HSE: CRR 315 Valuation of benefits of health and safety control: Follow up study

This report summarises the findings of a follow-up study to the HSE/DETR/Home Office/HM Treasury Project 'relativities' study (HSE CRR 273/2000), which sought to elicit public preferences for preventing fatalities in several hazard contexts (railway/road accidents and public/home fires). The very public debate in the media and elsewhere regarding the organisation of rail safety following the Ladbroke grove rail accident in October 1999 prompted the HSE to commission the follow-up study reported here. Of particular interest was the effect of this tragedy upon people's perceptions of rail hazards and how this might feed through into their preferences for safety prioritisation. Such findings are considered useful in and of themselves in relation to understanding the impact on public preferences of social amplification of risk processes following a major disaster. The follow-up study was carried out solely in the London commuter area with a view to including a large number of rail users. It was felt that a combination of the timing of data collection (after Ladbroke Grove) and the sample composition (London commuter belt) might well yield a significantly higher rail/roads value-for-preventing-a-fatality ratio This report and the work it describes were funded by the HSE. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.