Construction accidents causation: an exploratory analysis

Abstract

The construction sector has poor health and safety performance in most countries. Accidents occur in almost all construction related activities. These accidents are multicausal in nature with combinations of factors needing to coincide to give rise to an incident. This study is premised on the principle that all accidents are preventable and reviews several of the existing causation theories. A sample of accidents drawn from the records of a multi-national/parastatal organisation was examined to determine their recorded causes. These were compared against the theories reviewed. The findings suggest that the true cause of the accidents are incorrectly recorded, requiring a possible revision of the instrument used for investigation and recordkeeping.