Abstract
Construction accidents don’t just happen, they are initiated by unsafe acts, unsafe conditions or both. The construction industry in Kenya plays a vital role in achieving social and economic development goals, providing shelter, infrastructure, and employment. A study was carried out to identify the common accidents in construction sites and to examine the characteristics of the injured and deceased workers and evaluate factors that cause these accidents in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study cross examined data from Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) from Nairobi County ranging from 2010-2014. The study also utilized on-site questionnaires that were administered to 60 contractors in 9 administrative regions in Nairobi County. They constituted all class NCA2 contractors in the county as well as a few NCA3 and NCA4 contractors. Some 41 questionnaires were returned. Accidents were classified by the age of workers, time and month of the accident, location of an accident, causes of accident and management factors affecting the accident. The study established that 65% of all reported accidents occurred to workers below 37 years old. The accidents peaked between tea break (10am), lunch break (1pm) and after lunch (3pm) and during the months of June and July. The study determined that most construction site injuries were as a result of workers falling from heights (37%), being hit by falling objects (28%) and accidents occurring as a result of workers operating equipment (20%). Relative Importance (R. I) index of construction hazards were calculated for 24 factors contributing to construction site accidents. The top five hazards identified were: (1) reluctance to provide resources for safety (0.820); (2) lack of staff training (0.814); (3) lack of a safety policy and enforcement of safety regulations (0.795); (4) poor safety consciousness among workers (0.766); and (5) lack of strict operational procedures (0.756) in construction sites. The study concluded that in order to improve safety in the construction industry, each company should have a health and safety policy which is to be implemented in each contract. Furthermore, construction companies need to provide workers with the necessary Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as safety belts, retaining belts, safety ropes, and safety harness, and catch nets to prevent workers from being hit by falling materials and to secure them against falling from heights.
Highlights
All over the world, the construction industry has been identified as one of the most hazardous due to its unique nature [1]
Gender Out of all the 237 workers who reported construction accidents during the period running 2010-2014, 236 (99.6%) were male and 1 (0.4%) was a female. This is not surprising as construction industry is male dominated and research undertaken in Singapore on construction fatalities between June 2006 - May 2008 showed that 100% of the deceased workers were male [58]
The study was based on 237 reported construction site accidents in Nairobi County over a period of 4 years
Summary
The construction industry has been identified as one of the most hazardous due to its unique nature [1]. Due to stiff competition in the market, it’s common for construction stakeholders, especially those in the lower end of the supply chain to concentrate on completion of the job with minimum time and cost, as a result, causing accidents [2]. Accidents do not necessarily result in an injury as it can be in terms of damage to equipment and materials. Those accidents that result in injuries or fatalities receive the greatest attention [4]. Fang et al [5] estimate that at least 108,000 workers are killed on construction sites every year, this figure represents about 30% of all fatal occupational injuries [6]
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