Factors for Accident Analysis on Highway Construction Sites
During a safety briefing on one of our highway improvement projects, we had a little discussion about how to use safety information to make positive change on site.
Highway construction necessitates a detailed study of traffic management and the provision of sufficient safety for workers and commuters. Such construction sites are known to represent high risk conditions and high frequency of accidents. As construction activities intensify, the vulnerability to accidents also increases.
Safety doesn’t happen by accident - Unknown
In most cases, traffic management changes constantly, thus causing confusion to road users. To address this confusion, engineers study traffic management with care, and engage the public through appropriate media channels to keep them informed of the change in driving conditions and the dangers of construction plant and equipment.?
Most Safety Officers prefer to construct a table containing the number of labour on site, the number of accidents and the severity of damage??and injury caused, as well as some details of major accidents. Despite the importance of such information, it hardly helps senior management or site team to take the necessary decisions and steps to improve the safety conditions.
From a knowledge management perspective, the process of dealing with such an issue starts with the collection of data, creating relationships between different data to generate information, finding trends to generate knowledge, then using the system to take calculated decisions to with the intention of creating safer conditions on site.
We found, practically, that plotting accidents on an overall map of the site gives a better insight of how the accidents are distributed, thus leading to identifying possible causes, mostly related to the geometry of the traffic management detailing.
领英推荐
Engineers will always look at the possible factors that contribute to accidents and work on eliminating them. These factors may include, but not limited to the following:
On various projects, we tried to look at accidents using some of these factors where appropriate. The analysis gave us a more clear understanding of the conditions influencing drivers behaviour and causing accidents.?
One interesting observation we found was that young inexperienced drivers make more accidents on our construction sites than older ones. There were also more accidents during weekend days then other days, and during the night then during the day.
Changes to traffic management geometry, refinement of traffic signal timing and improving lighting were made to improve the driving conditions and remove the causes of accidents.
Providing adequate signage and calming drivers speed also contribute to better safety conditions.
As for workers and visitors to the site, safety inductions are conducted to ensure awareness and sufficient knowledge is provided for their safety.
On constructions sites, Project Managers assume responsibility about safety as it is a key element in judging the success of their projects. It is therefore necessary to create a culture whereby safety becomes the responsibility of every individual on a construction site, first for his own safety, then for others.
Commercial Manager (International) at Highway Care, bringing innovative safety products to highways projects
1 年This is great stuff - I often find that people think that there is no problem in their Work Zones, which I believe is a result of not capturing the data and knowing the scale of the problem. Through Work Zone training presentations, I advocate the use of properly tested and connected portable Work Zone barriers. This is the safety parachute to protect both the worker and the road user when they make mistakes. #Highwayguard is the product that we offer and is, I believe the best value portable barrier out there.