International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)

Volume 8, Issue 1, January 2017, pp. 349356, Article ID: IJCIET_08_01_039

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=1
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316
IAEME Publication

STUDY ON ENHANCEMENT OF HUMAN SAFETY

PROTECTION FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRY
K.Sai Dinesh
M. Tech Student, Department of Civil Engineering,
K L University, Vaddeswaram-522502, Andhra Pradesh, India

SS. Asadi
Associate Dean-Academics, Civil Engineering Department,
K L University, Vaddeswaram - 522 502 (A.P)

S.S.Bhanu Prakash
Asst. Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
K L University, Vaddeswaram-522502, A.P, India

ABSTRACT
Objectives: To show that effective implementation of safety protection factors will lead
to zero accident project. To prove that there must be noticeable enhancement of safety
required in the construction industry. Methods/Analysis: Understanding the problems
associated with the existing safety performance in the construction industry. Identifying the
organization which implementing effective safety performance in the site and taken it as
case study. Extracting the personnel safety factors from the above case studies where the
maximum potential possibilities of accidents happen. Progressed with the questionnaire
survey on extracted factors. Analysis of the data and extracting results. Findings: From the
analysis of 40 responses to questionnaire it shows that human safety protection factors is
implementing in every construction organization but not in at the most effective way so that
accidents are taking place in construction industry. So there is great need to enhance safety
protection factors in construction industry. Applications: Regular use of human safety
protection factors is must for any organization that leads to better enhancement on the
safety in site. Projective knowledge on safety to engineers leads to zero accident as per the
following case study which is most useful factor for an organization for safety performance
of the project. Recommendations mentioned in paper is applicable to any construction
organization those are influencing with safety problems.
Key words: Hazard, Accident, Incident, Inspection, Investigation
Cite this Article: K.Sai Dinesh, SS. Asadi and S.S.Bhanu Prakash, Study on Enhancement
of Human Safety Protection Factors In Construction Industry. International Journal of Civil
Engineering and Technology, 8(1), 2017, pp. 349356.
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 K.Sai Dinesh, SS. Asadi and S.S.Bhanu Prakash

1. INTRODUCTION
Our nation is one of the fast developing country and have adequate working population compare to
the rest of world. Construction is the second largest industry next to agriculture over 33million
people are working in the construction industry. In these consequences working population is a
valuable asset to the construction industry therefore we cannot bear to have many accidents in the
construction industry. Once an accident takes place directly or indirectly many people will be
affected. There is great loss to the dependents of the victims and they will suffer for the source of
income. The organization will also suffer the loss of experienced or skilled worker and be forced to
absorb the incidental costs due to the interrupted project activities, increased insurance premiums
and medical expenditure. From the past analysis the average fatal accident frequency rate in Indian
construction industries is 15.8 for thousand employees as against 0.23 in USA. This paper clearly
explains that how we can reduce the accident rate by enhancing human safety protection measures
through by zero accident case studies, Accidental case studies and through questionnaire survey
from experts

2. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE EXISTING

SAFETY PERFORMANCE IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

2.1. BEHAVIOUR BASED SAFETY ON CONSTRUCTION SITE

Behaviour based safety is clearly explained the personnel state of mind and his attitude towards the
work it is clearly explained by 1 who does research on the behaviour based safety in the
construction site .In this work, the prime contractors observers were measuring safety
performance, arranging goal-setting sessions and updating the feedback charts after having been
trained by the writer. The writer distributed the research schedule to the project management team
including the observers for follow-up of the daily research work of the personnel behaviour. Site
management showed their commitment that his intervention was to continue, uninterrupted until
project completion.

2.2. HAZARD ASSESMENT BEFORE THE TASK, PROVIDING SAFETY

EQUIPMENT AND TOOL
Identifying future risk in design stage or at performance stage will greatly decrease the loss of
accident to people or properties. The collaboration between the designer and client will be resulted
in a safety risk analysis for each project option. This approach will be applied by assessing the
relationship among the stakeholders, the public, the final users of the facilities and the
environment. This strategy will concentrate what can happen, how and why it can happen in the
implementation of the tasks. Use of safe machinery and facilities is essential to maintain the health
and safety of site personnel. By the advent of technology in the construction industry, the design of
machinery and plants has been improved. Technological intervention has resulted in automation
and comprehensive facility redesign. Although this approach has reduced the large number of
accidents, but at the same time it causes new type of accident. For instance, new workers who are
not familiar very well with the technology of plants and facilities cause accident in construction
projects. These factors which are very useful to extract factors for questionnaire that is clearly
explained by2 in his research on enhancement of safety performance in the construction industry.

2.3. TOWARDS OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SYSTEMS

In 3 clearly explained about the importance of the OHSAS 18001 standard, and how effectively the
registered organizations enhancing the safety performance in the construction. This paper help to
decide to visit OHSAS registered industry and how it implementing the safety performance in that
industry.

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 Study on Enhancement of Human Safety Protection Factors In Construction Industry

2.4. UNSAFE BEHAVIOUR AND ACCIDENTS IN CONSTRUCTION SITE

In 4 results of their study show that the relative importance of the main elements and their related
factors differ between organizational and project levels: leadership and commitment are the most
important elements at the organization level, whereas risk assessment and management are most
important at the project level. This paper clears that at organization level commitment is important
because usually in construction industry is some tricky compared to other it stand on the
commitment between the contractor and the client so that the organization view is always towards
the completion of the project.

2.5. DEVELOPMENT OF SAFETY PERFORMANCE

In this part an efficient approach is recommended as a guideline to assist the team members in the
construction industry to manage their safety in their workplaces. We required preventing accident
because of 3 reasons as mentioned in below: this is was clearly explained by 5
Humanitarian Reason: to ensure that people are safe and healthy at work and nobody suffers from
accident due to the work activity.
Legal Reason: to comply with provisions of law which, specify standards to ensure safety and
health at work.
Economic Reason: to prevent losses due to accident in term of expenses on medical, compensation,
property damage, downtime, etc. This guideline measures safety on site
In 6 gives clearly explains about the necessity of Evaluation of Workers Unsafe Behaviors using
Safety Sampling Method in an Industrial Company.
In 7 elaborately explains about the safety in mining industries and shown the importance of Safety
Scheme for Mining Industry Using Zigbee Module

3. NON-ACCIDENTAL CASE STUDY

Visited the JSW cements ltd where the PACKING PLANT IN UNDER CONSTRUCTION The
construction area of the plant is 3375sqm. It is the project taken as case study where
Organizational safety policy is effectively working under the guidance of senior manager to project
and safety AGM leads to zero accident project. In JSW plant there is written documentation of its
organizational safety policy that is EHS which was certified by the OHSAS18001.The protection
measures which are elaborately mentioned in Organizational safety policy document that leads to
zero accident project are as follows.

3.1. JSW DOCUMENTED FACTORS REGARDING THE PERSONNEL SAFETY

providing PPE for every personnel
Conducting mock drills
Daily tool box talk
Collecting weekly near misses from personnel
Standard incident investigation procedures
Daily site inspection
Monthly safety appreciation awards
Safety posters and slogans in the site
Internal audits
Emergency preparedness

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 K.Sai Dinesh, SS. Asadi and S.S.Bhanu Prakash

Employee medical scheme and accidental claims

By implementing these above factors regularly with at the most responsibility that leads to the
success regarding safety. Tools and their standard usage is also responsible for the psychological
feeling of the workers while performing activities by self motivating that this tool is safe enough to
perform the activities

3.2. TOOLS AND THEIR STANDARD USAGEAS PER JSW ORGANIZATIONAL

SAFETY POLICY
Ladder: raising should not be more than 12 inches and hand rail should be mostly recommended
Scaffolds : scaffolds platform should be 1m width and hand rail at 1mand maid rail should be 0.5m
and platform should be with drt wood of 3.5inch thickness
Safety belt: it should be able to carry 100kgs minimum and after 1.8m height safety belt should be
must.
Life line ropes : life line ropes should be in the thickness of 2.5inches
Safety bar gates: safety bar gates should be of 1m height and having mid rail.
Ppe: personal protective equipment is must i.e. is safety shoes, glouses, safety glasses, helmets etc
This is the way by enhancing every factor in the OH&S documented list this packing plant
project is successful as zero accident project as per my live project execution These are the safety
measures which lead to the zero accident projects and JSW is OHSAS certified industry.

4. ACCIDENTAL CASE STUDIES

4.1. ACCIDENT-1
Kolkata, 31st March 2016, Thursday afternoon, an under construction fly over collapses near Gane
shTalkies at Vivekananda road causing 24 deaths and around 80 others injured. The fatality could b
e more because at the time of collapse normal traffic was under operation just below the
under construction bridge.

4.1.2. INVESTIGATION TO THE ACCIDENT-1

The reason for the failure of the structure is it is Rcc deck supported o the steel girder which is the
very safest design that can carry the huge load but during the execution or fabrication by unskilled
labour un experience workers. Just previous day concreting to the span had happen but the
connections to the cantilever had failed because wet weight of the concrete is more compare to the
dry weight. This
Design Aspect: as per design it is safe as per STAAD PRO verification but the main reason for
the accident is failure of the pier cap due to the heavy wet weight of the concrete . This happened
by the lack of pre inspection and post inspection. Project manager and contractor depends on the
middle level engineers they neglected the proper inspection for the factors in the checklist leads to
the incident and another reason to this accident is next day to the concreting traffic should be
restricted but these does not followed by the traffic officers

4.2. ACCIDENT-2
Guntur .14-05-2016, At least seven construction workers were feared to have been killed when a
huge earthen mound caved in at the site of an under-construction shopping complex near Harihar
Cinemas at Lakshmipuram.

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 Study on Enhancement of Human Safety Protection Factors In Construction Industry

4.2.1. 4INVESTIGATION TO THE ACCIDENT -2

The workers were engaged in building the compound wall when the earthen mound around the pit
caved in burying them in mud and slush. Eyewitnesses said the workers had expressed
apprehensions over the strength of black cotton soil, but the mason prodded them on. A little while
later, the compound wall of an adjacent restaurant also collapsed with a thud.

5. QUESTIONNARIE SURVEY
Questionnaire survey Conducted to nearly 40 construction engineers and foremen on the
availability and following of human safety protection factors in their site and extent of their
implementation. Those factors are mentioned in questionnaire template shown in Table1.
Table 1 questionnaire template of human safety protection factors

Sno Availability of human safety protection A M S R N

factors in construction site
1 Availability of safety belts to the works
2 Availability of helmets to workers in jobsite
3 Availability of bargates around the
construction site
4 Regular tool box talk
5 Training to the workers
6 Hand rails and mid rails of scaffolds as per
specifications
7 Regular house keeping
8 Inspection of work area
9 Safe material handling procedures
10 Life line for height works
11 Equipment Handling training
12 Monthly reward for safe performance
13 Every month near misses
14 Availability of fire protection in job site
15 Safety ladders and elevators
16 Experience person in risk task
17 Examine of worker health
18 Evaluation of workers previous experience
19 First aid box
20 Safety jackets for the workers

5.1. ANALYSIS ON RESPONSE TO QUESTIONNARIE SURVEY

Statistical presentation of every factor in protection measures and its average percentage to all of
the grades is presented.
Grades are divided as A=always, M=mostly, s=some times, R=rarely, N=never
For example in case of safety belts factor in questionnaire some experts repondeded always we
use helmets in site. but for same factor one another expert response was we use safety belts for
height works only. so to evaluate the percentage of usage factor rating is graded as A=always,
M=mostly, s=some times, R=rarely, N=never
So that after the completion of questionnaire survey of 40 engineers and foremen ,every factor
of 40 questionnaire grades are taking in to percentage

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 K.Sai Dinesh, SS. Asadi and S.S.Bhanu Prakash

For example out of 40 responds 6 members responds they use helmets always so for the grade
always get 15%.similarly caluculated to all grades for single factor so that we get the percentage of
grades under usage of single factor.
The factors is in questionnaire template.
From the templete the analysis is carried by calculating every factors grade percentages
always =is the summation of all always grades of that respective factor
mostly = is the sum of all mostly grades of that respective factor
some times =is the sum of all some times grades of that respective factor
rarely = is the sum of all rarely of that respective factor
never =is the sum of all never of that respective factor
Percentage of each grades of one single factor is calculated from the 40 questionnaire responses
Then always percentage is taken as criteria. Finally percentages of always grades average with
respect to all factors is taken as present status of the safety in the construction industry

5.2 ANALYSIS OF RESPONSE TO AVAILABILITY OF SAFETY BELTS IN

CONSTRUCTION SITE
From the questionnaire response always=6
mostly=8
some times=6
rarely=10
never=10
% of always for safety belts from the 40 questinnarie responses=(always /40)*100 =15%
% of mostly for safety belts from the 40 questinnarie responses=(mostly/40)*100=20%
% of some times for safety belts from the40questinnarie responses=(some times/40)*100=15%
% of rarelys for safety belts from the40questinnarie responses=(rarely/40)*100=25%
% of never for safety belts from the40questinnarie responses=(never/40)*100=25%
The percentages of all grades of single factor is caluculated and presented in Table2 and Figure
1.
Table 2. The percentages of grades for the factor availability of safety belts in construction site
Grades of the factors always mostly Some times Rarely Never

Availability of safety belts in site 15% 20% 15% 25% 25%

Similarly percentages of all grades of every single factor is calculated. Then from those all
percentages we have to take the average of each grade of all factors those are mentioned in results.

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 Study on Enhancement off Human Safety Protection Factors In Construction Industry

Figure 1 Graphical presentation of grades percentages for the factor availability of safety
sa belts in
construction site

6. RESULTS
Percentage of always grade with respect to all factors =
Sum of all percentages always GRADES/20=20.25%
GRADES
Percentage of mostly grade with respect to all factors =
Sum of all percentages mostly GRADES/20=18.75%
GRADES
Percentage of some times grade with respect to all factors =
Sum of all percentages some times RADES/20=19.25%
RADES
Percentage of rarely grade with respect to all factors =
Sum of all percentages rarely GRADES/20=22.25%
GRADES
Percentage of never grade with respect to all factors =
Sum of all percentages never GRADES/20=19.5%
GRADES
From the above results the always is not even reach 50% for single factor And average of
always to all factors is 20.25% only. Then the average of never of all factors is 19.5%.and rest of
them are also nearly. no single grade is dominant compare to rest of them. This shows that safety is
implementing in every construction industry but not in at the most effective way so that accidents
aree taking place in construction industry. So there is great need to enhance safety in construction
industry

7. CONCLUSION
From the above case studies it is clear that by following at the most protection measures leads to
zero accident project and in another
ther case due to unsafe act lead to accidents. so that from the
Questionnaire we find the percentage of human safety protection measures implementation in
present construction scenario. A=Always is the top grade where the human safety protection
factors is highly Implemented. But
ut a=always percentage to all factors is just 20.25% only. From

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 K.Sai Dinesh, SS. Asadi and S.S.Bhanu Prakash

the past analysis the average fatal accident frequency rate in Indian construction industries is 15.8
for thousand employees as against 0.23 in USA. so by enhancing human safety protection
measures to atleast 60% of A=Always grade then definitely the rate of construction accidents will
reduce.

8. RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above data analysis mostly safety is considering in reputed construction companies
only. Even those reputed companies facing many accident cases due to inadequate planning and
inspection. So the recommendations are as follows
Regular inspections in the construction site after the end of the day and before start of the day
Safety engineer appointment in site is must for steel constructions and after g+5 constructions
Regular instructions and training to the workers
Top management help for adequate procceding in the project
Initial safety costs for the project must be recommended
Have an organizational safety policy for the proper administration of safety;
Everyday" tool box" safety talks;
Conduct weekly meeting of safety at the project level;
Always secure safety protection measures at the jobsite;
Ppe for the worker should be must
Always post safety signs and posters at the jobsite;
regular weekly safety inspections; Reward workers for their safe executions
Penality on workers for their unsafe act;
Make workers to use the safety equipment as regular habbit ;
Reduce labour turnover rates to less than 25%.

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