Intended Ignorance: The Collapse of the I-35 W Mississippi River Bridge on 1 August 2007

At 6:05 PM on 1 August 2007, the I-35 W Highway Bridge crossing the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed due to the failure of crucial parts of the bridge’s steel truss structure. Thirteen people died in the disaster, 145 were injured. A report of United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed that the Minnesota Department of Transport, over a long period of time, had ignored available information about the structurally deficient status of the bridge in anticipation of ‘budget busting’ repair costs. Which resulted in a preference for less expensive patch-up measures to improve the drivability of the bridge rather than a retrofit of the fracture-critical components of the steel truss whose failure triggered the disaster of 1 August 2007.

ANALYSIS OF GENERAL AVIATION FIXED-WING AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS INVOLVING INFLIGHT LOSS OF CONTROL USING A STATE-BASED APPROACH

Inflight loss of control (LOC-I) is a significant cause of General Aviation (GA) fixed-wing aircraft accidents. The United States National Transportation Safety Board’s database provides a rich source of accident data, but conventional analyses of the database yield limited insights to LOC-I. We investigate the causes of 5,726 LOC-I fixed‑wing GA aircraft accidents in the United States in 1999–2008 and 2009–2017 using a state-based modeling approach. The multi-year analysis helps discern changes in causation trends over the last two decades. Our analysis highlights LOC-I causes such as pilot actions and mechanical issues that were not discernible in previous research efforts. The logic rules in the state-based approach help infer missing information from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports. We inferred that 4.84% (1999–2008) and 7.46% (2009–2017) of LOC-I accidents involved a preflight hazardous aircraft condition. We also inferred that 20.11% (1999–2008) and 19.59% (2009–2017) of LOC-I accidents happened because the aircraft hit an object or terrain. By removing redundant coding and identifying when codes are missing, the state-based approach potentially provides a more consistent way of coding accidents compared to the current coding system.

Assessment of commuters’ perception of water transportation safety and patronage in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

Water transport being among the oldest mode of transport is crucial to the development of any nation. It provides means of transportation for both rural and urban dwellers, particularly along the coastal areas and inland waterways. It is a known fact that water transportation has been neglected for a long period by both the government and the private sector, particularly in the area of safety of passengers on Lagos waters. This paper examines the perception of safety and the use of water transportation among passengers within Lagos metropolis. The jetties were purposively determined. Using a random sampling technique, a structured questionnaire focusing on socio-economic characteristics of passengers, use of water transport, reasons for the use of water transport, perception on safety and frequency of water transportation usage were administered to 1050 passengers across the selected four jetties (Liverpool, Falomo, Bayeku, and Ijegun Egba) within the metropolis with a response rate of 86.3%. The step-wise multiple regression results show that passengers’ perception of poor safety of water transportation predicted a significant 78.1% of reluctance to travel by water within Lagos metropolis (F = 27990.685, p<0.05). This study, therefore, recommends that the state government should provide adequate safety measures that could repose confidence in passengers in order to increase patronage of water transportation. This singular act could help to reduce the incessant traffic congestions on Lagos roads.

ANALYSIS OF WING SEPARATION AND MID-AIR BREAKUP IN LIGHT TRAINING AIRCRAFT

Despite increasing discussions concerning the recently published wing spar airworthiness directive (AD) that affects many training aircraft and several current ADs for wing struts, there remains limited objective literature on incidents of wing separation or mid-air breakup. This paper attempts to report and analyse instances of wing separation and mid-air breakup of light training aircraft. A careful review of the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aircraft accident database revealed that wing separations were more likely occur as mid-air breakup in PA28s than 172s/182s (OR: 3.06, 95 % CI: 1.3682 to 6.8536, p = .008). Additionally, wing separations were less likely to occur as mid-air breakups in the strutted 172s/182s than 177s/210s that don’t have a wing strut (OR: 0.11, 95 % CI: 0.04 to 0.29, p = <.001). This implies that non-strutted wing designs may be more susceptability to mid-air breakup than the strutted design of similar aircraft.

Oil Fumes, Flight Safety, and the NTSB

During its investigations into a series of ten aircraft crashes from 1979 to 1981, US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials were presented with a hypothesis that “several” of the crashes could have been caused by pilot impairment from breathing oil fumes inflight. The NTSB and their industry partners ultimately dismissed the hypothesis. The authors reviewed the crash reports, the mechanics of the relevant engine oil seals, and some engine bleed air data to consider whether the dismissal was justified. Four of the nine aircraft crash reports include details which are consistent with pilot impairment caused by breathing oil fumes. None of the tests of ground-based bleed air measurements of a subset of oil-based contaminants generated in the engine type on the crashed aircraft reproduced the inflight conditions that the accident investigators had flagged as potentially unsafe. The NTSB’s conclusion that the hypothesis of pilot incapacitation was “completely without validity” was inconsistent with the evidence. Parties with a commercial conflict of interest should not have played a role in the investigation of their products. There is enough evidence that pilots can be impaired by inhaling oil fumes to motivate more stringent design, operation, and reporting regulations to protect safety of flight.

Risk Assessment of Rollover and Skidding due to Pavement Roughness and Differential Settlement for Enhancing Transportation Safety

In this paper, a closed-loop simulation of vehicle dynamics in CarSim is utilized as surrogate measures to study the effect of pavement roughness and differential settlement on risk of vehicle rollover and skidding. It is found that the influence of pavement roughness on vehicle rollover is significant and the influence of pavement roughness on vehicle skidding is insignificant. The influence of pavement roughness of grade A and B on safety margin of vehicle rollover can be negligible. Pavement roughness of grade C and D significantly reduces the safety margin of vehicle rollover. A 5 cm settlement difference on pavement reduces the safety margin of vehicle skidding on a good road. When the settlement difference is 5 cm, the vehicle rollover and skidding are greatly affected by the lane-changing speed. It provides an effective and general method based on vehicle dynamics for studying transportation safety as well as for setting up criteria for pavement maintenance.

Comparison of Logistics Time of R3A and R3B for Transportation of Lychee Product

This research presents the logistics management information system (LMIS) for the supply chain of lychee products of Phayao Province, Thailand. The main aim of this research is to develop a management application for Phayao’s agricultures to improve their competitive abilities on Chinese markets by utilizing a prediction method for traffic congestion based on both real-time and anticipated road traffic. The loss of productivity caused by traffic congestion has become a huge and increasingly heavy burden on Phayao farmers. Therefore, the prediction of urban road network traffic flow and the rapid and accurate evaluation of traffic congestion is of great significance to solve this problem. By using traffic data obtained by distance, road conditions, transportation safety, traffic density, and customs clearance, the local farmers in Phayao can deliver lychee products on time and reduce the loss of high emissions and environmental pollution caused by traffic congestion effectively.

Detroit Needs Assessment Study: A Community Academic Partnership With the Detroit Area Agency on Aging

This presentation discusses a comprehensive needs assessment to inform long-term strategic planning for the Detroit Area Agency on Aging. The goal was to provide in-depth input from the older population (age 60+) and key agency stakeholders, using surveys (413 community participants), listening sessions (132 participants), 23 interviews with homebound older adults, and online surveys (94) targeting medical, church, government, academic, media and HSO stakeholders. Findings indicate that many participants were not aware of available community services. For example, one-third (33.3%) had not heard of Medicaid waivers providing services outside of nursing homes, while nearly one in five (22.0%) had not heard about senior employment services. The most common areas of unmet need were for caregiver workshops (16.3%) and diabetes management classes (15.7%). Community services most often noted as ‘extremely important’ included health and wellness programs (68.8%), services to help access health and supportive services (71%), easy to find service information (67.7%), home care and housekeeping services (66.4%), and caregiver support (63.7%). Stakeholder findings provide insight regarding this lack of awareness. Asked “How familiar do you think the general public is with DAAA?” , 10.8% answered ‘very familiar’ and 33% ‘unfamiliar’. Findings related to an “Age-Friendly City” suggest the importance of access to supportive community services, transportation, safety, housing, and healthcare. Engagement of older adults in needs assessments plays a vital role in Area Agencies on Aging meeting the needs of emerging aging cohorts by developing ‘age friendly’ strategies to address increasing racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural diversity.