Risk perception comparison among construction safety professionals: Delphi perspective

There is no doubt that US construction safety records have been improving over the years, yet hundreds of deaths occur annually as a result of jobsite incidents. This continuing injury trend requires further understanding of the causes of safety issues as well as what magnifies safety risk. This study aims to investigate the extent of the impact of different factors on worker safety risk. The factors, namely human, site conditions, psychological, environmental, social, economic, regulatory, ergonomic, and organizational, were developed as part of recently formulated degrees of connectivity (DoC) model scenarios utilizing the risk perception of different specialists. The risk perceptions associated with the factors as provided by construction safety university professors and practicing safety engineers are explored for comparison. The Delphi method was adopted to collect the required data from both mentioned groups. The results show that the participants perceive that site condition factors create the highest impact whereas the worker economic factor adds the lowest impact. No significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of risk perception, nor was there a clear impact of participant experience on the risk perception process and the factors under investigation. Safety planners can benefit from the study results by considering the level of impact that the factors have on worker safety. Moreover, when addressing safety on a project, both professors and engineers can contribute equally.