HEALTH AND SAFETY

Health and Safety

Health and Safety

Safety is applied common sense and accidents happen when common sense is absent. The distress, grief and sadness experienced by a wife, mother, family and friends on losing a husband or son through a traffic accident in itself is traumatic and grief stricken. The scene of a tragic ending in serious injury or death is dismal, undignified and soul destroying and casts a dark, demoralising shadow over all present for a long period.

Understanding the background in the Construction Industry is Heavy Civil Engineering and Marine Works i.e harbour work, jetties, bridges etc. This is a hazardous world and has potentially many risks to life and limb. The exposure to accidents is daily and varied i.e height, water, excavation etc. Safety is enshrined in legislation. Construction activity necessarily involves change on a constant basis by comparison with other industries. Sites develop with progress of work hence the working environment is altering hour by hour. Change is known to be one of the prime conditions which induces unsafe behaviour and can preclude straightforward defensive measures. It is difficult to legislate for the enormous variation in the size of projects.

The diversity of employment arrangements ie. Subcontractors with Main Contractor employees prohibit any overarching safety policy, this must change. Safety regulations are required to apply generically across the spectrum. The development of the role of Project Supervisor for the Construction Stage (PSCS) in the Safety, Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 1995 aimed to improve coordination of the various groups on-site to ensure minimum standards of safety are implemented. Ensuring safety on a construction site is a complex challenge. Nevertheless a safety culture must be created. Richard Champers 2007 Pp. 67-70)

Life and limb are precious, our health is paramount and our greatest assett. The Client and Designer at the outset of the project should ensure safe buildability of the works. Safety should be considered from the outset and not just factored into the construction stage. Historically the above players have been at fault at this stage. Large improvements can be achieved by designing out risk and hazards. Greater efforts should be made to identify the risks and hazards so they can be designed out of the works. If errors, delay omission and malfunctions occur in the study and planning phases they will be manifested at site level. The Client and Designer should ensure an adequate programme time for the construction phase. A tight programme induces haste and errors that can result in accident. Research conducted by the ICE in the UK showed “that 75% of all Engineers working on design believed more could be done to design out risks”. (Stranks, J. 2005 Pp. 112-115) The old designers attitude that whatever he details is for the Contractor to build is not enough and not acceptable anymore. 60% of fatal accidents are attributable to decisions and choices made before works begins. Client Duties: The Client can set the tone of the entire construction ...