Accidents & Catastrophes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Accidents & Catastrophes - Essay Example s a hazard to passers by and similarly noxious substances also pose risks to people but it is the degree of the outcome of each of these hazards that actually varies. An accident would result if somebody falls if he does not observe the stone or an accident can also result if a group of people get exposed to toxic substances. Hence an accident can actually be described as an untoward incident which is not expected and does not bring about good results. Accidents are not done with deliberate reasons by the people who are affected by it (Kovach & McGuire 2003). According to Paul Craythorne who is a health, safety and environmental advisor, an accident is defined as â€Å"an unplanned and uncontrolled event that led to or could have led to injury to persons, property/plant/equipment, and impairment to the environment or some other loss to the company.† Uncontrollable events can also be given the name of accidents. Depending upon the condition an accident can be avoidable or unavoidable. Certain accidents can be foreseen and hence they can be prevented from occurring by taking the proper measures. Accidents are led to by certain human errors. To consider this is we can take example of aircraft accidents. Air crashes are seen in cases when the aeroplane is not checked before the flight takes off or some defect in it goes unnoticed. This can lead to an accident resulting in several deaths. Thus an error in checking can be a cause of this accident. Accidents can be avoided sometimes if appropriate methods are employed. In the same example if the aircraft would have been checked properly this untoward incident could have been avoidable. But this is not always the case. For example if a flight takes off under perfect conditions. But after take off the weather suddenly becomes really bad and the flight crashes into a mountain, this is ag ain an accident. But this accident becomes unavoidable and it is not due to human error. An accident is classified on the basis of its