Abstract
The relatively high rate of injuries in construction is not surprising, as site work by its very nature ranks highly on fundamental risk factors. Working at heights often magnifies these risk factors. The literature reveals that falls from heights accounts for a large percentage of injuries in construction worldwide. Thailand is no exception, where fall accidents constitute the majority of high-rise construction accidents despite preventive measures being implemented. This paper examines how the use of a simple Ambient Intelligence (AmI) system—a device comprising a microcontroller, microwave sensors, Light Emitting Diode (LED) and audio alarm—could help to affect safety behavioural change of on-site construction workers in order to decrease the potential for fall accidents. An experiment was conducted at a high-rise building construction site in Bangkok, Thailand to examine the effectiveness of the AmI in helping workers mitigate the risk of falling from heights. The analysis of the data collected over two work weeks from the pre- and post-AmI application using X-bar charts and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant reduction of about 78% in the number of workers passing through the fall hazard zones. The finding established the potential of a simple AmI for reducing the risk of fall accidents.
Highlights
Following the experiment setup and the one-week test-and-run period mentioned in Section 2, the pre-Ambient Intelligence (AmI) deployment stage began on Monday 22 April and continued through to Friday 26 April 2019
A simple but effective AmI device has been designed and developed as a tool to decrease the potential for fall accidents at a construction site
The device was applied to a real high-rise building construction site in Bangkok, Thailand, and was tested to examine its effectiveness in helping workers mitigate the risk of falling from heights
Summary
The construction industry continues to strive to improve workers safety as they typically perform physically demanding tasks in poor work conditions (e.g., extreme temperature, excessive noise, confined space) and are frequently exposed to work-related hazards (e.g., falling from a height, struck by equipment, falling materials or objects) [1]. Occupational accidents in this industry are frequent, and may lead to permanent disability and a high rate of fatalities [2]. Falls from a height (FFH) still consistently have the highest rates amongst construction accidents compared with others types of accidents (e.g., vehicle collisions, hits by moving or falling objects, being trapped between stationary and moving objects and contact with electricity), and when compared to other industries’ accidents [4]. In the United Kingdom, it was reported that FFH accounted for 25% of all fatal injuries, with half of all FFH
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