Construction accidents

An indication of the size and seriousness of the problem can be obtained by considering the annual HSE report containing data on fatal and major accidents and respective incidence rates. 

Further analysis of both fatal and major accidents gives a good indication of the problem areas. While the numbers vary from year to year the pattern remains fairly constant with falls from height accounting for some 40% of major injuries and 50% of fatalities. 

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Sometimes two other incidents are attributed to LNG The first one - a construction accident on Staten Island in 1973 - was cited as a LNG accident because work was carried out inside an empty LNG tank. The second - an electrical seal failure on a LNG pump that failed in 1979 - caused an explosion because gas (not LNG) entered an enclosed building. This event gave rise to a thorough revision of the code for electrical seals used with all flammable fluids underpressure [10],... 

Abdelhamid, T. and Everett, J. (2000) Identifying root causes of construction accidents. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 126(1), 52-60. 

Health and Safety Executive (2003) Causal Factors in Construction Accidents. Research Report 156. The Stationery Office, Norwich. 

Laitinen, H., Marjamaki, M. and Paivarinta, K. (1999) The validity of the TR safety observation method on building construction. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 315, 463-72. 

Analysis on relationship of construction accident probability and safety training... 

Construction accidents were caused by human, machine, material, method, environment together accidents showed orderly process and development, through rheologicd and mutation process (He 2001), as shown in Figure 3. Accidents made the construction process stopped or disturbed, but making construction often stopped or disturbed was a series of orderly construction work, so accidents essence is an ordered set of events. Ordered event is reflected in the incident event and continuous events (Zheng Zheng 2004). 

The Synectors have been working together for about two years and can be considered reasonably successful, particularly after their recent success with solving the problem of construction accidents. For many people within the company, they are heroes who brought fame and fortune, but there are also employees who consider them parasites for eating up the very limited resources available without an immediate payoff. For this reason, the Synectors are strongly motivated to prove that they are not only the creative core of the company, but that they are also productive and contribute to the company s financial success. 

One port operator s safety department examined the accident statistics for the past six years for two major commercial ports. In that time, the two ports had had 4 reportable construction accidents and since then have spent around 100 million in capital expenditure. Two of these accidents occurred in the marine environment but were not the result of a marine-related risk, i.e. they could just as easily have occurred on land. However, the port s accident data may mask the true picture, as they would not record the contractor s accident data, as contractors are separately responsible for submitting the RIDDOR forms to HSE. 

Implementing an effective safety program to reduce work site incidents can influence workers compensation premium costs. Lowering the frequency and severity of construction accidents will help to lower experience modification rates (EMR) and manual rates that, in turn, lower workers compensation insurance premiums [3,7]. 

Haslam RA., Hide S.A., Gibb A.G.F., Gyi D.E., Pavitt T., Atkinson S. Duff A.R 2005. Contributing factors in construction accidents. Applied Ergonomics 36 (4) 401A15. 

Health and Safety Executive 2003. Causal factors in construction accidents. London Health and Safety Executive. 

Hide, S., Atkinson, S., Pavitt, T.C., Haslam, R., Gibb, A.G. Gyi, D.E. 2003. Causal factors in construction accidents. Health and Safety Executive. 

L Ladders. Ladders, steps, scaffolding and other means of access are widely used in industry and commerce. Working from ladders and temporary scaffolding accounts for some 10 per cent of industrial and construction accidents, many of them fatal. Poor equipment, badly maintained, erected and used by untrained personnel, with insufficient supervision, are the main causes of falls. 

A new theory of construction accident causation has been introduced by Suraji and Duff, which includes a much wider range of features than previous models. These features include project conception, design, management and construction. The various deficiencies are classed as proximal (nearby) and distal (further away), which allows the incorporation of the influences of designers and their designs into the construction activity. Fundamental concepts of the theory as It relates to designers are ... 

Refurbishment work represents some 42% of UK construction activity overall and it is generally considered to be more hazardous than new build construction. Until such time as reliable data of refurbishment accidents becomes available, it can be assumed that at least half of all construction accidents probably occur during refurbishment projects. The practical aim of the Guide is to provide a more secure framework for decisions and procedures to reduce these accidents and injury, not only while refurbishment work is being undertaken, but also during the subsequent periods of building use, re-use, refitting and modification, and when further refurbishments and adaptations are undertaken, until the time of demolition. 

The identification of hazards and activities that can give rise to generic health and safety risks will rely on the available data concerning the frequency and severity of injuries that occured in the past. Accident data is limited and none of the available statistics distinguishes between injuries incurred during refurbishment work, new build or infrastructure construction. Furthermore, construction accident data is limited to formally reported injuries only. Unlike occupational health and safety data, near miss accidents are not reported. As a result, it is especially difficult to quantify and evaluate the health and safety risks of refurbishment. 

The research on which this Guide is based, included a detailed review of published health and safety material and documented best practice experience, backed up by a comprehensive examination of all available data concerning the factors that have contributed to industrial accidents in general and construction accidents in particular, since the 1972 Robins Report. This... 

Culver C, M Marshall and C Connolly (1993) Analysis of Construction Accidents. Professional Safety March pg 22-27. 

Laufer A (1987b) Construction accident cost and management safety motivation. Journal of Occupational Accidents vol 8 pp 295-315. 

Leopold E and S Leonard (1987) Costs of Construction Accidents to Employers. Journal of Occupational Accidents, vol 8 pp 273-294. 

Laufer, A., 1987. Construction accident costs and management motivation./o rKit/ of Occupational Accidents, 8 295-315. 

An increase in the number of factory-made building units and in the size of them may result in more structural collapses. Something must also be done about the large number of UK construction accidents in the unclassified group, the lack of information on accident causes (without this action to remove them cannot be taken), and assessment of the exposure risk so that energies can be used to advantage. For example the exposure risk for... 

Table 2. Ratio of causative factors of construction accidents in Britain and Canada...

Table 2 represents the ratio of cause of a small and not necessarily representative sample of construction accidents in Canada compared with the ratio of causes in a small sample as documented in reference 1 which was not intended to be representative of the whole construction industry. 

After working with the problem of construction accidents for many years, it is the firm belief of the Construction Safety Association of Ontario that education must be emphasized more than legislation in combating accidents. 

It is probable that closed minds and dogmatic beliefs cause, or at least allow to develop, more accidents than do failure to wear hard hats, insufficient scaffolding or other causes generally associated with construction accidents. 

The exercise carried out by the Construction Safety Association of Ontario in 1967 indicated that the cost of their accidents was about six times the net profits to the construction industry in Ontario. A 20% reduction was stated to effect a saving of 150 million. That exercise is possibly the reason for the emphasis on education and instruction training using all possible media. Seldom, if ever, in Britain is there reference to industrial accidents, not necessarily construction accidents, on television or in the newspapers. Excerpts from the Employers Federation s films have been shown, but have no impact unless they are followed through continuously. 

In Fig. 5, the UK is shown to have a lower rate of deaths per 100 000 than Ontario and a considerably lower rate than the USA. This has been attributed to various things, including better enforcement, the construction manual and conferences. I think it is an indication of the progress that is slowly being achieved by those concerned with construction accidents in the UK. 

Notwithstanding the fact that progress has been made, the persistently high workmen s compensation rates in every province, compared with the rates for other classifications of work, are proof that much more can and must be done to reduce the frequency and severity of construction accidents. 

The papers by authors from outside the UK showed that the approach to construction accidents in other countries differs considerably from that in the UK, although the types of accident and structural failure are similar and the numbers of these are comparable, although sometimes greater. In Germany, for example, a work force of million spread over 173 000 firms (li million and 100 000 in the UK) suffered about 600 fatalities and 400 000 reportable accidents in a twelve-month period these figures include accidents while going to or from work. Safety supervision is exercised through about 230 technically qualified inspectors and 31 000 site supervisors. 

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