Investigation and Analysis of Historical Domino Effects Statistic

318 Domino accidents (from 1951 to 2012) were collected and analyzed to get their main factors, such as distribution of accidents, causes, involved substances and Domino sequences. The statistics showed that 226 Domino accidents (71.1%) occurred in developed countries and 92 accidents (28.9%) occurred in developing countries. 41.8% of the accidents occurred in storage areas. Compared with developed countries, human failure was most likely to cause an accident in China. Flammable substances associated with 237 cases (74.5%). The most frequent secondary/tertiary Domino sequence was explosion → fire (24.8%)/explosion → fire → explosion (7.9%). Situation of Domino accidents in China had been analyzed and a definition of ‘process linkage Domino effect’ had been proposed.