Social Disasters and Damages

Abstract

This chapter discusses actual social disasters and damages they caused. The first section starts with some societal problems we face today. They are accidents due to aging infrastructures and difficulties in preventing them, nature and trends in accidents involving airplanes which are one of the most advanced industrial products today, characteristics of automobile accidents with the most serious social disasters in modern society in terms of the number of deaths and injured, and drug toxicity and safety in medical care. The following Sect. 7.2 analyzes human error, which is the most important factor in conducting analysis and investigation of accidents. Lastly, the third section closes the chapter with an overview of the history of major social disasters and their countermeasures.Infrastructures are basic systems and services for countries, industries, or organizations to function effectively. For example, roads, railways, electrical grids, communication networks, ports, dams, water supply and sewage, schools, hospitals, parks, and public housing are systems of facilities that form bases for industries and social livings. In Japan, the ceiling-slab collapse accident took place in December 2012 in Sasago Tunnel on Chuo Expressway and caused nine fatalities. This accident triggered large concerns for people over aging of social infrastructures like tunnels, bridges, water supply, and sewage.