Causal structure framework of man-made disaster in construction

Abstract

Construction accident is a man-made disaster. Causal factors of a construction accident could lie dormant at the project conception, design, and construction stage. Investigating the causal factors is, therefore, inadequate if directed only to operative errors, and the contractor’s management or organisation failures. A systematic investigation should also cover management or organisational failures initiated by the designer, the client’s team, and the client. This would lead to the need for a practical method of the accident investigation by which the operational errors, and management or organisational failures can be revealed comprehensively. This paper presents a constraint-response analysis of causation of construction accidents (CRACCA). It is a model illustrating a generic network of factors in construction accident causation. CRACCA proposes that construction accident causation consist of (1) accident events, (2) proximal factors, and (3) distal factors. The accident events represent accident occurrences and their consequences; the proximal factors represent deficiencies of the construction process; whilst the distal factors represent precursors generating the proximal factors. Both the proximal and distal factors are considered as factors stimulating the increased risk of construction accident. The distal factors are characterised as constraints applied to, and responses by, participants in the construction project. These constraints and responses constitute management actions taken by clients, the client’s team, the designers or the builders. In this way, the model will assist investigators to structure more readily the causal factors, and determine potential or predominant factors leading to construction accidents. In this paper, the constraint-response theory is briefly described. The generic structure of the causal network is presented. The default features of the model are introduced. The paper also illustrates procedures using CRACCA.