Primary Causes of Engineering Disasters

The primary causes of engineering disasters are usually considered to be

• human factors (including both 'ethical' failure and accidents)
• design flaws (many of which are also the result of unethical practices)
• materials failures
• extreme conditions or environments, and, most commonly and importantly
• combinations of these reasons
  
  

A recent study conducted at the Swiss federal Institute of technology in Zurich analyzed 800 cases of structural failure in which 504 people were killed, 592 people injured, and millions of dollars of damage incurred. When engineers were at fault, the researchers classified the causes of failure as follows:

Insufficient knowledge ....................................... 36% Underestimation of influence .............................. 16% Ignorence, carelessness, negligence .................... 14% Forgetfulness, error ........................................... 13% Relying upon others without sufficient control ....... 9% Objectively unknown situation ............................. 7% Unprecise definition of responsibilities .................. 1% Choice of bad quality .......................................... 1% Other ................................................................. 3%