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Human Relations
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If human errors are assumed as crimes in a safety culture: A lifeworld analysis of a rail crash

Nobuyuki Chikudate

Department of Management Studies, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan, cikudate{at}mgt.hiroshima-u.ac.jp

This study reanalyses the commuter train incident that involved the West Japan Railway Company (JR West). The incident, which occurred on 25 April 2005, claimed 107 lives (passengers and the train driver) and injured 562 passengers. The delay in using the brake and the train driver’s inattention generated confusion and serious errors. The train driver’s inattentiveness may be attributed to his grave concern over reporting personal mistakes to company authorities as it is mandatory for erring JR West crew members to go through ‘learning practices’. The phenomenological analyses showed how the unintended consequences of such learning practices played a key role in the train incident. This study also draws on Foucault’s concepts on discipline to analyse the learning practices in JR West, and employs the concept of collective myopia to account for the reasoning of JR West managers.

Key Words: accident • control • Foucault • human errors • human resource management/development • Japan

Human Relations, Vol. 62, No. 9, 1267-1287 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726709335543
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