Statistical analysis of dangerous goods accidents in Japan

Statistical analysis of accident cases concerning dangerous goods was carried out in order to clarify the causes of the accidents. The results of this investigation will be useful for preventing similar accidents in the future. The number of dangerous goods accidents in Japan has been increasing, and the number of dangerous goods accidents reached a record high in the year 2000. Although various cause analyses have been conducted since the increasing trend in the number of accidents first became clear, as of yet, no analysis has clarified definitively the cause for this increase. One reason for these failures is thought to be that the quality of the accumulated data is neither uniform nor reliable. In the present study, a previously constructed database of dangerous goods accident cases was rearranged to create a new database. The newly constructed database improved the accuracy of multivariate analysis and enabled statistical techniques, such as quantification theory, to be applied. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.