Assessment of selected safety performance evaluation methods in regards to their conceptual, methodological and practical characteristics

The evolution of safety performance evaluation, from incident-based to prospective and recently to holistic approaches, follows the similar evolutionary path of accident causation and safety management. Holistic approaches are characterized by an integrated use of technical, organisational and human factors for the development of safety performance indicators. The aim of this paper is to propose a set of assessment criteria for safety performance evaluation methods which will also give emphasis to their holistic nature. Specific criteria related to conceptual, methodological and practical characteristics of the methods have been initially selected and six safety performance evaluation methods are evaluated in a trial implementation of these criteria. Results indicate that the proposed criteria can be applied in different types of safety performance evaluation methods in order to extract useful information in regards to their holistic character as well as to their appropriateness and usefulness.