Human errors often have humorous rather than safety critical consequences. The two examples here illustrate system failures which caused embarrassment for the organisations involved, but probably nothing more.
In the top example, a sub-contractor working on street repairs after gas main works made the road marking error. Instead of marking the temporary space as 'DISABLED', a rather different marking was made. The operator was probably doing the best they could - the real failure is in the system that allowed the error to occur. See the KentOnline news report for the full story.

In this second example, road painters repeated a spelling error that was first introduced on the section of road two years previously. Here, 'MINUTES' was replaced with 'MINUITES'. Again, the error lies in the system somewhere, not with the individual carrying out the marking. For the full story, see BT.com.

A fallen power cable caused a wildfire in the US state of Washington. Electrical power company engineers attending the incident believed that the other end of the power cable was also disconnected at the top of a pylon and so posed no danger to firefighters on the ground. However, the power cable was still live at 7.2kV and when a volunteer firefighter used a portable fire extinguisher on the fire he received an electric shock. Fortunately the firefighter was unharmed. For the full news story, see the Tri-City Herald report.

See our pages on procedures and documents, risk management and accident investigation for information about managing risk in an operational environment.

A gas explosion destroyed an apartment building after a technician capped the end of the wrong gas pipe whilst carrying out some maintenance work. This allowed gas to seep out into the ceiling void space which then exploded when the pilot light was lit.

Click here for the full news story.

On the 12th December 1988 a crowded passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal, and an empty train, travelling in the other direction, crashed into the debris. Thirty-five people died and nearly five hundred were injured.
The primary cause of the crash was incorrect wiring work on the signalling system; a redundant wire was left connected at one end, and bare at the other. The wire came into contact with a relay, causing a signal to display a 'wrong side' green aspect regardless of the presence of a train on the track circuit. The signalling technician responsible had also worked a seven day week for the previous thirteen weeks.
Twenty five years on from the Clapham Junction rail disaster, a survivor is still remembering fresh details from that harrowing day.

See the news item here, and the accident report on the Railways Archive website here.