Construction Accidents Research Articles

Toward a History of Dangerous Work and Racialized Inequalities in Twentieth-Century Palestine/Israel

In recent years, a high number of fatal work accidents in the construction industry in Palestine/Israel has led several Israeli civil society organizations to begin documenting and publicizing the details of work accidents and identities of the victims. This novel documentation work has laid bare the unequal racialized distribution of dangerous work and bodily harm in the land. Palestinian construction workers from across the Green Line consistently constitute the overwhelming majority of victims of construction accidents, followed by migrant workers. Considering the long history of racial divisions of labor in Israel/Palestine over the last century, and building on the insights of scholarship on disability and political economy, this essay argues for the historical study of dangerous work as a crucial field of inquiry for scholars seeking to understand inequality, exploitation, the production of difference, settler colonialism, and communities’ experiences of these phenomena and processes in Palestine/Israel since the early twentieth century.

불법 외국인 채용 제한과 작업환경 개선이 건설 재해 저감에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

This study examines the correlation between the positive effects of construction union activities (restriction on illegal recruitment of foreigners and improvement of the working environment) and the reduction of construction accidents. The purpose of this study is to suggest a correlation between the positive effect and construction accidents. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a questionnaire was conducted on workers, supervisors, and safety managers working at the construction sites of four construction companies in Seoul, and a total of 120 valid questionnaires were used for the analysis. For the analysis of the survey results, statistical analysis of data through Excel and Jamovi program was performed. Frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were performed. The verification results are as follows. First, as a result of multiple regression analysis to find out the effect of construction union activity on unsafe behavior, it was found that the reduction of illegal foreign workers and improvement of the working environment, which are sub-factors of construction union activity, had a significant effect on unsafe behavior. appear. If the proportion of Korean workers increases due to the construction union activities and union activities to limit the employment of illegal foreign workers are continuously activated, the occurrence of construction accidents will decrease due to the decrease in the number of illegal foreign workers with a high rate of unsafe behavior. Relatively low safety awareness and frequent unsafe behavior reduce the group of illegal foreign workers who provide opportunities to learn about the negative social environment to surrounding workers, which will lead to the improvement of the negative environment, which will affect the reduction of construction accidents. In addition, it can be seen as a result of reflecting the opinion that the perception and culture of the current construction industry's work environment (work hours, fatigue accumulation due to increased work intensity, lack of sleep, etc. should be continuously improved. Second, as a result of multiple regression analysis to find out the effect of construction union activities on the insecure state, the decrease in illegal foreign workers did not have a significant effect on the insecure state, so the hypothesis was rejected. It was found to have a significant effect on the status. When safety facilities are insufficient, it can be seen that the unsafe condition is improved and construction accidents are reduced accordingly through activities such as requesting improvement from the manager of the original building or performing work after improvement. The rejected hypothesis suggests that most of the management subjects for the unsafe condition of construction sites are safety-related departments of subcontractors, which apply to all workers regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign workers. It seems to be a result of reflecting the opinion that it cannot be seen that it has a direct effect on. Although this study analyzed and presented the impact on construction accidents by mentioning only positive effects as sub-factors of the construction union activities, it is judged that the direct and indirect effects of construction union activities on the reduction of construction accidents are likely to be greater. Conflicting opinions on activities will have to find improvements through more research, analysis, and improvement in the future and suggest the right direction for the construction union activities to reduce construction accidents.

Cause analysis of construction safety accidents in China using association rules

In China the number of accidents and deaths in construction industry is increasing rapidly in recent years. Cause analysis is important to reveal the main factors contributing to the accidents, and therefore improve the safety mechanism for accident reduction in future. In this paper, 653 construction safety accidents in China which are fully investigated and formulated by a set of country-specific factors are used as the source data of potential causal relationships among the factors. By utilizing association rules a total of 13 main factors contributing to accident causation are explored, and 9 factors significantly impacting on the severity of accidents are identified. The discovered association rules offer scientific grounds for Chinese construction safety management and decision support. The novelty of this study is to present a different perspective during cause analysis in which the factors impacting the construction site safety and the consequences of construction accidents are revealed respectively.

Human reliability analysis in deep excavation projects using a fuzzy Bayesian HEART-5M integrated method: case of a residential tower in north Tehran

Objectives. Numerous labourers lose their lives or suffer from injuries and disabilities yearly due to the lack of safety enforcement in construction projects and accidents caused by excavation collapses. The identification and ranking of human errors have always been a central concern in civil engineering. Previous studies on excavation work and related risks have focused on retaining structure methods, while human errors may be a significant contributor to accidents and near misses. Methods. This study identified human errors in deep excavation projects using hierarchical task analysis (HTA) and a systematic human error reduction and prediction approach (SHERPA). Results. The fuzzy Bayesian human error assessment and reduction technique (HEART)-5M method was implemented to determine the human error probability (HEP) for all case-study tasks. Critical tasks were obtained as ‘drainage system execution’, ‘water and wastewater pipes’, ‘gas pipes’, ‘checking cracks in surrounding buildings’ and ‘checking soil slippage’ with probability levels of 0.46, 0.44, 0.44, 0.37 and 0.37, respectively. Finally, remedial measures were presented for crucial tasks. Conclusions. Six unbiased experts approved the model’s desirability. The suggested approach can serve as a valuable guide for all project stakeholders in identifying, evaluating and taking corrective actions in similar projects.

The development of a safety management system (SMS) framework based on root cause analysis of disabling accidents

The current research adopted the human-machine-environment-procedure (HMEP) approach to develop a classification scheme for the systematic analysis of construction accidents and the implementation of SMS. The framework referred to as the HMEP scheme for construction was developed based on root cause analysis of disabling accidents from a global construction company and terminologies derived from the SMS code of practice suggested by various government agencies and SMS literature. These identified root causes and terminologies were grouped into categories of unsafe management, unsafe machine/tool, unsafe environment, personal factors, and unsafe behavior. In addition to serving as a framework to facilitate the coding and aggregating of disabling accidents, the HMEP scheme for construction can also serve as a checklist to ensure SMS implementation. After aggregating 39 disabling accidents based on the HMEP, the results indicated the following recurring issues: improper hazard recognition (28 observations), improper monitoring and supervision (18), improper tool box meetings (14), improper SOP (13), improper training (13), and safety audit and inspection (12). This research also proposed a risk management matrix for the systematic examination of potential emerging hazards from within or changes to any of the people, workplace, and management elements in a construction site context.

Virtual reality application for construction safety training

Safety has been one of the main concerns in the construction industry in recent years. Construction fatalities, injuries, and accidents impose unrecoverable losses and enormous costs every year. Despite all advancements in new methods, tools, equipment, and regulations, the rate of accidents, especially in fatal four, has not considerably improved. This fact has motivated safety professionals and researchers to explore further innovative ways to remedy the problem. One of the outcomes of safety studies is training. Continuous yet effective training can present essential safety knowledge to new employees and refresh the comprehension of current employees. However, such training sessions require funds, time commitment, and logistics. In recent years, the implementation of virtual reality (VR) for safety training has decreased the impact of obstacles and facilitated continuous training. This paper briefly addresses the design and development of a VR module for safety training in the roofing sector. The VR application was entirely designed and developed through an industry-based expert flow, using an agile methodology. A quantitative approach was employed to analyze the data and investigate various aspects of the VR module. The results showed that the VR module positively impacts roofing professionals’ perceptions of the applicability of VR applications as supplementary training tools. The influential factors identified in this research can be considered in the future design and development of VR-based safety applications.

Evolution model and quantitative assessment of risk network in housing construction accidents

PurposeClarifying the risk evolution mechanism of housing construction for work-safety management is essential. Existing studies have inadequately discussed the risk-accumulation process in housing construction. Therefore, this study aimed to use the complex network theory and risk allocation mechanisms to explore the evolution of risk factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed a database of housing construction accidents in China from 2015 to 2020 to identify risk factors. Moreover, the causal relationship between risk factors was determined through a systematic analysis of the logical sequence of risk factors. A complex network was used to construct a risk network for housing construction accidents (RNHCA).FindingsThe risk matrix method was used to define the factor risk threshold, and a risk value was assigned based on the correlation between risk factors. This contributes to the examination of the evolution mechanism of risk networks in the process of risk factor transmission. The case verification results show that the RNHCA quantitative assessment model can better evaluate the system risk status of housing construction accidents. Furthermore, this model can identify the key risk factors and risk chains with high risk in the evolution of the risk network.Research limitations/implicationsAccident investigation reports need to be classified and processed to analyse the evolution law of risk networks under different scales of construction project, such as high-rise buildings, middle-rise buildings, and low-rise buildings.Practical implicationsThis study clarified the risk evolution process of complex systems in housing construction and provided a new method for analysing accidents.Originality/valueThis study clarifies the risk value allocation of risk factors in the transmission process and reveals the process of risk factor evolution in housing construction. This study explains the individual risk factors that form a systemic risk through the transmission chain. Moreover, this paper clarified the transformation relationship between system risk and accidents. The paper also provided a new perspective for risk analysis.

Work-Related Injuries among Insured Construction Workers Presenting to a Swiss Adult Emergency Department: A Retrospective Study (2016-2020).

Occupational injuries are one of the main causes of Emergency Department visits and represent a substantial source of disability or even death. However, the published studies and reports on construction–occupational accidents in Switzerland are limited. We aimed to investigate the epidemiology of fatal and non-fatal injuries among construction workers older than 16 years of age over a 5-year period. Data were gathered from the emergency department (ED) of Bern University Hospital. A retrospective design was chosen to allow analysis of changes in construction accidents between 2016–2020. A total of 397 patients were enrolled. Compared to studies in other countries, we also showed that the upper extremity and falling from height is the most common injured body part and mechanism of injury. Furthermore, we were able to show that the most common age group representing was 26–35 years and the second common body part injured was the head, which is a difference from studies in other countries. Wound lacerations were the most common type of injury, followed by joint distortions. By stratifying according to the season, occupational injuries among construction workers were found to be significant higher during summer and autumn. As work-related injuries among construction workers are becoming more common, prevention strategies and safety instructions must be optimized.

التامين الالزامي من المسؤولية الناجمة عن حوادث البناء ( دراسة مقارنة )

Liability insurance is one of the types of insurance contract that all legislations have organized and for various actions to pay the liability on the part of the responsible and to facilitate compensation for the injured on the other hand, the view of the importance and danger of some businesses and their prevalence, the legislation tended to subject them or those in charge of them to the obligation to conclude an insurance contract, including (construction works) Some of the comparative legislations have taken the obligatory nature of insurance and its provisions are regulated by special texts that differ from what is prescribed in the general rules of insurance in view of the importance and seriousness of the damages that result from those acts. In order to understand the topic of the research, I divided it into two sections, the first, in which I dealt with the content of compulsory insurance for construction works, and the second for the effects of compulsory insurance for construction works. Key words: Insurance, Liability , Construction Accidents.

Empirical Comparison of Learning Effectiveness of Immersive Virtual Reality–Based Safety Training for Novice and Experienced Construction Workers

Statistics show that novice and experienced construction workers face different risks of construction accidents. However, there is very little work on this topic. This study conducted empirical experiments to quantifying the effectiveness of immersive virtual-reality-based safety training (IVST) across 6 worker specialties in terms of facing 17 hazardous scenarios at real construction sites. An immersive virtual reality–based safety training system (IVSTS) is proposed to measure the effectiveness of IVST programs with regard to six specialties in 2 controlled groups: (1) novice workers (40 college students), and (2) experienced workers (40 randomly selected construction practitioners). The study results indicate that the proposed IVSTS improved the safety performance index of all 80 participants by 14.12% in terms of correct selection of personal protection equipment, and by 28.95% in terms of hazardous scenario identification. The improvement of safety learning performance of the novice workers was better than that of the experienced workers, especially for hazardous scenario identification, with a 15.90% higher improvement index. The improvement suggestions for the existing IVST program were summarized according to the influence of the individual characteristics of the trainees on the learning effect between the novice and the experienced IVST programs.

Identifying and Evaluating the Essential Factors Affecting the Incidence of Site Accidents Caused by Human Errors in Industrial Parks Construction Projects.

In terms of safety management, the implementation of industrial parks construction projects (IPCPs) is incredibly challenging due to the special working conditions and the specific type of use of the buildings. On the other hand, the possibility of causing accidents in these areas based on human errors is high and important for project execution due to the risks of human errors and financial losses. Therefore, this study tries to fill this existing research gap by identifying and evaluating the effective key factors leading to the occurrence of construction accidents caused by human errors in the development of IPCPs. After a holistic review of the reported literature, four rounds of fuzzy Delphi survey were launched to capture the individual opinions and feedback from various project experts. Accordingly, 41 key factors affecting human errors in the implementation of industrial parks construction projects in Iran were identified and classified into nine main groups of wrong actions, observations/interpretations, planning/processes, equipment, organization, individual activities, environmental conditions, rescue, and technology. Then, the step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) method was adopted to rate and rank the identified factors of human errors in the implementation of IPCPs in Iran. The research findings indicated that among the elicited factors, time factor (0.1226), delayed interpretation (0.1080), and incorrect diagnosis/prediction (0.0990) are the three most crucial factors leading to human errors in the implementation of IPCPs in Iran. The results of this research study have provided various major project stakeholders with an effective decision-aid tool to make better-informed decisions in managing and reducing the occurrence of construction site accidents particularly caused by human errors associated with IPCPs.

Comparison of Safety Risk Identification of Bridge and Tunnel Engineering

With the development of science and technology and the changes of the times, the transportation industry is developing rapidly all over the world. As a key and difficult project in the transportation industry, the bridge and tunnel project has many problems, such as complex engineering structure, large building scale, long construction period and changeable construction environment, which leads to frequent bridge and tunnel construction accidents. Based on the domestic and international theoretical research of risk management and safety risk , this paper adopts LC risk identification method to identify and horizontally compare safety risk accidents of bridges and tunnels in the same project. The aim is to figure out the difference of construction safety risk types between bridge and tunnel projects. It is significant to improving the efficiency of construction safety management via refining the evaluation indexes and comparing and analyzing the evaluation results from multiple angles.

Analysis Factor Associated of Work Related Accidents in Highrise Building Project Using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

During 4 years periode from 2011 to 2014 work-related accidents always increased. In 2014 there were 105,383 work-related accidents. The work accident data is dominated by the construction sector. The aim of this study was to analyze the factors associated with work related accidents in construction. This study was conducted by qualitative study design with a case study approach using Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). The population of this study were all construction workers as many as 140 people. The main informants in this study were determined by purposive sampling, workers who had experienced work accidents in May-June 2014. Data collection techniques used in-depth interviews, observation and document review. The results showed that the factors associated with work related accidents in construction were caused by human factors, environmental factors and occupational factors. Human factors that cause work accidents were working not according to procedures, perceptions of potential hazards and low safety, lack of concentration and fatigue. Environmental factors that cause work accidents are limited safety information, unsafe work environment, lack of safety signs and limited safety facilities. Occupational factors that cause work accidents include lack of supervision. Based on this research, it can be concluded that the causes of work accidents are very complex, so there needs to be coordination in project management to optimize supervision of work safety.

Industry Perspective on the Role of Visualization Technology in Construction Safety Training

ABSTRACT Construction is a high-risk industry, and worker capability has been identified as a contributing factor to construction accidents. However, many construction workers do not receive adequate safety training, leading to a lack of knowledge and skill. Effective training programs are essential to increase workers’ safety competence and reduce accidents. Trainings facilitated by emerging visualization technologies (VT) are gaining attention due to their participatory nature and high engagement, which are missing components in traditional classroom-based safety training. This study explored the opportunities for adopting VT in safety training to improve employee training outcomes. Interviews were conducted with construction professionals in the U.S. and U.K., who had experience with safety training. The participants identified a number of training opportunities that would be appropriate for adopting VT. Interviewees valued VT for its technological versatility and positive impact on safety behavior, and they identified challenges in using VT related to cost, nature of technology, organizational barriers, and industry culture. The findings suggest the construction industry is still in the early stage of applying VT in safety training but many potential opportunities for using VT warrant further exploration. The implications point to the need to bridge academic research and its practical application to support VT’s adoption in industry.

Behavior Choice Mechanisms and Tax Incentive Mechanisms in the Game of Construction Safety

The violation behavior of construction workers is an important cause of construction accidents. To reduce the violations of construction workers and to stimulate the supervision behavior of local governments and construction enterprises, an evolutionary game model is constructed in this paper. Then, the behavior choice mechanism of each player is analyzed. Finally, an incentive effect analysis method is put forward, and the incentive effects of different tax incentive mechanisms are analyzed. This research finds that only when the safety punishment imposed on construction workers is large enough does the supervision behavior of local governments and construction enterprises encourage construction workers to choose not to violate the regulation. Increasing the tax rate of a construction enterprise in the case of accidents can encourage the construction enterprise to supervise, but it inhibits the supervision behavior of the local government. A numerical simulation verifies the effectiveness of the incentive effect analysis method, which provides a new method for the incentive effect analysis of incentive mechanisms.

Accident Prevention Analysis: Exploring the Intellectual Structure of a Research Field

Accident prevention is of great significance in avoiding or reducing all kinds of casualties and economic losses, and is one of the main challenges for social sustainable development. Hence, it has been an active research field for many decades around the world. To master the research status of accident prevention, and explore the knowledge base and hot trends, 1294 papers from the WOS retrieval platform SCIE and SSCI databases from 1990 to 2021 were selected as data samples. Co-occurrence analysis, co-citation analysis, co-authorship analysis, and keyword analysis were performed on the literature on accident prevention research with bibliometric analysis methods. The study showed that the United States ranked first in the number of publications of any country/region and Georgia Inst Technol ranked first in the number of institutional publications. System analysis and accident model establishment, analysis of construction accidents, road accident prevention, and safety culture and safety climate are the knowledge base in the accident prevention studies and the core journals in this field are Safety Science, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Pediatrics, and Reliability Engineering & System Safety. There are four major research hotspots in accident prevention studies: routine accident prevention, model-based research, systems analysis and accident prediction, and occupational safety and public health research. At present, the basic theory and structural system of accident prevention research have been basically established, with many research directions and a wide range of frontier branches. Safety management, public safety, Bayesian networks, and simulation are the research frontiers of accident prevention.

Identifying, evaluating and prioritizing the causes of occupational accidents in the construction industry using fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS.

The construction industry is one of the most dangerous industries in terms of occupational accidents. Understanding the various factors that affect work-related injuries and deaths in the industry can help develop prevention strategies, improve safety performance and reduce accidents. This applied qualitative study was carried out in several steps to investigate, evaluate and prioritize the causes of occupational accidents in the construction industry. In order to extract the most important criteria in construction accidents, the opinions of safety experts and the qualitative Delphi method were used. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) was used to determine the weights of selected criteria and finally, the Fuzzy TOPSIS technique was used to rank the causes of occupational accidents in the construction industry. According to the results, governance, occupational, organizational, individual, and environmental factors were the most determinative options for the cause of construction accidents. Prioritizing the causes of occupational accidents in the construction industry using Fuzzy AHP and Fuzzy TOPSIS showed that governance and environmental factors were the most effective and least effective factors in construction accidents, respectively. According to the criteria, and based on fuzzy TOPSIS technique, governance factors were determined to be the primary option for occupational accidents in the construction industry. The results of this study indicate that in addition to organizational factors, individual factors, and environmental factors, the government must also play a role in legislation, law enforcement, implementation, and organization of safety training programs.

Municipal Civil Engineering Construction Based on Finite Element Differential Equations

Abstract This paper establishes a risk model in constructing municipal civil engineering buildings based on finite element differential equations. At the same time, we set up a dynamic differential equation for the hidden danger of accidents in municipal engineering construction. This paper combines the differential game model of government intervention coordination and enterprise construction dynamics. In this way, we obtain the feedback Nash equilibrium solution under government intervention. The research results show that government subsidies can promote cooperation between the two sides of the construction industry chain. This paper points out that the optimal control strategy should consider the strategy choice of the regulatory authorities.

Identifikasi Penyebab Kecelakaan Kerja Konstruksi Menggunakan Accident Root Cause Tracing Model (ARCTM) dan Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

The construction sector greatly contributed to the increase in the number of injuries and even deaths of workers. This study aims to identify unsafe conditions and unsafe acts and to analyze the causes of work accidents on the Talago Embung Project in the village of Sikabu kabu, Luhak, District of Limo Puluh Kota by using the Accident Root Cause Tracing Model (ARCTM) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). Data were collected through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The causes of construction accidents identified are as follows; a) environmental factors i.e. weather or climate, lack of lighting, b) tools and facilities factors i.e. equipment life cycle, availability of Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE), and negligence in maintaining it, c) human factors i.e. personal issues, work pressure, and physical condition of workers, lack of skills and experience of workers, and d) management factors i.e. ineffective communication between the management team and workers and among workers, inadequate SOP and inappropriate material layout planning. Based on the results, it is expected that there will be training directly related to tasks and work safety, adequate project layout planning, proper supervision, and adequate maintenance of work safety equipment.

IMPROVEMENT OF DFS PERCEPTION OF CONSTRUCTION STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH COMPARISON BETWEEN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

All construction stakeholders have to participate in the safety and health management of workers in order to prevent possible accidents during the construction life cycle. Moreover, it is most effective to control risks from the design stage. For this reason, many countries have implemented systems to eliminate risks at the design stage under the name Design for Safety (DfS). Numerous studies have shown that the effectiveness of DfS is influenced by stakeholders' perception. In this study, meta-analysis was conducted to analyze the level of awareness of DfS by stakeholders, and through this, a plan to improve the DfS system in Korea was proposed. While the awareness of stakeholders in Korea for DfS was estimated at 63.9%, it was estimated that 87.5% of the respondents agreed with the necessity of DfS. The awareness in Korea for DfS is lower than that of other countries. However, analysis has shown that the level of necessity for DfS implementation in Korea is higher than that of others i.e., although DfS was evaluated as a highly effective method of preventing construction accidents at sites by the stakeholders, the low awareness of DfS can be a significant obstacle in deriving effective DfS results. In addition, analysis has shown that the prejudice resulting from low awareness of stakeholders in relation to DfS could cause problems of attitude of stakeholders. Therefore, it is thought that the enhancement of awareness of DfS among stakeholders is the first necessary step to promote the positive perception of DfS.