Systemic Failures and Underlying Causes-An Analysis of the Heavy Vehicle Socio-Technical System

The heavy vehicle transport industry has been described as one of the most dangerous occupations with a high death rate. It is part of a complex socio-technical system with many interacting parts which can adversely influence a drivers decision leading up to a crash. Drivers continued to be blamed f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inTransactions of the VŠB-Technical University of Ostrava, Safety Engineering Series Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 19 - 27
Main Authors CIKARA, Ivan, DELL, Geoff, RAINERI, Aldo, SKŘÍŽOVSKÁ, Michaela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published VŠB – Technical University of Ostrava, Faculty of Safety Engineering 01.06.2022
Subjects
blame
crashes
drivers
heavy vehicle
socio-technical system
underlying causes
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ISSN1805-3238
1801-1764
1805-3238
DOI10.35182/tses-2022-0003

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Summary:The heavy vehicle transport industry has been described as one of the most dangerous occupations with a high death rate. It is part of a complex socio-technical system with many interacting parts which can adversely influence a drivers decision leading up to a crash. Drivers continued to be blamed for crashes without the underlying causes being identified as investigation methods do not take these causes into consideration. This paper explains the complexity of the socio-technical system and suggests it is necessary to look beyond a driver’s behavior and focus on the actions and inactions of other actors that have influenced the driver’s behavior to understand what has caused a crash.
ISSN:1805-3238
1801-1764
1805-3238
DOI:10.35182/tses-2022-0003