17-07-2009, 05:06 PM
We are often asked to define a risk, to which the simple answer is:
risk = likelihood * severity
You can flower it up by talking about the likelihood of a hazard - once exposed - leading to an accident, and the magnitude of the 'loss' arising as a result of the accident. You may even want to talk about the fact that in railway business we are interested in two types of 'loss': human life, & financial.
So that question is easy (or so we think) and we've, got our two marks. The study group then progressed to part B of 2005 Q6
b) Identify the 5 most significant safety risks which exist under the present arrangement, justifying your selection. [10 marks]
And our study group got bogged down: what is a safety risk; are we supposed to define the accidents which are the consequence, the hazard that led to the accident or the cause/precursor?
In the end I concluded that I've never read anywhere what a risk is, other than the definition provided above (and variations thereof). So how should we answer part B of 2005 Q6?
I summarised that we should talk about the chain as the risk: cause-hazard-accident; but can't find documentation anywhere that confirms this as either right or wrong . . .
??? Your thoughts ???
risk = likelihood * severity
You can flower it up by talking about the likelihood of a hazard - once exposed - leading to an accident, and the magnitude of the 'loss' arising as a result of the accident. You may even want to talk about the fact that in railway business we are interested in two types of 'loss': human life, & financial.
So that question is easy (or so we think) and we've, got our two marks. The study group then progressed to part B of 2005 Q6
b) Identify the 5 most significant safety risks which exist under the present arrangement, justifying your selection. [10 marks]
And our study group got bogged down: what is a safety risk; are we supposed to define the accidents which are the consequence, the hazard that led to the accident or the cause/precursor?
In the end I concluded that I've never read anywhere what a risk is, other than the definition provided above (and variations thereof). So how should we answer part B of 2005 Q6?
I summarised that we should talk about the chain as the risk: cause-hazard-accident; but can't find documentation anywhere that confirms this as either right or wrong . . .
??? Your thoughts ???