Post-Accident Safety Analysis is a very sobering process when there has been loss of life.

As analysts, we

• have had to deal with gauntlets of reporters at the client's premises as well as other reporters
• have interfaced with regulators of the associated industry
• have attended meetings with and made presentations to corporate lawyers
• have seen companies crippled
• have seen company officials become unemployable
• have seen subpoenes issued to past employees
• have seen huge law suits

HCRQ provides around the clock, around the world response to accidents - professionally, quickly, efficiently and, of course, confidentially.

Prior to any information, verbal or otherwise, changing hands, we sign legal documents with our client beginning with an NDA. We sometimes fly to our first meeting with a client knowing next to nothing but suspecting a lot.

Often software errors, which contribute to accidents, resemble transient hardware faults. They can be very difficult to diagnose as little if any evidence of the cause of software-related accidents is left behind. And, if you execute the software again using identical inputs, more than likely it will work correctly since internal timings are different. These scenarios are sometimes encountered during testing and, after multiple attempts to reproduce the same result fail, the embarrassing test result is often discarded.

It is worthwhile noting that these systems, for which we our services have been requested, are certainly not the worse designs we have seen with respect to potential for catastrophic failure.

By the way, have your ever heard of the THERAC-25 ? Guess who was called in?

Have you heard of a nuclear reactor LOCA (Loss Of Coolant Accident) ? Ditto.

Our work in this area reminds us of the African Proverb: "Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors".

By the way, based on its experience, HCRQ offers a very captivating seminar called Software-Related Accidents - First-Hand Insight.