Fatal accident patterns of building construction activities in China

Fatal accidents occur frequently in building construction activities due to inherently hazardous nature. This paper aims to explore the fatal accident patterns in China's building construction activities by using frequency analysis, correlation coefficient analysis and variance analysis. The data presented in this study come from short reports of accidents published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. The results are obtained by analyzing the factors related to month, day of week, time interval of day, province, type of accident, and severity of accident. It's mainly found that more fatal accidents occur (1) in July and August, (2) on Monday and (3) during the time intervals 10:00-11:00 and 15:00-16:00, and excessive laboring hours still exist in building construction activities. It's also notable that relatively underdeveloped provinces have experienced higher mortality rate per hundred million yuan of gross domestic product in the building industry, especially Qinghai, Hainan and Heilongjiang. Moreover, fall is the predominant type of fatal accidents, accounting for more than 55% overall. There exists the significant correlation between the types of accidents and the severities of accidents, and each collapse and hoisting damage can cause more fatalities compared to other types. The corresponding recommendations are ultimately put forward to prevent fatal accidents of building construction activities. The patterns found in this paper can provide valuable direction for formulating accident prevention strategies.