Road crashes have been internationally recognized as one of the main causes of death. On one hand, in Europe, many governments are struggling with the ambitious target of zero road deaths by 2050. On the other hand, they are facing remediation of illegal waste dumps, subject to European infringement procedures and involving a lot of workers and heavy materials transportation. With the aim to further explore occupational health and safety (OHS) issues related to the remediation of such contaminated sites close to urban areas, we decided to focus our attention on road crashes involving people while working in the transport of materials and goods (i.e., occupational road safety). In the scientific literature, it is considered an emerging matter of concern, but no significant contribution nor specific procedures have been provided in this research field for workers in charge of contaminated sites. With the aim to fill such a gap, we decided to, first, investigate the impacts of a landfill remediation site (Malagrotta landfill, near Rome—Italy) on road safety in the surrounding context. Then, road safety management measures for workers driving heavy vehicles from and toward the reference site were suggested through the means of cluster analysis. The main road accident determinants (road safety signs and traffic conditions) for heavy vehicles in the Rome municipality, derived from a sample of 166 events, occurred in the period 2017–2021 on target road infrastructures for the case study. The events were finally grouped with a k-means three-centroid solution. Overall, despite the intrinsic limits related to the data’s details, this paper provides a specific and data-driven methodology to address occupational road safety near a landfill remediation site and encourages further research in this field.
The geostatistical methodology proposed in this article is able to provide quantitative data of the ground vibrational movements to the decision support systems to determine the priorities of the seismic interventions adaptation of existing transport infrastructures but also in the design phase of new infrastructures. This paper shows the use of geostatistics to estimate the arrival time and the value of the ground acceleration peak of the vertical and epicentral oscillation components of the Norcia earthquake of 2016. The validity of the non-stationary geostatistical methodology is confirmed by the calculated estimation errors in the 38 sites of the accelerometric stations and used to verify the representativeness of the estimated data. The histogram of the 38 normalized estimation errors is close to a Gaussian distribution with the frequency of the ± σck class of 73.7% instead of 68.3%. This result was obtained for both seismic variables treated, arrival time of the maximum acceleration and peak ground acceleration value (PGA).
Let's define "multihazard": a chain of sequential events intersection, each one conditioned by the previous. The present study affords an in-depth insight into road tunnel multihazard. The paper stems from interest in analyzing the conditions of occurrence and development of two important accident events: San Gotthard (Switzerland, 2001) and San Benedetto tunnel (Italy, 2016). The first originated from the improper human behavior of a driver who invaded the opposite lane colliding frontally with another vehicle. A fire developed involving the vehicles' fuel, cargo of goods, bituminous conglomerate of the pavement and collapse of the vault concrete with eleven victims and damage to the structure. The second which occurred during the seismic activity of 2016 in central Italy (Umbria), caused the break and relative 20-30 cm displacement of two sides of the tunnel pavement. The first part of the paper deals with the study of seismic hazard conditions around the San Benedetto tunnel and fragility of concrete lining and asphalt pavement. In the second part the deepening concerns the probability estimation of a potential intersection of a seismic event with forced swerve, collision, and fire. The seismic induced break plays the role of the human factor in the Gotthard multihazard accident. The overall length of TERN Italian tunnels is greater than the one of all other countries joint lengths and for this reason, Italy can be called the Country of Tunnels. The risk of fire in tunnels in Italy must be compliant with Alarp criteria of acceptability and tolerability according to a Legislative Decree of 2006 which in turn complies with the European Directive of 2004. The quantitative and interactive "Play Gu@larp" procedure is described, which allows and support in risk-based design, reducing risk under compliance conditions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.