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A project to prevent risks on construction worksites
September
2006
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Construction is a dangerous industry, with high rates of fatal and nonfatal injuries. Construction has the third highest rate of death by injury: 15.2 deaths per 100,000 workers. Only mining and agriculture experience higher rates. |
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A continuous surveillance program combined with continuous research, are necessary in order to learn more about the causes of nonfatal injuries affecting construction workers and to identify injury trends for further investigations and prevention programs. |
Accidents in the workplace, particularly concentrated on the construction sector, are a cause for concern for public and private agents, and for society in general, which requires measures to reduce the number of accidents occurring during work activities.
It
is an important, somber reminder to declare that
not every worker goes home safely at the end of the day. Work-related death,
injury, illness, and disease are not, and should not be, an inevitable and
acceptable cost of doing business.
Workplace injuries and fatalities are preventable.
However the work-related deaths
are unfortunately an ever present component of professional risk.
Employers, workers, the relevant authorities and the
public in general, have to work harder to ensure the health and
safety of workers everywhere in the world.
The Technologies Research Centre, Ikerlan, is leading the Var Trainer European project, which consists of developing training simulators for handling machinery aimed at workers in the construction sector to avoid risks in the workplace. This initiative is promoted by associations of construction companies and manufacturers from six European countries.
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The Var Trainer project aims to respond to this demand, by designing
mechanisms which give appropriate training to workers without requiring the
direct use of the machine, but using simulation instruments instead.
The objective of Var Trainer is to create a simulation platform for the work to be carried out by a construction operator which gives appropriate training for personnel without needing to access the machines. This system will be valid for heavy machinery, such as back hoe loaders or dumpers, and also for lifting equipment and aerial work platforms. |
This initiative led by Ikerlan-IK4 has a duration of 36 months including the
participation of 123 entities related to construction. The Ikerlan
Technologies Research Centre is working alongside the National Construction
Confederation (CNC) from Spain and other business confederations from Italy,
Portugal, Slovakia and Poland; associations of machine manufacturers for
public works and construction ANMOPYC from Spain and VDMA from Germany; and
small and medium sized companies from the construction sector in Italy,
Portugal and Navarre. The total participants included in the project is
completed with a French company producing simulation and training equipment
and two research centres: Fraunhofer-IGD (Germany) and Ikerlan-IK4
For this purpose, the research team works on the design of the three
elements making up this system, such as a computer aided training programme,
a simulator which is accessed by computer and a simulation platform or cabin
where the worker carries out construction work as if they were working on
the same machine.
The first phase has consisted of identifying the risk situations associated
with working with the machines, both for drivers who drive and handle
machines in real working conditions and for worksite personnel who carry out
their activity within the machine's action radius. The project participants
are currently developing the different parts of the machine simulation
platform in order to integrate it, part way through 2006, in Ikerlan-IK4
The Var Trainer project will offer the construction sector a training
methodology which is unified throughout Europe in reference to safety when
using machinery, in addition to guaranteeing that operators will use
apparatus assigned to them to develop their activity correctly and without
incurring risks on their physical integrity.
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Construction is a high hazard occupation. In the
United States during the period from 1980 through 1995, at least
17,000 construction workers died from injuries suffered on the job.
Construction lost more workers to traumatic injury death than any other
major industrial sector during this time period.
Construction has the third highest rate of death by injury: 15.2 deaths per 100,000 workers. Only mining and agriculture experience higher rates. The leading causes of death among construction workers are falls from elevations, motor vehicle crashes, electrocution, machines, and struck by falling objects. |
Workers are killed or injured as result of hazardous contact with machinery and equipment.
According to NIOSH NTOF data from 1980 to 1998 occupational injury from machinery was ranked third after motor vehicle and homicide as cause of death. Fatalities from machine related incidents accounted for approximately 13% of the total. The industry divisions that ranked the highest in injury due to machinery were: Agriculture, Mining, Manufacturing and Construction. Some of the leading injuries experienced in these industries were struck by or against an object, caught in or compressed by equipment and caught in or crushed in collapsing materials.
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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 92,560 private-sector
lost-time injuries during the year 2002 were caused by machinery. The median
number of lost workdays resulting from these injuries was 7 with 24% of the
total incidents resulting in 31 or more lost-work days.
The type of machine (source) most often identified included metal, woodworking, and special materials machinery (19, 269 injuries); material handling machinery (16,183 injuries); special process machinery (15,576 injuries); heating, cooling and cleaning machinery (13,330 injuries); unspecified machinery (6,148 injuries) and construction, logging, and mining machinery (6,069 injuries). Machinery was identified as the primary source of fatal occupational injuries in 483 of 5915 total fatalities during 2002. |
The construction sector is strategically important for Europe providing building and infrastructure on which all sector of the economy depend.
Moreover, the relationship between construction activities, and the built environment on the one hand, and sustainable development on the other, is both significant and complex. Construction uses more raw materials than any other sector, and the creation and operation of the built environment accounts for an important consumption of natural resources. There is also a pressing need to address the regeneration of many urban areas of Europe, in particular in the newly acceded countries, and the realisation of major trans-European infrastructure works.
Construction is a dangerous industry, with
high rates of fatal and nonfatal injuries. A continuous
surveillance program combined with continuous research, are necessary in
order to learn more about the causes of nonfatal injuries affecting
construction workers and to identify injury trends for further
investigations and prevention programs.
Bibliography:
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