Construction accident prevention plan

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires contractors who perform construction work for the federal government to prepare a safety and occupational health plan (SOH). The idea is to analyze the potential work on a specific job or project and to plan accident prevention measures for each phase and component of the work. The plan includes work performed by subcontractors. It includes contractor hazard control measures. The plan must include frequent and regularly scheduled safety inspections of work sites, materials and equipment by competent persons. 

In considering safe working and accident prevention in the construction industry, this chapter will follow broadly the progression of a construction operation. All stages should be adequately planned making allowance for the incorporation of safe working methods and safe systems of work. As work gets under way on the site, care should be taken to ensure that all those employed are properly trained in the jobs they have to do. This may be particularly difficult if much of the work is subcontracted, but the onus of responsibility for safety on the site rests with the main contractor. 

In providing safe working and ensuring accident prevention in the construction industry, great emphasis is placed on the management and planning of the work. Responsibilities are placed on all those involved, from the client to the site labourer. 

To reduce the frequency and severity of construction accidents, firms select subcontractors careftilly, and implement safety programmes that include orientation and training, written safety plans and management. Constmction sites adopt the following preventive measures (HaUoweU 2010) ... 

Construction Safety Management and Engineering by Hill (2003), Construction Safety Manual by Heberle (1998), among others. A recently published book titled Construction Equipment and Methods-Planning, Iimovation, Safety by Bemold (2013) provides an overview of how to prevent accidents with used equipment in the construction industry. The book also presents methods for the safe design of trenches, formwork, and temporary stmctures. 

Excavation work is an essential part of the construction process and one of the most hazardous. Building foundations and the instaiiation of drainage, sewage and other services require trenches to be excavated. Because it is a hazardous operation several people are killed or seriously injured each year whilst working in excavations. Many are killed or injured by excavation wall collapses and falls of materials, others by contact with buried services. Excavation work has to be properly planned, managed, supervised and carried out to prevent accidents and ill health to workers. 

Federal, state, and provincial regulations may mandate safety programs. The content of these programs vary considerably in specifics but generally consist of several steps that are designed to prevent accidents. Safety programs have been shovm to be effective in reducing numbers of accidents. For example, research conducted by the Lincoln Nebraska Safety Council in 1981 (Reese Eidson, 1999) surveyed over 140 national construction-related companies. The Council fovmd that companies with formal safety plans and established procedures had fewer accidents than companies wdthout plans and procedures. Table 1-1 (adapted from Reese Eidson, 1999) summarizes those results. 

The Paper gives details of the accident rate in the construction industry from 1966-70 the number of accidents per thousand workers has reduced although the number of accidents with serious consequences has not reduced substantially. The reasons for this are explained. Computers are used to analyse the types of accident and assist in determining preventive measures to be taken. The system of building regulations and standards for construction is described this includes all the requirements for conditions of labour and welfare services for personnel. Reviews of production efficiency are made and from these new machines are developed to improve working conditions. The Paper also outlines the USSR s ninth Five-Year Economic Development Plan for 1971-75. 

---