Characteristic analysis of occupational accidents at small construction enterprises

The purpose of this present study is to investigate the characteristic factors responsible for occupational accident occurrence for small construction enterprises in Taiwan, using methodologies of descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient analysis as well as ANOVA. The data used in this study was collected from the Council of Labor Affairs of Taiwan Central Government between years 2000 and 2007. From the results of this study, it was found that the factors influencing occupational accident development for small construction enterprises included the health and safety management skills, employers' values on the health and safety practices, and the degree of compliance with labor safety laws and regulations. The results also indicated that occupational accidents tend to occur (1) during the worker's first day at the workplace, (2) when the construction project has an excessively low health and safety management, (3) when employer did not provide personal protection equipments to the workers, (4) when personal protection equipment was not correctly used, and (5) when workers failed to adopt safeguards or ignored hazard warning signs in the workplace. To reduce the overall occurring rate of occupational accidents per 1000 persons in the construction industry, it is important to implement required health and safety practices and training effectively to ensure that all workers acknowledge and follow these requirements regulations when working. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.