Citation

Cameron I, Hare B, Davies R. Safety Sci. 2008; 46(4): 692-708.

Affiliation

Construction Management and Economics, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, G4 0BA, UK; School of Built and Natural Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.007

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Records, for the period 1997-2002, show that the rates of both fatal and major construction accidents are consistently higher in Scotland than in Great Britain as a whole. By proportion, Scottish fatal accident rates are, on average, 50% more than the rest of Britain; and major accident rates 15% more. This paper reports on a 12-month Contract Research Report on behalf of the United Kingdom's Health and Safety Executive, conducted by the authors in collaboration with BOMEL consultants and the Institute of Employment Research at Warwick University. The aim of the research was to investigate these statistics and any underlying issues that may be linked to the apparent higher accident rates. The aim of this paper is to outline the methods used and discuss the most salient findings of the research. The research involved analysing a statistically valid sample of investigated fatal and major accidents to workers in the construction sector in Scotland and a comparative sample for the rest of Great Britain. This directed the fieldwork phase of the research, in which, possible reasons for the difference were investigated. A key prerequisite for the research was to analyse and validate the statistics. The detailed analysis of accident rates shows very clearly that there are proportionately more manual workers in Scottish construction than in the rest of Great Britain due to many more professional and support occupations allied to construction, such as engineers, accountants, and administrative staff in England. These workers, who are at little risk of injury, work within the construction industry. Therefore, they are included in the total number of construction industry workers used for the calculation of accident rates. This factor accounts for virtually all of the difference. However, more detailed analysis shows differences between specific manual occupations, with some better and others worse in Scotland, thereby balancing the overall rates. This prompted a re-evaluation of the objectives, subsequently leading to investigation of the causes specific to those manual occupations identified. Use of scaffold and bricklayers were identified as problem areas in Scotland. However, plant operators in England were also found to contribute to increased accident rates for the rest of GB.