Chan, A P C; Wong, F K W; Chan, D W M; Yam, M C H; Kwok, A W K; Lam, E W M and Cheung, E (2008) Work at height fatalities in the repair, maintenance, alteration, and addition works. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 134(7), pp. 527-535. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Hong Kong's construction industry has shown significant improvement in safety performance since the turn of the century. The number of industrial accidents in the construction industry has decreased from 11,925 in 2000 to 3,833 in 2004, which is an encouraging drop of almost 68%. However, the category "fall of person from height" has always represented a large proportion of the industrial accidents, particularly fatal accidents. In 2004, fall of person from height represented just over 47% of the total number of fatal accidents in the construction industry. The statistics show that although the overall number of accidents has dropped immensely, the same does not apply for fall from height accidents. According to statistics provided by the Labor Dept. of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, there were a total of 22 fatal industrial accidents associated with fall of persons from height in repair, maintenance, alteration, and addition works during 2000-2004. When analyzing these case studies, 12 common factors were identified for analyzing these case studies and strategies were suggested to prevent recurrence of similar accidents in each case. The top five strategies were: (1) provide and maintain a safe system of work; (2) provide a suitable working platform; (3) (tier) provide safety information/training/instruction/supervision; (4) (tier) provide suitable fall arresting system/anchorage; and (5) maintain safe workplace.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | fatalities; Hong Kong; occupational safety |
| Index terms: | strategy, safety performance, repair, case study, platform, Hong Kong, anchorage, supervision, construction industry, occupational safety, fatalities, statistics |
| Subjects: | control systems, mathematical modelling, data collection methods, industry analysis, occupational health and safety management, digital design, Geography, maintenance engineering, structural engineering, health risk and incident analysis, management |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Project Management, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here