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Berg, R and Hinze, J (2005) Theft and Vandalism on Construction Sites. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 826–33.

Castañeda, J A, Tucker, R L and Haas, C T (2005) Workers’ Skills and Receptiveness to Operate Under the Tier II Construction Management Strategy. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 799–807.

Chua, D K and Shen, L J (2005) Key Constraints Analysis with Integrated Production Scheduler. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 753–64.

Horman, M J and Thomas, H R (2005) Role of Inventory Buffers in Construction Labor Performance. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 834–43.

Lee, S, Thomas, S R and Tucker, R L (2005) Web-Based Benchmarking System for the Construction Industry. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 790–8.

Mitropoulos, P, Abdelhamid, T S and Howell, G A (2005) Systems Model of Construction Accident Causation. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 816–25.

  • Type: Journal Article
  • Keywords: Occupational safety; Construction site accidents; Accident prevention;
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0733-9364
  • URL: https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2005)131:7(816)
  • Abstract:
    The current approach to safety focuses on prescribing and enforcing “defenses;” that is, physical and procedural barriers that reduce the workers’ exposure to hazards. Under this perspective, accidents occur because the prescribed defenses are violated due to lack of safety knowledge and/or commitment. This perspective has a limited view of accident causality, as it ignores the work system factors and their interactions that generate the hazardous situations and shape the work behaviors. Understanding and addressing these causal factors that lead to accidents is necessary to develop effective accident prevention strategies. This paper presents a new accident causation model of the factors affecting the likelihood of accidents during a construction activity. The model takes a systems view of accidents—it focuses on how the characteristics of the production system generate hazardous situations and shape the work behaviors, and analyzes the conditions that trigger the release of the hazards. The model is based on descriptive rather than prescriptive models of work behaviors—it takes into account the actual production behaviors, as opposed to the normative behaviors and procedures that workers “should” follow. The model identifies the critical role of task unpredictability in generating unexpected hazardous situations, and acknowledges the inevitability of exposures and errors. The model identifies the need for two accident prevention strategies: (1) reliable production planning to reduce task unpredictability, and (2) error management to increase the workers’ ability to avoid, trap, and mitigate errors. The new causation model contributes to safety research by increasing understanding of the production system factors that affect the frequency of accident. The practical benefit of the model is that it provides practitioners with strategies to reduce the likelihood of accidents.

Park, H, Thomas, S R and Tucker, R L (2005) Benchmarking of Construction Productivity. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 772–8.

Thomas, H R, Riley, D R and Messner, J I (2005) Fundamental Principles of Site Material Management. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 808–15.

Wilmot, C G and Mei, B (2005) Neural Network Modeling of Highway Construction Costs. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 765–71.

Xu, T, Tiong, R L, Chew, D A and Smith, N J (2005) Development Model for Competitive Construction Industry in the People’s Republic of China. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 844–53.

Zayed, T M and Halpin, D W (2005) Productivity and Cost Regression Models for Pile Construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 131(07), 779–89.