The Role of Human Error Analysis in Occupational and Environmental Risk Assessment: A Serbian Experience

ABSTRACT

Human error analysis is certainly a challenge today for all involved in safety and environmental risk assessment. The risk assessment process should not ignore the role of humans in accidental events and the consequences that may derive from human error. This article presents a case study of the Success Likelihood Index Method (SLIM) applied to the Electric Power Company of Serbia (EPCS), with the aim to disclose the importance of human error analysis in risk assessment. A database on work-related injuries, accidents, and critical interventions that occurred over a 10-year period in the EPCS provided the basis for this study. The research comprised analysis of 1074 workplaces, with a total of 3997 employees. A detailed analysis identified 10 typical human errors, performance shaping factors (PSFs), and estimated human error probability (HEP). Based on the obtained research results one can conclude that PSF control remains crucial for human error reduction, and thus prevention of occupational injuries and fatalities (the number of injuries decreased from 58 in 2012 to 44 in 2013, no fatalities recorded). Furthermore, the case study performed at the EPCS confirmed that the SLIM is highly applicable for quantification of human errors, comprehensive, and easy to perform.

Key Words:

• risk assessment
• human error analysis
• human error probability
• performance shaping factors
• success likelihood index method (SLIM).

Notes

Editor's note: The Three Mile Island incident was a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred on March 28, 1979, in one of the two Three Mile Island nuclear reactors in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States (Wikipedia 2014).