Speaker: Dr Kate Branford, Senior Human Factors Specialist, V/Line
Human factors and human error
There was a great turn-out for this presentation, even though some members were a bit shy to turn on their cameras! Nevertheless, all attendees were treated to an excellent and informative session.
The bulk of the presentation focused on human error, which typically accounts for 60-80% of incidents. However, Kate demonstrated that there are many aspects to this. For instance, it doesn't relate to operators alone; it could be human error on the part of a designer or the person who does a risk assessment, among others.
In relation to design, it is worth considering optical illusions and perception of information. This was illustrated brilliantly via an interactive section of the talk that showed us just how easy it is to misread visual information. One of the take-home messages for me was that human errors do not occur randomly; context is important.
If you would like learn more about V/Line's general approach to safety, Sylvia Hudson gave a detailed presentation in April 2016 about their updated management system Destination Zero (log in first)
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