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MEC 100INTRODUCTION TO MECHANICALENGINEERING
PREPARED FOR:GHAZIRAH MUSTAPHA 
 
PREPARED BY:MOHAMAD ADIB BIN MOHAMAD SANUSI [2009 60 2112]FAKHRULLAH AZIZI BIN AHMAD [2009 40 2328] ABDUL BASIR BIN ILYAS[2009 40 3048] AMIRUL HAZIQ BIN NASRUDDIN (2009 42 7394)
What Makes a Failure Into an "Engineering Disaster"?
Much of the reason why we consider an engineering failure to be an engineering "disaster" has to do withpublic perception of risk. For example, in 1992 roughly the same number of fatalities occurred (in the UnitedStates) in transportation accidents involving airplanes (775), trains (755), and bicycles (722). Yet the publicperception of the risk associated with air travel is often much higher than that for trains and certainly for bicycles. This stems from two reasons: (1) the large loss of life (and associated wide spread news reporting)resulting from a single air crash, and (2) the air passenger's lack of control over their environment in the caseof air or, to a lesser degree, rail accidents. Both of these reasons results in increased fear, and hence ahigher degree of perceived risk.
Primary Causes of Engineering Disasters
The primary causes of engineering disasters are usually considered to be
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human factors (including both 'ethical' failure and accidents)
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design flaws (many of which are also the result of unethical practices)
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materials failures
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extreme conditions or environments, and, most commonly and importantly
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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 damageincurred. 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%M. Matousek and Schneider, J., (1976) Untersuchungen Zur Struktur des Zicherheitproblems bei Bauwerken, Institutfür Baustatik und Konstruktion der ETH Zürich,Bericht No. 59, ETH. 
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