Rethinking construction safety: An introduction to total safety management

Who is responsible for construction safety: architects, engineers, contractors, or perhaps even clients? Safety of the constructed facility is normally the responsibility of the architect and engineer, whereas safety of the construction process is conventionally considered to be the contractor's responsibility. In many cases, construction accidents are, therefore, mainly considered as the contractor's responsibility. In fact, many factors associated with construction accidents can be traced back to the designer's responsibility as well as the client's responsibility. Under the barner of rethinking construction mainly introduced in the UK Construction industry, there is a need to include rethinking construction safety as a focus. This paper discuss a concept of rethinking construction safety. This concept contains an introduction of total safety management (TSM) in construction. The development of this concept is based on the constraint-response theory of construction accident. In this paper, the role of project participants in managing construction safety are examined. A framework of the total safety management is introduced. It summarises how all project participants involved in the project implementation process, from project concept, project design, and throughout project construction work together to control any risk of construction accident. The clients, designers, contractors and other participants share the responsibility of construction safety. Further development and implementation of this concept will help in improving safety performance in construction.