Development Of An Accident Model For Construction Industry

Abstract

Safety has always been a persistent problem in the construction industry. Construction accidents are a major concern for the construction industry and the researchers. In spite of the role of many construction accident causation models in understanding the accident process, none adequately explain the underlying reasons for construction accidents because of their dynamic nature.To overcome this restriction a new advancement in understanding construction accidents has been proposed by Howell et al (2002) based on the work of Rasmussen (1997). The model recognizes that organizational and individual forces push workers in to hazardous conditions. These forces overcome efforts to impose safe work rules particularly in a changing work environment such as in construction.Therefore, this approach emphasizes the need to train workers to be conscious of hazardous work environments through better planning. The focus of this orientation is on construction workers, which in turn leads to the design of worker specific training.To attain this objective a survey was developed based on OSHA standards for all types of construction accidents and from all cases reported by NIOSH. With the assistance of this survey the sensitivity and risk orientation of construction workers were determined using Signal Detection Theory (SDT). This research focused on evaluation of occupational safety and health competencies of construction workers.The tools presented in this study will provide methods to determine the sensitivity and risk orientation of workers to unsafe conditions. The results of this analysis, enables the development of worker- specific planning to increase the sensitivity and decrease risky behavior in unsafe conditions.