorism and accidents emanating from devices such as vehicles and other structures. Natural ones can be floods, earthquakes, lightning fires and storms. Initially, natural disasters are pre-dominated man-made disasters but nowadays, the trend has been reversed with artificial ones taking to the top and so far has claimed a lot of peoples’ lives. The major man-made disasters have occurred in the twentieth century and this calls for urgent need to reverse this kind of trend which exposes human beings to fatal accidents produced by the techno-scientific revolutions. Accidents can occur through various ways such as when constructing new buildings, infrastructure, doing installations, through other means of transport, products and equipments. These are all controlled by the provisions which are either lawful or necessary in order to achieve the contractual goals of safety. The accidents can be specified as follows: A nuclear accident is an event that the probabilities of it involving a radioactive material emission to attack the public health is high and do sometimes occur in the nuclear factory or plant. The accidents can also occur when the radioactive materials are in transit either by the subway under sea, the bat mobile, by pirate or dromedary. So many accidents have occurred in the world and the major one include the catastrophe of Chernobyl in the Ukraine of the 1986 which occurred in the nuclear plant Lenine located on the banks of the Dniepr (John, 163). The accidents are measured in terms of levels and levels three and two of the scale is qualified incidents. Level one is best described as the anomaly while zero is the variation level. For the events of level zero and one, a person can realize that the number of the declared events is not by all means a representative of a level of safety. These are events that are without apparent repercussions but as owners and authorities of safety. Other events that have occurred in the world include the escape of the radioactive escape in the sea with Kashiwazaki-Kariwas with the Japan. They happened at the time of the earthquake, vital escape of highly radioactive liquid with the Sellafield in the factory of Thorp of Sellafield which was exploited by the British Nuclear Group Sellafield Limited. Some of the consequences of the radioactive emissions include rise in the temperature of the surrounding environment which has a negative effect to some of the creatures because a required temperature is essential for the survival of some of the creatures (Marina, 41). A Suraccident or better known as an on-accident is a one which comes to worsen another or more of them. An example is a road accident which follows a first car accident on the same route. Some of the Suraccidents in the world include the pipe breakage of the phosgene at the time of the catastrophe AZF in Toulouse in 2001. Domestic accidents occur mainly in the residential areas and this has led to several million lives lost in the world. There are times when people speak of domestic accidents as every day life. The major causes of domestic accidents include falls, suffocation, burns, intoxications and drowning. Such accidents can be prevented through various means according to the nature of the accident. Domestic fires especially electric ones where most of the accidents are declared at day while deaths occur at night can be prevented through ensuring the conformity of the installations of either electric or gas, situation of the apparatus, storage and use of the flammable products and also brushing of the chimneys. Private residences can be installed with a fire detector which will minimize by at least half the number of death caused by electric fires. Other measures taken include the use of fire extinguishers whenever the fire breaks out or evacuation of the people from residential areas and also are given early warnings by the firemen (Justus, 305). Food poisonings is when a person ingests food that has other contaminated particles that cause harm to life of that particular person. This normally occurs in homes when people carry out their household chores and sometimes end up mixing food with other chemical compounds that are detrimental to a person’s health. The prevention of such kind of calamity should involve the state as a whole where the stores should be conditioned and the produce is prepared well before being stored after it has been inspected. Also high levels of hygienic standards should be adopted and frequent monitoring of the risks. For private individuals, they should observe conditions of storage of food such as expiry date and temperature of the refrigerator. In the case of young children, medicamentous intoxications constitute the first cause of accident in the home for the children less than four years. The poison involves the inhalation of ingestion of toxic product which is deleterious to the child’s health and often becomes a catastrophe when many children suffer to an extent of causing death. Domestic accidents involve inhalation of toxic products or drugs, thermal burns and drowning in private swimming (Justus, 305). A road accident is an event which takes place on the highway network between traveling machines such as automobiles, motor bikes and bicycles. It is a personal injury which can be accompanied by death or not and causes the victim to seek for medical care, happens on routes open to the public and mostly involves automobiles. Road accidents claim about 1.2 million lives each year in the whole world. The reduction in the road accidents can be attributed to inclusion of various factors such as size of the country, density, population, socio-economic and quality of highways when constructing. There are some countries such as the Britain which publishes accident statistics of road of each type of vehicle and this makes it possible to know which vehicle is the most dangerous one. The company of such vehicles will then be prompted to adjust its design or ways of building vehicles to reduce chances of causing accidents. Air accidents are events having involved property damages and death of the crew or other passengers of a plane. Air accidents are included in the category of air catastrophe due to the sudden loss of lives and property involved. This type can take the form of destruction of the cell in flight, destruction by the impact on the ground or accidents on the ground. However in such accidents, there are chances of survival. In another way, the airplane can take place after the death of the crew and the passengers and also through quasi-collisions where two planes pass each other at distances lower than the security distances and where one of the pilots had to carry out a violent operation (Justus, 305). The collision with birds can also cause accidents. On average, less than one fatal accident occurs per million flights or fatal accident occurs for two million hours of flight. This kind of value has been stable for several years but it is projected that in 2010, there will be a tragic event per week on the world level. In the event of plane crash, the airline company and the civil authority where the crash occurred are supposed to provide a reception and the information to the relatives of the victims. This is done even today with the assistance of psychologists as most of them experience situations of extreme shock. The wreck of the plane if not completely destroyed, the company of the airline carries out the camouflage of fortune by painting to reduce the media effects of the catastrophe. Results of investigation are exploited for the purpose of compensation for the victims, correction of defects inherent in the plane and also correction of defects of the procedures used. A rail crash is an accident which affects a train in circulation and can be due to internal or external causes with the railway system. As rail crashes the accidents of people are not regarded. The circulation of the trains depends on railway influences and in particular the accidents of travelers which can stumble while getting into the train. Railway risks occur through head on collision between two trains due to human error. Collision by the back where a train strikes another one from the back, side collision which occurs with an intersection of ways and can also be with one or several vehicles following a failing immobilization especially when there is an important slope. Following this kind of accidents so much life is lost as a train carries several people at ago. This kind of loss can be witnessed in the high speed trains such as the electric trains (Graham, 3). An industrial accident is an accident which occurs at the place of work or during a task related to the employee. It occurs as a fall accident in the home which is known as domestic industry and accident when one crosses the threshold of his residence and the entry of his work place. Prevention of any work-related accident at the industry can be achieved by taking the measures of collective protection, individual protection and training of the workers with the specific risks and measures be taken in the event of an accident. To ensure that these measures are respected, it is necessary to study the manner of working, adapting to the equipment and forcing the employer who does not put in place devices and don’t monitor the equipment. Natural disasters have claimed lives of so many people and the rate has been on increase with time due to warming of the planet and the increase of the Greenhouse effect. These have also caused economic losses amounting to billions of dollars. Majority of the victims are in the poorest countries. Such kind of disasters can be induced by man or can occur naturally. Catastrophes climate include: Cyclone which is a depressionary system in rotation formed above warm water of the tropical seas. The center of the cyclone is a basic area pressure and the pressure difference with the surrounding generates air volume displacement (Graham, 3). Due to effect of the Coriolis force, the winds are forcefully deviated which are responsible for the damage of property and loss of life. They are also known as hurricanes in Atlantic northern and as typhoon in west of the northern Pacific and southernmost China Sea. A storm is an atmospheric interruption of convective origin associated with a type of particular cloud: the Cumulonimbus. In extreme cases, the storm can produce falls of winds which are very violent. Storms are actually associated with rains which are not torrential but fall in form of hailstorms which destroy property and even lead to the death of people and other animals especially the floods (Dennis, 41). The location, exact time as well as the nature of the pain is only known to the sufferer and to other people as well. The relationship among the accident and the panic is quite obvious and it fits in well with the conditioning theory of getting hold of fear. The things which will cause shocking, wounding, damaging as well as distressing events which leads to various psychological reactions are however wide and diverse. Consequently, the nature of accidents are ranging from motor vehicle accidents which leads to combat disasters, floods, bereavements, abuse, monetary catastrophes together with therapeutic/health crises. Up to now, the kinds of accidents which have been considered most intensively are motor vehicle accidents, sexual trauma and abuse together with the conflict trauma. In spite of the appealing list of catastrophes, misfortunes as well as disasters, several people cope tolerably well and it is actually a small minority who normally develops PTSD or lengthened adverse psychological effects. These are the accidents that happen to the person who has been actually injured. Whatever that is dangerous in accidents is the actual conditions that gave a rise to the happening of the accident. There are always dramatically different legal consequences depending on the truthful patterns together with the circumstances even though the results of the accident were basically the same. Catastrophe has to be from an accident or illness which is normally caused by vulnerability happened in a place of work. Even if people are working in an office or a factory, shop, building location or any other kind of workplace they face different kind of accidents. Accidents which tend to take place in the workplace differ considerably depending on the kind of workplace it might be. Heavy manufacturing as well as industrial unit job, they expose workers over and over again to hazardous mechanism together with the working practices which becomes more dangerous if they are not well controlled. They are potentially life threatening as well. However, so many accidents which occur at work places do not end in a fatal accident but on the other hand they can be so serious (John, 163). Catastrophe has some characteristics. One of them is low frequency of the happening; therefore there is a low likelihood in analytical terms. It is actually unbalanced, despite the fact that there is seasonality in the case of tremendous floods as well as tropical storms. The circumstances are very difficult to anticipate in catastrophe for the reason that there is a very complex interaction. Normal amplitude of particular environmental characteristic is however exceeded so much. For example a slightly saline farming soil will be exposed to the full sea water on outpouring. Another characteristic is that onset is more often than not rapid and unexpectedness might prohibit any adaptive or avoidance strategies. The flood consequences and repercussions throughout the whole country and it actually make the implementation of quite a number of big investment projects very impossible. The biggest fear of humanitarian workers are no longer off-limits as targets as well as worse, that to harm them might come into vogue as a form of terrorism, the way hijacking did some times back. The risks of assassination, landmine detonation, kidnapping, harassment or arrest by local authorities, and the road banditry are the major risks of robbery, rape, traffic accidents as well as health threats for example malaria and HIV/AIDS. Other type of risks comes as a result of the nature of work. The daily accidents normally happen at the work place. People are exposed to serious chemicals whereby if they are not handled properly they will bring about some serious problems. They might blow and burn everything in the company including the workers (John, 163). Terrorists can even used boats, fishing boats that are so much encumbered with explosives which come straight to individuals and Bang. Waters also have been treacherous. They came about for so many years – old scourge of pirates’ right to the risk of modern day accidents. The examples of these modern day accidents are the deadly collision. Several countries have accepted to destroy the military stockpiles of chemical as well as biological weapons which are actually the biggest threat. Gas is also another threat which kills quite a number of people every now and again. Gas attacks also tend to injure a lot of people as they bring about the use of chemical as well as biological weapons to intercontinental attention. Chemicals together with the biological warfare weapons are the main things which are used as weapons of mass destruction during the wars. A lot of people incur various types of accidents which lead them to stay in hospitals for a long time and others might even lose their lives. People who experience this are those who stay in countries which are under wars. Disaster management is actually the discipline on how to deal with risks and the way to avoid them. These disciplines actually involves the preparation for disasters before they happen, the way to respond to various disaster as well as giving support and rebuild the society after the natural or human made disaster have already happened. As a general rule, every disaster management is the permanent procedure in which almost every individual, group together with the communities. They intent to manage risks in an effort to keep away from or even revolutionize the impact of disasters consequential from the hazards. The measures taken always depend on perceptions of danger of those who are exposed. Valuable disaster management relies on a detailed interaction of urgent situation plans at all levels of government together with the non government involvement. Different activities at all the levels that are group, community and individual really affect other different levels (Graham, 100). The responsibility is always kept on the governmental urgent situation management together with the institutions for universal defense or even inside the conservative arrangement of the emergency services. Within the private sector, disaster management is occasionally referred to as the permanence of business planning. Disaster management has replaced civil defense since the end of the cold world war. Its very original focal point was to defend civilians from the armed forces attack. Contemporary judgment focuses on a very general intent to defend the civilians’ population during the times of harmony including the times of conflict. An additional present term, civil protection is extensively in use within the European Union. It actually refers to the government permitted systems as well as the possessions whose mission is to defend the civilians’ population first and foremost in the event of ordinary and human made disasters. Inside the European Union countries the term disaster management puts more emphasize on the political as well as safety measures dimension instead of the measures which are used to satisfy the instantaneous wants of the civilian population. Consequently, the nature of disaster management depends on local economic as well as social circumstances. Disaster management must at all times include long term work on road and rail network, create communal awareness as well as the human justice issues. This is very essential for the most part in the development of nations. As a matter of fact, the process of disaster management involves basically four phases. These phases are preparedness, mitigation, recovery together with response. Disasters tend to make threats on sustainable economic development through out the human race. In the past several years, floods, tropical storms, earthquakes, droughts as well as calamities have killed so many individuals. Other people have been affected by inflicted injuries, diseases, homelessness and misery, and caused smash up. Disasters tend to demolish decades of human sweat together with the investments. They eventually place very new demands on society for making constructions again and rehabilitation. Answering to disasters, without a good defined plan, might be subjective thus it can lead to putting more emphasis of some proceedings and the absence non appearance of serious actions (Graham, 100). The objectives of several disaster management plans must be to localize a catastrophe and contain it to the furthermost degree to reduce its impact on life, property and environment. An official plan for managing disasters is equally important. It has to include the plan of action for several disasters such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones, engineering and chemical accidents, epidemics, road accidents together with the fires. Disaster management plan always has a very powerful mitigation aspect, which its main aim is to reduce the frequency of occurrence of such disasters. However the purpose of the plan is to fully understand the vulnerability of the variety of districts to disasters. Another purpose is to ascertain the position of existing resources as well as the facilities which are available with the several agencies involved in disaster management within the state. They intend to assess their adequacies while dealing with a disaster and finally the purpose of the plan is to identify the requirements of institutional strengthening together with the capacity building. Bibliography  Charles, P. (1979) Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. Princeton University Press: New York. Dennis, J. (2000). Floods. Taylor & Francis: New Zealand. Fischhoff, B. (1981). Acceptable Risk. Cambridge University Press: New York. Graham, M. (2003). Disaster Management for Libraries and Archives. Ash gate Publishing: New York. John, L. (2005). Engineering Catastrophes: Causes and Effects of Major Accidents. CRC Press: New York. Justus, J. (1967). Essentials of Healthier Living. Wiley Publishers: California. Marina, A. (1998). Analyzing the accident frequency of the commercial airlines total loss catastrophes. Mathematical statistics: Stockholm. Morris, J. (1997). The Motor Ship: promoting marine technology worldwide. Temple Press Ltd: Michigan. Read More