'Getting to the workface' causes most work accidents: report

The biggest single cause of construction accidents is simply "getting to the workface" with most accidents occurring when either walking across sites, handling materials or moving to the 'workface', according to two research projects published today.

The research, published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), also suggests that design changes could have prevented accidents or lessened their severity in a significant number of cases.

The studies were conducted by engineering consultants Bomel Ltd and Loughborough University. The Bomel research involved contacting the reporters of over 1,000 accidents to obtain additional information of potential value in identifying common themes, high risk trades and types of work. The Loughborough study, Causal factors in construction accidents, looked in detail at 100 accidents to identify the underlying causative factors.

Although the projects were completely separate and conducted along different lines, there were a number of similar findings.

Both studies suggested that accident investigation by contractors was superficial and tended to concentrate on site issues rather than often more fundamental issues such as poor planning and effective safety management controls.

Poor supervision, communication and competence and lack of client involvement were also significant contributors to accidents.

Trevor Allan, HSE Construction Division Research Coordinator, said: "The findings of both of these research projects identify the areas of greatest risk and point towards what some of the underlying causes could be.

"Construction workers are almost three times more likely to suffer a fatal or major injury than workers in other sectors. Although almost 30% of these accidents involve falls from height, this is almost matched by the number of slips and trips on the same level.

"Most of those were trips, suggesting that site housekeeping, or lack of it, is a major contributor, an issue that is explained in the recently released HSE leaflet 'The High 5'."

Seventy-one workers were killed in the construction industry last year (2002/03). In 2001/2002 there were 80 fatal injuries of construction workers, which was 32% of all worker fatalities.

(gmcg)