Case Study of An Industrial Accident

Fire explosions happen in many industries and many of them share the reasons on which they occur, we will look at the human conditions and situations that has led to Istanbul accident.

The jobs in industries were complex from the start but nowadays they have been made even more complex by electrification, mechanization and chemicalization. These jobs are becoming more sophisticated and intricate day by day. Though this is good for development and progress of any industry but it also has one downside that is that it has resulted in increased dangers to humans working in those industries or those living nearby. The importance of safety measures has increased more than ever by these increasing accidents. (Farid Kadri, 2013)

Industrial accidents of An Industrial Accident

Any sudden or unprecedented happening of any accident is the industry which results in a disturbance in the regular work of the industry. It is defined as, the bodily injury suffered by any person due to the occurrence of an incident that has made the person unfit for a specific period of time, and he has become unable to resume his duties.

We can say that, an accident is an undersigned and unanticipated occurrence of an event during the course of employment. So, an accident is any unplanned or uncontrollable event in which an action or reaction of an or reaction of an object, a person, or any substance or a radiation has caused any personal kind of injury. It is significant to know that any kind of injury that has happened due to personal reasons cannot be regarded as accidents.

Istanbul fire accident of An Industrial Accident

The case we have chosen occurred in Istanbul, turkey. The year was 2008, and 1^st day of February. It was a fire explosion accident, and the industry was of fireworks. It was an unlicensed factory in the city of Istanbul which is the capital of turkey. The building in which the factory was established was in Davutpasa, which is situated near industrial regions. It was a many stories building which was used jointly by different kind of manufacturers namely paint, socks and textiles. (Groove, 2008)

Human factors about the incident

 The specific factors that are related to the Istanbul fire explosions are discussed below;

Poor training of An Industrial Accident

It is a type of factor that is related to both the employer and the employee. In Istanbul fire explosion there was a lack of training and the employees who were trained also lacked skills. In these, kind of conditions any kind of accident was easy to happen. Imperative training topics were left out in training them and inexperienced employees were set to work that led to the explosion.

Speed working of An Industrial Accident

The researches that were done on the accident have revealed that the workers were pressurized to work with speed. This practice was going on for sometimes and workers were getting negligent of security protocols.  that led to this horrible accident.

Insufficient security measures of An Industrial Accident

This is definitely an error on the side of employer. In the factory of Istanbul workers were negligent but at the same time the security measures weren’t also adequate, no fire alarms or smoke detectors were installed, which was a major security risk. Also, there were no emergency exits present at the workplace. This resulted in 22 people dead and at least 100 injured and a different source has reported that the death toll was 17 and 40 injured. (Fireworks Explosion in Istanbul Kills 22, 2008)

ROLE OF HUMAN FACTOR CONCEQUENCES

A number of major industrial accidents have resulted due to errors made by human, and most of them have led to a number of fatalities. The accident analyzation that occurs after accidents has told about many errors and deficiencies that are a result of human negligence. The root cause of these inadequacies is typically the inadequate application of human factors in developing various systems of management, establishing standards and procedures. Therefore, it would be useful to comprehend where the deficiencies occur and where any human error could prove dangerous to human safety.

The advantages of taking human factors into account for an organization is, lesser accidents and near misses, potential human error and its consequences reduced. Better human care procedures would also result into improvements in efficiency and lesser lifetime costs, that are related to maintenance and redesigning of systems and a workforce that is more productive. If it is properly applied it could result in better reliability and operating effectiveness. Proactively integrating human factors through the course of lifecycle of any asset, right from the start of the designing stage to commissioning, operating and maintaining and looking beyond of decommissioning is necessitous. For the reason that every aspect of every industry includes human factors, the progress of any industry is depended on the performance given by humans.

COMMON TYPE OF HUMAN ERRORS OCCURING IN WORKPLACE

As is said in the old tales that a person’s biggest enemy is his own self, and even in today’s world it is still true. A workplace is where a wide variety of human errors occur. Many of them were harmless but some of them could be of serios nature.

Human can be blamed for up to 90% of accidents that happen in workplace and they result in loss of money. Knowing about human errors could help prevent them. Now we are discussing here some of the human factors that has resulted in the fire explosion of Istanbul.

Neglecting safety of An Industrial Accident

It generally happens when an employee becomes too much acquainted with his assigned tasks, that he gets a reason to not give much heed to safety measures that are put up there to ensure safety of the employees. This disregard of the safety measures that are implemented results in accidents and that is what happened in Istanbul fireworks explosion. The workers were not giving any importance to safety measures.

Messing around of An Industrial Accident

The friendships at workplace can be helpful to boost up morale but this could give negative consequences when it becomes a place of rivalry. This was also a factor in the occurrence of explosion.

Fatigue of An Industrial Accident

The employees of the factory were overworked and too tired to accomplish the important functions that was demanded by their job, that significantly raised the chances of any kind of incident happening in that factory. Now it is obvious that an exhausted person will give not much heed to safety measures, he will feel sleepy and even do sensitive tasks like operating heavy machinery in that condition. (Yuan, 2019)

FAILURE AND ERRORS of An Industrial Accident

 Types of accidents of An Industrial Accident

Different accidents types depend on the durability, severity, and degree of injury. A ‘major accident’ would be defined as, any accident that becomes the cause of death, or any kind of permanent or prolonged injury to the employee who is injured, and any cut or bruise that does not make the employee disabled can be said as ‘minor accident’. But when an employee suffers any injury with external symptoms of it is called an external one. (Karanikas, 2015)

Human related Causes of accidents of An Industrial Accident

There needs to be a reason for an accident to occur, they just simply cannot happen on their own. It has also, came into observation that most accidents do not contain a single cause they depend on a number of different causes that often have a close relation with each other.

There are countless causes of accidents, but the major ones are listed below;

·         Unsafe actions

·         Unprotected environment

·         Negligence on part of employee

·         Other causes

Unsafe conditions of An Industrial Accident

The biggest cause of this accident is the unsafe conditions of work. Defects in plants, tools, equipment, material and machines are associated with it. These are known as technical causes. Inadequately guarded equipment, performing a work at wrong place and inadequate lighting arrangements are the reasons of this accident.

           Apart from that there were also some psychological reasons involved. It could be           a monotonous routine, frustration and tiredness. The experts in safety, have highlighted some danger zones in industry, that include high risks, that were neglected in the site of explosion.

Unsafe acts of An Industrial Accident

That explosion occurred due to unsafe acts by the workers. Now these could be lack of knowledge or skill by the worker, could be a bodily defect or a wrong attitude.

Examples are;

·         Failing to use an attire that is safe or equipment for personal protection

·         Conducted operations without being given any authority

·         Contaminating the workplace

·         Doing work at an unsafe speed, i.e, either too fast or too slow

·         Use of unsafe equipment or equipment being unsafely used

·         Removal of devices that are installed for ensuring safety

·         Standing at an unsafe place under suspended materials

·         Horseplay at work place

·         Distraction

·         Teasing

·         Behaving irresponsibly

 Other causes of An Industrial Accident

The other causes of Istanbul firework explosion were unsafe climatic and situational conditions. The workplace of the factory was too noisy, the temperature was too high that assisted in burning the fire, bad working conditions, unhealthy environment, floors that are slippery. The environment was dusty and fumy. The behavior of supervisors was also arrogant and domineering.

The explosion happened in two separate explosions that were reported with a time lapse of five minutes from each other. The first happened in the top floor and the second in boilers in the basement where the paint was being manufactured. (Human Factors Causing Accidents, 2019)