Study on the improvement of accident classification system for human-error management in electrical railways

For the electrical railway system in Korea, failures and accidents regarding equipment aging and maintenance activities have raised some concerns. Close investigation and effective classification of these railway accidents are keys to the prevention of future reoccurrence. The current accident classification system in Korea only categorizes the accidents into a number of risk types and it does not allow effective analysis. This paper addresses the problems of current accident investigation and classification system and suggests the improvement methods that enable basic cause determination and countermeasure development. In order to overcome the problems of current system, 4M4E method has been introduced to relate the causes and the countermeasures of an accident. Furthermore, a new classification system for railway accidents has been suggested and it enables more effective categorization.