Risk Assessment in Transport Industry

Abstract

Transport industry in the US is the principal industry involving the masses. The industry involves a number of means of transportation, namely, aviation, marine, mass transits (subways and buses) etc. In an industry, as huge as this, it involves numerous risk factors associated with accidents; operational, environmental or based on human errors. Therefore, it is important to analyze the important risks associated with this industry and highlight the measures taken, to ensure public safety.Risk Assessment in Transport Industry

Risk assessment

Risk can be defined as, “an assessment of the likelihood of the incidence of a specified negative event in a work place.” Usually risk assessment is made by leading companies and government agencies, in order to reduce the occurrence of any event that may result in the loss of the industry. According to the law, risk management must be good enough to secure people from any predicted harmful effect. In case of the transport industry, the public perception of risk is at variance with actual numbers. For the analysis, the risks are scrutinized for routine transportation and accidents. The assessment of accidents is done by calculating the risks for a collective population travelling, living and working along the transportation route, considering the probability of possible transportation related accidents. (Garrick, B. J., November 2001). In the past, the nature of risks occurring in the transport industry was more or less related to the vehicle or passenger accidents. However, the coverage of risk in the transport industry has also expanded to terrorist activities the management of risk in transportation involves the following: identification of vital transport facilities, observation and monitoring of vehicle performance and prevention, deterrence and recovery. (Morgan, D. F et al., November/December 2000) The US transport industry consists of a massive infra structure, supporting both freight and passenger transportation. It includes the following:

•Air

•Railways

•Maritime

•Mass transits (subways, buses etc)

•Trucking

•Pipeline

The US department of transportation provides regulation and supervision of all modes of transport in the country.

Air transportation

Air transport is amongst the most widely used method of transportation for covering long distances. This mode of transportation can be categorized as passenger and cargo aviation; therefore, the risks involved in both types of aviation differ from each other.

In the past, the event of September 11 has been a major turning point in the history of US aviation. Significant improvements have been made since to reduce the risks in airways, in respect to security, technology and operations. Risks involved in aviation

The formation of icicles on the wings of the aircraft is a major risk factor in take-off accidents. This prevents take off of the plane from run ways, resulting in their performance degradation. Accidental history indicates that turbojet, transport category aircrafts have been in accidents, where unnoticed upper wing icicle formation was the major source of take-off accidents. To minimize this risk of accidents, it is important that a thorough pre flight inspection must be carried out to detect icicle formation so that the risk of take-off accidents is ...