Statistical Analysis of the Direct Reason of Construction Safety Accidents ZHANG Jianshe, XU You School of Civil Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, China, 454003 jianshezhang@vip.sina.com Abstract: Based on the statistics of the 195 construction casualties that happened during 1995-008 in China, sum up the direct reason leading to construction safety accidents, and get the frequency of each factor leading to construction injury accidents. Then make specific countermeasures and suggestions for the direct reason, and provide basis and support for the construction site safety management. Keywords: Construction safety accident, The direct reason, Statistical analysis 1 Introduction In recent years, the scale of the construction market is expanding, output in the construction industry is also growing, making a significant contribution to sustained growth of the national economy in China. However, it is undeniable that the construction industry is also a high-risk industry with frequent accidents. Frequent casualties produce varying degrees of impact for the nation, society and family, especially for the family bringing heavy damage. Therefore, to study the reason of these accidents and take effective measures to prevent them will be of more practical significance. The direct reason of the accident was first proposed by Heinrich in his accident causal theory, he believes that the direct reasons of accidents are divided into human s unsafe behavior and material insecure state, most scholars acknowledge this. In recent years, Zhao Tingsheng, Lu Xuewei and Fang Dongping (003) [4], Zhang Qiu (009) [5], Wang Wenfa and Wang Yanfang (011) [6], made a further study; by data collection and classification statistics, these reasons are further divided into human s unsafe behavior, material insecure state and environmental insecure state, and make specific measures for each unsafe factor. But how can we make a deep analysis of each unsafe factor and get a comprehensive understanding of them after finding these direct reasons? To solve the problem above, this article makes an empirical study on the 195 construction casualties that happened during 1995-008, based on the Enterprise Workers Casualty Investigation Analysis rules (GB644-86), sum up the types and kinds of includes human, material and environmental insecure state of the direct reason of accidents. By making a deep analysis of each unsafe factor, we get some conclusions and make relevant recommendations, providing basis and support for the construction site safety management. The Direct Reason of Construction Safety Accidents The reason of the accident is divided into direct and indirect reason, the direct reason is defined as the reason that causes accident directly and promotes the occurrence or development of the accident directly. It may include: human s unsafe behavior, material insecure state and environmental insecure state. As to these three points, we make a classification of the 79 accident direct factors of 195 construction accidents. According to Enterprise Workers Casualty Investigation Analysis rules (GB644-86), we make a questionnaire of accident factors as Table 1, in this table the frequency of factor is calculated by using the ratio between the number of each factor and the total number, and the higher the frequency of factor, the higher the risk of it. 66
Table 1 The analysis of construction casualties direct reason Factor Number Ratio of the total Ratio of the total number of reasons % number of accidents % Human unsafe behavior 148 53.0 75.9 Material insecure state 11 40. 57.4 Environmental insecure state 19 6.8 9.7 Total 79 100.0 143.0 Note: For some reasons occur in the same accident, so the number of accidents (195) is not equal to the number of reasons (79), and the ratio of the total number of accidents is greater than 100%. As can be seen from table 1, among these direct reasons of construction accidents, human s unsafe behavior accounts for the largest percentage, for 53.0% of the total number of reasons, while the proportion in the total number of accidents is as high as 75.9%. Material insecure state accounts for 40.% of the total number of reasons and 57.4% of the total number of accidents, just behinds human s unsafe behavior. These data show that most accidents are associated with both human s unsafe behavior and material insecure state, in other words, just need to control one or two do not occur simultaneously, you can control most accidents, reduce unnecessary losses. Environmental insecure state have the smallest influence on accident, of the state of insecurity of the environment, the ratio of the total number of accident and the total number of reasons are both less than 10%. 3 The Layered Statistical Analysis of Human, Material and Environmental Insecure Factor Table 1 makes an overall statistics from three points of the human, material and environment and does a simple analysis, the next will have a deep analysis of each factor and further analysis of the specific reason of the accident. 3.1 The statistical analysis of human unsafe behavior Human unsafe behavior is that workers violate the safety provision during the production and operation, may be a direct reason of the accident. It is the most important direct factor in causing construction casualties, so long as human unsafe behavior factors have been resolved, construction accidents will be solved the most. In order to identify the key impacts of human unsafe behavior, based on the information of the 195 incidents we collect, make a statistical analysis of specific performance of human unsafe behavior in, as tables -5. Table Specific performance of human unsafe behavior (a) Type Specific performance Subtotal 1 operate mistake, ignore safety, ignore the warning start, shut down or move the machine without permission 3 When starting, shutting the machine does not give signal Switch is not locked, causing an accident, such as rotation, power, or 3 leak and so on Forget to turn off the device 3 Ignore the warning signs, warning signal 4 operate mistake 48 79 53.4 67
running operations 1 too fast feeding 1 Mechanical overdrive Illegal driving a motor vehicle 4 Drunk operating 1 Mixed passenger and freight loading Hand in stamping die when stamping machine operating 1 Work piece is not securely fastening 3 With compressed air blowing iron 1 As can be seen from the data in Table, the proportion of accidents caused by operate mistake, ignoring safety, ignoring the warning is the largest in all the unsafe behavior, especially operate mistake occurs frequently. Many construction workers technical level, the ability to work and safety awareness are weak, when they are working they don t follow the correct operation requires, only by their own experiences, and eventually led to an accident. Table 3 Specific performance of human unsafe behavior (b) Type Specific performance Subtotal Removal of safety devices 3 Safety device blocked, out of action 1 6 4.0 Adjustment errors caused a safety device failure Temporary use of unsolidified facilities The use of equipment without safety devices 1 3.0 Finished products, semi-finished products, materials, tools, chips and production supplies 3 3.0 stored improperly Venture into the culvert 3 No security facility near leaking Harvesting, skidding, wood, loading is not out of the danger zone Enter the shantou tank or well without safety inspector s permission Make a safety device failure 3 Using unsafe equipment 4 Objects stored improperly 5 Venturing into dangerous sites Without wall tapping and roof sounding Aggressive signal 1 Speeding on and off at Shunting Yard 1 Open flame under flammable and explosive occasion 1 Take a mine car without permission 1 Walking on the strand lane 1 Not timely outlook 1 17 11.5 As can be seen in Table 3, venturing into dangerous sites caused the accident majority, accounting for 11.5% of all unsafe behavior. These behaviors tend to have a great relationship with the psychological quality of workers, when they are working their safety awareness, self-protection awareness are weak, and with reckless behavior, always trusting to luck, eventually leading to an accident. 68
Table 4 Specific performance of human unsafe behavior (c) Type Specific performance Subtotal 6 Climbing, sitting unsafe location (such as platform guardrail, car baffles, crane hook) 1.4 7 operate and stay under the lifting objects 1 1 0.7 8 Physical or mental reasons 15 15 10.1 As can be seen from table 4, it is high easy to cause safety accident when a person's physical or mental state is not well, because in this state, people's physical strength and work efficiency are low, in addition, their self-defense capability, ability to detect safety accidents and response to danger, capacity to deal with accident will be reduced. Eventually, the accident takes place in the case of people paying no attention. Table 5 Specific performance of human unsafe behavior (d) Type Specific performance Subtotal Not wearing goggles or face shield 9 Without using Not wearing protective gloves 1 personal Not wearing safety shoes protective Not wearing a helmet 4 14 9.5 equipment in the Not wearing respiratory protective dangerous sites gear Not wearing seat belts 3 Wearing baggy clothes operating next to equipment with rotating 10 Unsafe attire parts 4.7 Wearing gloves when operate the equipment with rotating parts 11 Error handling of flammable, explosive and other dangerous goods 4 4.7 Total 148 148 100.0 From the data in table 5, we know that it is high easy to cause safety accidents without using personal protective equipment especially a safety helmet in the dangerous sites. Many construction workers and managers in construction sites always don t wear safety helmet, just for convenience, and they always trust to luck, eventually cause an accident. Summarizing the table - table 5, we get the main manifestations of human unsafe behavior, for this we must strengthen the management of people, increase training of security technology, take education regularly, standard the operating procedures, improve workers safety awareness and self-protection awareness, meet workers spiritual needs and ensure people to keep the best working states, as a result, to reduce the rate of accidents as maximum as possible. 3. The statistical analysis of material insecure state Insecure state of the material is that has caused or may cause accident. Based on the data we collect and according to the manifestation of the material insecure state, we make a classification and statistics as shown in table 6. 69
Table 6 Summary of the material insecure state Type Specific performance percent% Protection, insurance and signaling devices are missing or defective 35 31. Material Equipment, facilities, tools and accessories are insecure state defective 58 51.8 Personal protective equipment is missing or defective 19 17.0 Total 11 100.0 As can be seen from table 6, in the all insecure states, the defect of equipment, facilities, tools and accessories make a greater influence on safety accident, accounting for 51.8% of the total reasons. As the popular of machine in construction, people always cannot pay enough attention on the management of large and medium-sized equipments, facilities and tools, so the machine always working with trouble. On the other hand, because of the defect of protection, insurance and signaling devices, when the machine break down people can not deal with them timely, and cause an accident. For this, related professionals must be arranged to check these equipments, construction tools regularly and to find and clear the fault timely, to ensure that each machine can work normally. 3.3 The statistical analysis of environmental insecure state Insecure state of the environment is that affects the normal construction, causes or may cause the accident. Based on the data we collect and according to the manifestation of the environmental insecure state, we make a classification and statistics as shown in table 7. Table 7 Summary of the environmental insecure state Type Specific performance percent% The workplace narrow and wet 8 4.1 Environmental The traffic line configuration unsafe 6 31.6 insecure state Poorly ventilated or non-ventilated 3 15.8 The sites disarray and ground with oil 10.5 Total 19 100.0 According to the data in Table 1 we know that the environmental insecure state s influence to safety incidents is minimal, however, as shown in table 7, as one of the reasons of the accident, it is easy to lead to accidents when the workplaces narrow and wet and the traffic line configuration unsafe. It may directly cause the accident, may also be an indirect cause of the accident by human unsafe behavior. Therefore, we must strengthen the management of the environment, especially for the construction site. Only ensure a good working environment, can people construct safely, and ensure the work going on normally. 4 Conclusion Based on the statistical analysis of the 195 safety accidents, we summarize the direct reasons of the accidents: human unsafe behavior, material insecure state and environmental insecure state. By a further analysis of each factor, we get the specific reason and put forward the relevant measures. It is important that when we are dealing with them we should treat them as a whole, and use the systematic method to manage them. Since human unsafe behavior and material insecure state are interrelated and reinforce 70
each other, the unsafe behavior may promote the material insecure state development, or lead to the emergence of new insecure state, and material insecure state also induce human unsafe behavior; at the same time, environmental insecure state is one of the reasons of inducing human unsafe behavior and material insecure state, so only by controlling of these three factors can be possible to reduce the rate of accidents and to ensure the healthy development of the construction market. Author in Brief or Acknowledgment: Zhang Jianshe, M, the Pok Oi County, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Head of the Department; Research directions: Research project risk and safety management. Work units: School of Civil Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Department of Engineering Management Address: 001 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, Post Code: 454003 Telephone: 13530040 Xu You, women, the Ma Village District, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, Graduate students; Research direction: Engineering t management. work unit: Henan Polytechnic University School of Civil Engineering Address: 001 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, Post Code: 454003; Telephone: 1373163794 References [1]. Liu Jianxiong. Engineering construction accident analysis and prevention [M] Beijing: China Petrochemical Press, 007. (in Chinese) []. Sun Jianping. Building construction safety accidents warning from [M] Beijing: China Building Industry Press, 007. (in Chinese) [3]. Tian Zhuang. Building construction safety accidents warning from [M]. Shandong: Shandong University Press, 009 7. (in Chinese) [4]. Zhao Tingsheng, Lu Xuewei, Fang Dongping. Building construction injury accidents incentive survey and statistical analysis [J] Construction Technology, 003. (in Chinese) [5]. Zhang Qiu. Analysis of the reasons of the accidents. [J]. Aspect of science and technology, 009. (in Chinese) [6]. Wang Wenfa, Wang Yanfang. Building Engineering safety accidents direct reasons and preventive measures [J]. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 011. (in Chinese) [7]. The Enterprise Workers Casualty Investigation Analysis rules (GB644-86), (in Chinese) 71