AN ANALYSIS OF FATAL EVENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
1999

Prepared by:		Construction Industry Research and Policy Center
		University of Tennessee, Knoxville

April 2001

This report is based upon OSHA-inspected fatal events in construction during calendar 1999. The data analyzed were provided by Dr. Joseph DuBois, Division Director, Occupational Safety and Health Administration. William R. Schriver, Ph.D., Director, Thomas E. Cressler II, M.S., Senior Associate Administrator and Gregory G. Zigulis, B.S.C.E., MBA, Associate Director, conducted the study and prepared this report; they alone are responsible for all interpretations, conclusions and any errors found in the report.

Table of Contents

Sections

     I. Introduction

     II. Data

     III. Analysis

List of Tables in Text

     Table I. Construction Fatality Event Causes, 1999

     Table II. A Comparison of Ranks of Causes of Fatal Events in 1991 - 1998 with 1999

Appendices

    Appendix A:

         Definitions of Fatality Causes 

    Appendix B:  

         Figure B1. Comparison of Construction Fatality Events (1991 - 1998 and 1999)

         Figure B2. Comparison of Construction Fatality Events (1999)

         Figure B3. Comparison of Construction Fatality Events (1991 - 1998)

         Figure B4. Comparison of Construction Fatality Events (1991 - 1998 and 1999)

     Appendix C:  

         Table C1. Construction Fatal Events by End-Use Type, 1999

         Table C2. Construction Fatal Events by Type of Project, 1999

         Table C3. Construction Fatal Events by Four-Digit Standard Industrial Classification, 1999

         Table C4. Construction Fatal Events by Construction Project Value, 1999

         Table C5A. Construction Fatal Events by Construction Operation: Federal Plan States, 1999

         Table C5B. Construction Fatal Events by Construction Operation: State Plan, 1999

I. Introduction

This paper reports on the causes of fatal events in the construction industry which occurred in calendar year 1999. Six earlier studies¹ by the Construction Industry Research and Policy Center (CIRPC) analyzed the causes of fatal events in this industry in 1991-1992, 1993-1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998.

II. Data

The data analyzed in this report, provided by OSHA from Form 170’s, consist of narrative descriptions of the 705 fatal events resulting from accidents which occurred in construction during calendar year 1999. In addition to the narratives, which are often brief, case files of all OSHA-inspected fatal events in the states covered by the Federal System (AL, AR, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, KS, LA, ME, MA, MS, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, ND, OH, OK, PA, RI, SD, TX, WV, WI) were reviewed to verify (and correct) the cause of the fatality (and to provide other information not included in this report). For fatal events in the remaining State Plan states (and 34 fatal events in Federal System states where case files were not made available to CIRPC) the narrative descriptions in the Form 170 were the sole source of information.

As in the earlier studies, non-accidental fatalities on construction sites or contractor yards (such as deaths from non-work related heart attacks, strokes, seizures, etc.) and fatalities of construction workers killed off-site in traffic accidents were excluded from the analysis; these fatalities accounted for about 3 percent of OSHA-inspected fatal construction events in 1991-1998 and 3.4 percent in 1999. Although the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 requires employers to report fatalities to OSHA within eight hours of the occurrence of the event, all fatalities on construction sites are not inspected by OSHA; for example, OSHA does not inspect fatal construction events involving independent contractors with no employees. Therefore, the results reported upon here do not provide a year-to-year analysis of changes in the absolute number of fatal events or individuals killed on construction sites.

Each narrative record consists of a brief description of the event leading to the fatality. (This is not always the case.) For events in Federal Plan states the description and case files were read and each event was classified into one of 29 causative categories. For events in State Plan states the descriptions were read by two people, and where agreement on the cause could not be reached the event was classified as "other/unknown". Although the narratives in the 1999 Form 170’s seem to have improved compared to previous years, some were so brief and lacking in detail that it was difficult, if not impossible, to extract a specific cause, and they were classified as “other/unknown”.

In this analysis the authors originally planned to classify each fatal event according to: (1) type of construction (new or addition, alteration or rehabilitation, maintenance or repair, demolition, other); (2) estimate of total project value (seven dollar-value categories beginning with “under $50,000” and ending with “$20,000,000 and over”); (3) 17 end-use categories, such as “single-family housing,” “multi-family building,” “commercial building,” “street or highway,” etc.; and (4) the construction operation being performed that caused the fatal event (selected from a list of construction operations such as “backfilling and compacting,” “cutting concrete pavement,” “erecting structural steel,” “installing equipment (HVAC and other,” etc.). However, CIRPC’s review of case files revealed that coded data for an event were sometimes internally inconsistent or did not comport with corresponding narrative descriptions. Consequently, it was determined by OSHA and CIRPC that the quality of the coded data precluded its inclusion for analysis in this report. The data analyzed in this report, therefore, are restricted to the direct causes of the fatal events where the authors were able, in most cases, to classify the events with relative certainty according to 29 types of causes, essentially the same types as were used in CIRPC’s previous fatality studies. However, coded data (often not verified) are included in Appendix C for the following: (a) end-use of structure; (b) type of construction; (c) construction operation associated with the fatality; (d) contract value of the construction project; and occupation of the victim(s).

In classifying the events a rule of primacy was followed for multiple-cause fatalities (representing less than 1 percent of the fatality events in this study and the earlier studies cited): the first cause in the chain of causes was recorded as the cause of the fatal event. Definitions of the causes are shown in Appendix A.

III. Analysis

A. Distribution of Fatal Events by Cause

Table 1 shows the cause classification system, the number of times each cause represented a fatal event in 1999, the relative frequency of each cause and the number of victims killed.² It can be seen that “fall from/through roof” led all other causes in number of fatal events (75 or 10.6 percent of total fatal events), followed by “crushed/run-over of non-operator by operating construction equipment” (65 or 9.2 percent). The third leading cause was “fall from/with structure other than roof” (57 or 8.1 percent); the fourth leading cause was “crushed/run-over by highway vehicle (43 or 6.1 percent); the fifth leading cause was “crushed/run-over by operator by operating construction equipment” (41 or 5.8 percent); and the sixth leading cause was “lifting operation-failure of equipment” (38 or 5.4 percent). The number and relative frequencies of the remaining causes of the 705 fatal events analyzed may be read directly from Table 1. (Comparative frequencies for all causes are shown in Figures B1 through B4 in Appendix B.)

The number of victims killed by each cause is also shown in Table 1 where it can be seen that in most events only one worker was killed. There were 21 fatality causes where no event had multiple fatalities; only eight fatality causes included events with multiple fatalities. “Fire/explosion/scalding/ was the fatality cause which had the most victims killed per event, i. e., 17 events and 23 victims or 1.35 victims per event. Table 2 shows a comparison of the ranks of the causes in 1999 with the average rank of the causes of fatal events during the period 1991 - 1998. It can be seen that the overall rank pattern of the causes in 1999 is very similar to the rank pattern in 1991 - 1998. An overall statistical comparison of the correlation of the rank in 1999 with the average rank in 1991 - 1998 was calculated using a Spearman rank correlation procedure.³ The correlation obtained was +.89, p < .0001, indicating that the ranks of the causes in the two time periods are highly and positively correlated, i.e., did not change significantly between 1991 - 1998 and 1999. Since averaging the 1991 - 1998 ranks removed inter-year variance, a somewhat lower correlation would be expected between 1998 and 1999 ranks of causes, i.e., a measure of the short-term cycle as opposed to a longer-term trend. However, the Spearman rank-order correlation between 1998 and 1999 causes was calculated and found to be higher, + .90, p <.0001, indicating that the pattern changed even less between 1998 and 1999 (although no statistical significance is inferred).

The correlation result is not surprising given that the general composition of construction output, and therefore the mix of construction operations required to produce the output, was probably very similar during the time periods examined. This interpretation implies that the rank of a cause is a function of the magnitude of exposure to the cause and/or the inherent danger associated with the cause.

While the number of OSHA-inspected fatal construction events caused by accidents have increased each year since 1991, employment in construction establishments has also increased.⁴ The trend of these fatal events per 100,000 construction establishment employees is as follows: 1991 - 1992: 13.1; 1993 - 1994: 11.8; 1995: 11.4; 1996: 10.5; 1997: 10.6, 1998: 10.4; and 1999: 11.0.

 

APPENDIX A. Definition of Fatality Causes

1. asphyxiation/inhalation of toxic vapor: lack of oxygen and/or inhalation of toxic gas, (excluding asphyxiation resulting from fire/explosion).

2. caught in stationary equipment: body or clothing caught pulling worker into equipment.

3. collapse of structure: building or other structure falling on worker, not including falling ladder, scaffold, aerial lift/ basket, platform, with a structure, trench collapse, or wall (earthen) collapse.

4. crushed/run-over of non-operator by operating construction equipment: non-operator run-over or crushed between equipment and ground or another object by an operator controlled piece of construction equipment.

5. crushed/run-over/trapped of operator by operating construction equipment: includes rollover and catching of body in equipment or between equipment and ground or other object while operating the equipment.*

6. crushed/run-over by construction equipment during maintenance/ modification: includes equipment/parts falling on worker while assembling or disassembling equipment.

7. crushed/run-over by highway vehicle: any run-over by non-construction equipment, including trains.

8. drown, non-lethal fall: non-lethal falls into water and flooding of container, trenches, etc.

9. electrocution by touching exposed wire/source: body part contacting the wire/source except when installing equipment or using a tool.

10. electrocution by equipment contacting wire

a. ladder

b. scaffold

c. crane/lifting equipment/boom/dump truck:

d. other: contact while handling materials, e g. gutters, iron rods, painting equipment, etc.

11. electrocution from equipment installation/tool use: includes failure to de-energize equipment, inappropriate energizing, contacting energized part with tool or body, and inadequately grounded tools or exposed tool wires.

12. electric shock, other and unknown cause

13. elevator (struck/crushed by elevator or counter-weights):

14. fall from/with ladder: includes collapse/fall of ladder.

15. fall from roof; fall through roof: skylight or other opening.

16. fall from vehicle (vehicle/construction equipment): falls from vehicle or equipment while in motion or at rest.

17. fall from/with scaffold: includes collapse/fall of scaffold.

18. fall from/with bucket (aerial lift/basket): includes collapse/fall of bucket.

19. fall from/with structure (other than roof): fall through opening in the side or through the floor (not opening in the floor) and with the structure in a collapse.

20. fall from/with platform or catwalk (attached to structure: includes collapse/fall of platform.

21. fall through opening (other than roof): falls through stairwells, equipment openings, or other openings in a floor.

22. fall, other

23. fire/explosion/scalding

24. heat/hypothermia

25. lifting operations: failure of equipment, inappropriate lifting, and all loading and unloading by crane operations except electrocution.

26. struck by falling object/projectile (including tip-overs): does not include collapse of structure, trench, earthen wall, or lifting operations.

27. trench collapse: includes earthen wall

28. unloading-loading equipment/material (except by crane): includes slipping and tipping over of construction equipment/material while loading and unloading.

29. other:

a. lightning

b. crushed

c. unknown cause or other

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C