Human reliability data requirements

For many years there has been increasing concern about the effects of human error in complex system safety and reliability. This concern has been increased owing to accidents such as Chernobyl, Bhopal, Herald of Free Enterprise, Three Mile Island and the Kegworth air disaster. In the vast majority of these accidents, human error has played a critical role in the events precipitating the accident. Such accidents can in theory be predicted and prevented by risk assessment,in particular assessing the human contribution to risk. However, the collection of human‐error data has proved a difficult field for the past 30 years, and yet industry would benefit from the existence of a robust human‐error database. Provides therefore a brief historical resume of past human‐error databases, and discusses data collection and the inherent problems associated with data‐collection schemes. Goes on to outline a human‐error database currently being developed at Birmingham University, and presents information on regularly quantified human‐error types. Finally, gives a general synopsis of the research and provides a selection of real human‐error data points.