_This article is part of a blog series on Health and Safety issues on construction sites. Designers, architects, engineers, and contractors contribute to maintaining the site's health and safety regulation standards.
If you implement in your workflows, staff training, site management software, safety gear and equipment, and machinery maintenance, you can prevent accidents.
For each type of accident, you need to train your staff, organize sites, and make available and use protective personal equipment.
The United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) categorizes fatalities in four main categories: falls, struck-by, caught-in/between, and electrocutions.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) claims that 30 percent of construction industry deaths come from falls.
Your BIM best practices must help site staff and supervisors implement adequate preventive measures to safeguard from falls from heights by providing access to safety equipment when your staff plan safety protocols.
Staff must be trained to use construction and safety equipment to perform safely on scaffolds, ladders, roofs, and the entire construction site.
Avoiding potentially serious falls is critical, specifically by using ladders and scaffolds safely, not allowing access to floor openings and identifying opening caps, adhering to site parameters, and using appropriate fall protection equipment.
Falls that occur in the construction industry happen when staff undergo unidentified openings or surfaces or climb on materials that are stacked or piled.
The most dangerous falls are from roofs, ladders, and scaffolding. Coming down slippery stairs or steps to lower levels. The fall of materials can materialize from stationary vehicles, smashing equipment, or structures
Falling, flying, rolling, and swinging objects from cranes, trucks, and other heavy equipment and vehicles are sources of struck-by accidents. They injure your staff, but also walls could fall while being constructed, causing accidents for staff working close by on the site.
To prevent struck-by accidents, on a construction site, staff must wear seatbelts. All vehicles must be inspected before the shift starts. Vehicles must be equipped with reverse alarms. Drones or robots must be used in unsafe areas. The forklift’s driver must be a certified operator.
In heavy traffic areas, use signs and barricades, and all staff must wear orange vests.
Hoists, cranes, and tools must be inspected before the shift commences. To safely use power tools, your staff must receive training.
Guardrails, screens, toe boards, and debris nets must be used on scaffolds.
Compressed air, when used for cleaning, must be maintained at 30 psi.
Hard hats, face shields, goggles, safety glasses, and other protective gear must always be worn.
People must never stay under suspended loads. Best practices, including the above suggestions, can be used to professionally train your teams, to improve safety, and minimize accidents.
In caught-in/between accidents, the victim is injured by being crushed between objects.
For example, a team member may be caught in or pulled into machinery or equipment.
A trench or excavation wall can fall, crushing one of your staff between shifting, sliding, or rolling objects.
How to avoid caught-in/between construction accidents?
OSHA recommends training a competent person onsite during excavations to inspect the worksite, identify hazards, and take any required action.
Use safe and restrained machinery that is safeguarded, and ensure your machine conditions are safe to use.
Train staff in locking out procedures, like lowering blades on bulldozers before repairing them.
According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International, 44% of on-the-job electrical fatalities happen to those working in construction and land extraction.
Most of these accidents occur with electric tools, but ladders, trucks, and hand tools are also sources for electrocution deaths in construction work.
To avoid electrocutions, your staff must check if any overhead power lines are in the vicinity and keep a safe distance from them before using the equipment.
Your staff must ensure there are no electrocution hazards before using ladders and scaffolds.
By identifying the utility's location and the type they have before starting work, using ground-fault circuit interrupters and grounded or double-insulated portable tools, your staff will be protected.
Staff on construction sites, to avoid accidents, must prioritize safety. They should wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as hard hats, safety glasses, and gloves, and maintain a clean and organized workspace.
They must be conscious of their surroundings, report any hazards or near misses, and follow best practices on safety, So it is crucial to train them often.
At Driving Vision, we offer an organizational diagnostic in which we evaluate your skills and if you have gaps to be filled either internally or externally to be BIM ready. So, your people are interdependent, and your technology is unified to protect your employees and equipment on site The organization report is central to a successful full BIM adoption, in line with the types of projects you produce and your clients’ organization. We will conduct the interviews online and issue a report to discuss our findings with you. Together, we will decide on the best way to implement the solutions at your pace and according to your budget.
Implementing BIM can be daunting, but Driving Vision is here to help you at the pace you are comfortable with. Get started by getting in touch now
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