Evidence-based accident prevention and its application to hazardous chemical storage accident prevention

Many accidents occur owing to decision-making failures in accident prevention. From an information perspective, decision-making failures in accident prevention are due to a lack of necessary information. Moreover, the research–practice gap is a long-standing and common problem in accident prevention. To solve the abovementioned problems to improve accident prevention, this study proposes a new accident prevention approach referred to as evidence-based accident prevention. This approach emphasizes the use of the best accident prevention evidence in the accident prevention decision-making process. It is regarded as a practical approach to avoid the lack of safety information to improve the quality of accident prevention decision-making and narrow the research–practice gap vis-à-vis accident prevention. First, this paper explains that evidence-based accident prevention is based on accident prevention failures from a safety information perspective. Second, this study proposes a model for evidence-based accident prevention. Finally, this study applies an evidence-based accident prevention approach to the prevention of hazardous chemical storage accidents in a paint manufacturing plant in Tianjin, China, as a case study. This study aims to help researchers and practitioners to understand the evidence-based accident prevention approach and lay a foundation for the future study and practice of evidence-based accident prevention.