ABSTRACT
As we saw in the previous chapter, the 1980s seem to have had more than their ‘fair share’ of organizational accidents. One of the many consequences of this was that the 1990s became the safety culture decade. Though there was not-nor is-any agreed definition of culture, there was a strong belief that tightly coupled, complex, well-defended computer-based technologies-nuclear power, chemical process, transport systems and the like-are somehow more susceptible to the adverse effects of a poor safety culture than traditional industries involving close encounters between people and hazards-as in mining, construction, the railway infrastructure and road transport.
