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Falls are the most common accidents in the construction industry and it was obvious that it
was the reason of many serious injuries and fatalities (Xinyu Huang and Jimmie Hinze,
2013)(Christopher A. Janicak, 1998). The using truss-out bamboo scaffolding was always the
factor of the fatal accident. In Hong Kong, difference type of accident were associated with
truss-out scaffolding, there are different cases in various conditions deriving the fatal
accident. Basically, the common cause of fatal accident was related to worker fall form high,
poor workmanship on the installation, collapse of working platform and lack of safety
For instance, the victim slipped from the truss-out scaffolding due to the wet surface and
not sufficient safety measures such as safety harness with no independent life line anchor to
secure fixing point (Apple Daily, 2007/11/6). Other than the insufficient safety awareness,
the poor workmanship is another problem; an anchor bolt, for fixing the supporting frame
of truss-out scaffolding, installed in secure manner and the working platform could not
support the loading and collapse cause the worker fall form height (Oriental Daily,
Apart from the newspaper report, the statistic from Labour Department showed that Fall
of person from height was the highest type of accident in which cause fatality (Labour
Department, 2013).
Risk Factors for Scaffold Related Accidents
For those figures and reports, some researchers and institutions had done some studies on
defining the cause of those accidents. Some conclusion they had made, many falls are
related to the environmental factor such as the working surface to the facility layout
conditions (Xinyu Huang and Jimmie Hinze, 2013) and the walking surface of the working
platform (National Research Council, 1985) (Christopher A. Janicak, 1998); most accidents
took place from/with scaffold, also the misjudgment of hazardous situation is the common
type of human error involving fall (Xinyu Huang and Jimmie Hinze, 2013). Other than the
mentioned researchers findings, NIOSH (1992) suggest that the fatal falls result from
failure to use appropriate personal fall-protection, and Christopher A, Janicak (1998) find
that the failures of guardrails giving way, lanyards, harnesses and their attachment breaking
are the cause of substantial frequent of death due to the fall protection system for working
at high.
Toole (2002) found that accidents in construction industry related unsafe site conditions,
which were due to inadequate training, lack of safety control, shortage of personal safety
equipments supplying, risky methods or task design, workers not working with provided
overlook the unsafe conditions, which appeared prior an activity commenced or which
Improper use of scaffold equipment and fall protection systems might cause the workers
suffering injury or die. The Centers for Disease Control (1992) identified that the reasons of
people falling from height causing fatal accidents, which were damaged scaffold tools, false
operation or installation, workers without appropriate training, or working without using fall
protection device.
Also Jacicak (1998) found that insufficient in-situ protection was the major identified causes,
and other minor identified causes were structure failure, inadequate work surface and
Huang and Hinze (2003) concluded that not less than 30% of the fall accidents were due to
improper or insufficient use of fall protection devices and defective safety devices.
Malcolm (2000) concluded that there was a relation between the fall accident and improper
safety management, in which the factors were insufficient monitoring and management,
insufficient proper training, and providing unsuitable devices or executing with risky working
procedures.
Regulatory Framework in Hong Kong
Safety legislation
In Hong Kong, the laws related to governing the safe use of truss-out scaffold in
A. The Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance (FIUO), Chapter 59 and its subsidiary
B. The Buildings Ordinance (BO), Chapter 123, it focus on handling the pre-construction
planning and design and construction of buildings and its subsequence works, also makes
The FIUO was formed at 1955, up to this moment, this ordinance stills the principal
legislation that governs health and safety in the Hong Kong construction industry. The
enforcement of this ordinance is mainly by the inspectorate of the Lobour Department. The
power of amendment and making regulation and approving the code of practice, which are
applicable to the local construction industry, especially for bamboo scaffolding, are given by
Some of the major safe use of bamboo scaffold (including truss-out scaffold) related
following.
the Section 6A, it is clearly expressed that reasonably practicable steps shall be taken by the
proprietors to all person employed, in order to eliminate the risk on health and safety. In
the Section 6B, it is clearly expressed that the workers owe any person a duty to exercise
reasonable care at work. Also the workers and employers collaborate in ensuring the
The scope of legislation is to the incidents, which may occur during the time that workers
implementing their duty as construction worker outside the construction site, extended by
The Construction Sites (Safety) Regulation was published in 1978; some major sections
related to working at height and safe use of scaffold are shown as below:
Part VA: Scaffolds, Working Platform and Ladders: These regulations mainly focus on
on Scaffolding Safety should be read conjunctly with these regulations, as the Code
In addition to the above section, the Legislative council approved a major amendment,
Construction Site (Safety) (Amendment) Regulation 2003, on 26th November 2003 and it
was published in Gazette on 28th November 2003 to take immediate effect. In that
amendment, there are some major provisions. The most critical breakthrough is the
extension of the duties, which imposed to the principle contractor under most provisions of
the principle regulation to all contractor or sub-contractor who has direct control over any
construction work on the site. Even thought the all contractor or sub-contractor who has
direct control over any construction work on the site will bear the responsible of offence the
regulation in implementing the works, the principal contractor will also not release their
duty on ensure the safety and health work environment in the construction site.
Other than the extension of the duties of principal contractor, there are 2 main provisions
measures required to ensure the safety of places of work and amendment on Regulation 44
to prescribe the specific measures required to effectively guard a prime mover, transmission
Factory and Industrial Undertakings (Safety Officer and Safety Supervisors) Regulations,
Chapter 59Z
was made on requirement of hiring Registered Safety Officer and Safety Supervisor. For a
contractor who is the proprietor of one or more construction sites and employed 100 or
more employees, a Registered Safety Officer should be employed. For a contractor who is
the proprietor of one or more construction sites and employed 20 or more employees, a
Safety Supervisor should be employed. Both are helping the contractor in promoting the
safety and help of workers. Providing safety and health advice, finding and reporting
possible hazards, investigating dangerous materials and accidents in the workplace are the
This is a building and building works control ordinance instead of labour. However, this
Ordinance perceived some indirect and supplementary on the issue of labour safety. Section
require the applicant must satisfy the Building Authority on the adequacy of its
site safety history is a critical consideration on affecting the approval of the registration.
Another example on indicating the indirect restriction on safety should be Section 14 and
14A of this ordinance. In these sections, it set out the rules on requiring submission of
building plans and supervision plan for approval and consent of the commencement of the
building works and street works. The technical memorandum of supervision plan is
authorized by the Section 39A of this regulation for giving practical advice on applying site
supervision plan under Section 14 and 14A. The memorandum came into operation on 22nd
of December 1997, and latterly replaced by a vision with amendment at the end of 2005. In
the revision of 2005, the registered geotechnical engineer was put into the management
and communication structure. The latest version should be the Technical Memorandum of
Supervision Plan 2009, it was issued to replace the version 2005 and in effect on the 31st
December 2010. This revision incorporated amendments on site supervision plan system
and the supervision requirement on carrying out the minor works. Section 39A of this
Ordinance set out the requirement, principal and operation of supervision plan. Ensure the
site safety supervision is one of the objectives of the plan. In the section 4 of the
Memorandum, it clear state that the purpose of preparing a supervision plan and
supervising the carrying out of building works or street works by relative parties, under
Section 4 and Section, safety management of building works or street works comprises
controlling hazards from building works or street works so as to mitigate the risk to (i) the
workers on site, (ii) all persons around the sites; and (iii) adjoining buildings, structures and
plan prior the consent application, it is required under the Section 14A of this Ordinance. In
person, registered structural engineers and technical competent persons should be clearly
Code of Practice
guidance. Under many circumstances, the legislation provision gives the fundamental
direction on the legal compliance, but the condition may change form time to time and it is
hard to amend the provision frequently due to the time-consuming legislative amendment
empowered to approve the code of practice for the changing of technology and work
condition.
Some major code of practice issued by the Commissioner for Labour Department under the
authorization by the law, which is providing the guidance on working at height and
authorization by the Section 7A of the FIUO. It provides practical guidance for the
employed, which were given in the section 6A and 6B of the FIUO respectively. In
addition to FIUO, the criteria in CSSR regarding the working safety on bamboo
the authorization by the Section 7A of the FIUO. It provides practical guidance for
legal requirements under the provision the Part VA and Schedule III of CSSR.
In addition to the Labour Department, the Building Department also issue some code of
practice and design guide on construction safety, especially the bamboo scaffolding.
other personnel in the building industry for the preparation of supervision plan. It
guides such persons in conducting their duties on prescribed supervision and other
site supervision matter. And it is aim at construction site safety according to the
technical competent person aspect, which may involve the scaffolding matters.
This guideline is issued by the Buildings Department and aims to give good method
for the structural design and erection of bamboo scaffolds, which are commonly
adopted in Hong Kong. The target of guideline is the structural safety and stability of
bamboo scaffolds at good level during their lifetime. In this connection, not only the
design of the bamboo scaffold mainframe is included, but also include some
anchors and steel brackets. It also provides the good example on truss-out
scaffolding design.
In order to tackle the problem of deficient maintenance of old building and keep the
buildings safe over a longer period of time, two schemes are introduced in BO, which are
Building Department, inspection, assessment, repair and rectification should include the
external building elements such as finishes, claddings, fins and metal louvers. For the said
works, bamboo scaffolds shall be designed and erected in accordance with GDCBS and
COPBSS, which are issued by Building Department and Labour Department respectively.