There are two very common errors in the way people perceive accidents. Either they see them at one extreme as rare, chance chains of events and circumstances which are beyond both prediction and control or, at the other end of the spectrum, they see them as quite simple events with single causes.rnIn reality nearly all accidents - even mundane ones - turn out to be as complex as they are preventable. But failure to understand the complexity of accidents leads both to missed opportunities for prevention as well as over-simple and inappropriate prescriptions to improve safety and reliability.rnOne of the reasons for an over-simple, uni-causal view of accidents among many non-experts is that few lay people have ever had to undertake an accident investigation.
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