ABSTRACT
Domestic political action on accidents has tended to be more stringent, however, for public rather than private transport. The greater bursts of killing in train, aero-plane or ferry crashes tend to be more newsworthy and heighten both public anxiety and a governmental sense of responsibility. Like transport accidents, disasters due to structural failure have occurred for as long as construction has been part of human life but have become far more common and dangerous in the industrialized age. Improved safety standards for public buildings in most countries have seen deaths reduced from a high point of the latter half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Health and safety legislation in developed countries has succeeded in reducing the potential hazards associated with transport, industrial production and the use of public buildings but, at the same time, people continue to travel more than ever and the industrial production and transportation of potentially hazardous substances continues to increase.
