Researchers Rank Construction Risks: "Same Things Killing Workers Over and Over."

RiskWorld news brief by Amy Charlene Reed, senior editor, reed@tec-com.com

"The ranking of the causes of fatalities in the construction industry have been as stable as can be over the past 10 years," said Director William Schriver of the university's Construction Industry Research and Policy Center.  "We are asking, 'What can be done to intervene? The same things are killing people over and over.'"

The center’s report "An Analysis of Fatal Events in the Construction Industry: 1999," which was published online in RiskWorld today, found that eight of the top 10 causes of death in 1999 also ranked in the top 10 during 1991-98.  The report is based on construction fatalities investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Falls from roofs topped the list in 1999, accounting for 10% of construction deaths, followed by being crushed or run-over by equipment operated by a co-worker (9%) and falls from structures other than roofs (8%).

"When we look at the individual case files, we see patterns that stand out," said Associate Director Gregory G. Zigulis (e-mail: gzigulis@ln.utk.edu) of the center.  "We’ve seen repeated cases involving pre-fabricated metal buildings where insulation is laid down over the trusses before the metal roof is installed.  A worker will step on the insulation, thinking a support is underneath to support him or her, or onto an unsecured piece of metal roofing, and then fall 20 or 30 feet to his or her death.  

"Another thing we see is numerous people being run over by construction equipment that is backing up. Sometimes a worker will have crossed the equipment’s path on the way to do something else. The driver doesn't know they’re there, and the person gets run over. However, many times it is actually a person who has been directing the dumping of loads, watched by the driver through their side view mirror, who somehow gets out of sight of the driver and gets run over. Many times this is despite equipment having backup alarms.

"Yet another thing we often see are the absolutely preventable deaths from people being buried by soil in trench collapses. The victims are usually laying water or sewer pipe, surveying, or modifying grade. Trench collapses can be avoided by sloping the soil they cut into, shoring up the sides, or the use of pre-made trench boxes--yet we sometimes see callous disregard for protection like this. Other times, people just don't understand the potential hazards or OSHA requirements. Still other times, people are aware of the risk but don't understand the magnitude of it, and decide to ignore it in order to get the job done quickly."

One of the center’s current projects is delving into the details of cases such as these from OSHA’s construction fatality data collected from individual states, re-categorizing it using uniform classifications in a national database.

"OSHA’s data is rich with details that could be used to analyze risks on a nationwide basis as part of a prevention and intervention program," Zigulis said.  "We are going through three years of data carefully to verify that the information is coded correctly, creating revised categories as needed to create a new, more meaningful system in which the data is recorded uniformly.  OSHA will review the information to help guide them in their mission to decrease occupational injuries. We hope that the work we are doing now will yield some fantastic results by lowering the fatality and non-fatal injury rate associated with certain construction tasks through a national program of prevention and awareness."

Zigulis noted that most of construction fatalities can be prevented through proper planning and simple compliance with OSHA regulations. His advice to construction crews and their employers is to "plan ahead, anticipate possible hazards, and conduct your work with the intent to avoid these hazards. With advanced planning, these preventions can often be quite simple."

Zigulis added that well-planned work can not only be accomplished more safely but also can result in a more efficient and cost-effective project.

Nationwide, the construction industry ranks third in occupational danger behind the classifications of agriculture-mining and forestry-fishing, but it has the largest workforce of the three categories with more than 6.5 million employed.

Related Links

Report "An Analysis of Fatal Events in the Construction Industry: 1999," prepared by the University of Tennessee’s Construction Industry Research and Policy Center for the Office of Statistics of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

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