A SURVEY OF CONSTRUCTION SITE SAFETY IN CHINA

Zeng, S.X. Aetna School of Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, P.R. China
Wang, H.C. Aetna School of Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University, P.R. China
Tam, C.M. Department of Building and Construction, City University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong

KEYWORDS

Construction, safety, site accident, China

Introduction

The issue of construction site safety has engaged both practitioners and researchers for a long time.
Some relevant research on this issue has been extensively reported. Hinze (1981) investigated the
relationship between the safety performance of individual workers and individual worker attitudes.
Hinze and Raboud (1988) explored several factors that apparently influencing the safety performance on
Canadian high-rise building projects. In some studies, the usefulness of behavioral techniques to
improve safety performance in the difficult construction setting was examined. The study by Mattila and
and Hyodynmaa (1988) revealed that when goals were posted and feedback was given, the safety index
was significantly higher than when no feedback was given. Fellner and Sulzer-Azaroff (1984) analysed
the industrial safety practices through posted feedback. In a study carried out on Honduras construction
sites, Jaselskis and Suazo (1994) demonstrated a substantial lack of awareness or importance for safety
at all levels of the construction industry. In addition, Laufer and Ledbetter (1986) assessed various safety
measures. Some researchers examined costs of construction accidents to employers (Leopold and
Leonard, 1987; Levitt and Samelson, 1993). With regards to construction site safety in Hong Kong,
Lingard and Rowlinson (1994) investigated the theoretical background to commitment at the group and
organizational level and presented a site-level research model which is illustrative of the possible effects.
A more recent study by Tam et al. (2001) explored the attitude change in people after the
implementation of the new safety management system in Hong Kong.

By international standards, the construction industry in China performs very badly in the area of safety.
In 1999, 923 site accidents above IV level occurred in countryside construction, in which 1,097
employees sustained fatal injuries and 299 serious injuries (China Statistical Yearbook of Construction,
2000). However, there is no research, to our knowledge, that tries to examine construction site safety in
the Chinese construction industry in international literatures. The study in this paper conducted a survey
to explore the factors affecting construction site safety. A description of the methodology, results and
analysis, and conclusion are provided in the sections that follow.

Methodology

A structured questionnaire was sent to senior management reprehensive of one hundred large
construction firms. Up to the time when the authors write this paper, twenty completed questionnaires
have been received.

All the twenty construction firms are state-owned. In China, large construction firms are state-owned
establishments under the traditional planned economy system. These firms employ a larger number of
staff. Moreover, the construction firms fall into two professional categories: housing building, and civil
& municipal engineering.

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Results and Analysis

Site accidents

There are two categories of site accidents including: more serious accidents and less serious
accidents. In more serious accidents, some labors sustain injuries or fatal injuries in the accidents. The
20 % of the respondents claimed that there were records of more serious accidents before. All the
respondents claim that less serious accidents occasionally occur.

Effects of site accidents

This survey lists four aspects of effects of accidents on construction sites including order of production
and operations, reputation of firms, psychology of labors, and others. Table 1 lists the respondents
views.

Effects of site accidents Number of firms Proportion (%)

Order of production and operations Reputation of 6 30

firms 14 70
Psychology of labors 0 0
Others 0 0
Total 20 100

Table 1 Effects of accidents on construction sites

In Table 1, 70 % of respondents choose the answer reputation of firms and 30% choose order of
production and operations. It indicates that the significant effect of site accidents is on reputation of
construction firms.

Causes of site accidents

There are some causes of accidents on construction sites including throwing from high-rise projects,
dropping from high-rise projects, improperly operating equipment, and others. Respondents were
asked to choose an answer, and the results are listed in Table 2.

Causes of site accidents Number of firms Proportion (%)

Throwing from high-rise projects 2 10
Dropping from high-rise projects 10 50
Improperly operating equipment 4 20
Collapse of scaffold and framework 4 20
Others 0 0
Total 20 100

Table 2 Causes of accidents on construction sites

In Table 2, 70% of respondents ranked dropping from high-rise projects the first cause of site
accidents. According to China Statistical Yearbook of Construction (2000), the accidents due to
dropping from high projects resulted in 207 (18.87%) employees death.

The OHSAS18000 system

The respondents were asked whether they would implement the OHSAS 18000 system for safety and
health. The 50% of the respondents are going to adopt the system, and the others are not to adopt it.

Factors resulting in site accidents

The respondents were asked to provide their opinions on the importance of the factors affecting
construction site safety by scores from 1 to 5, where 1 represents the least important and 5 the most
important.

To determine the relative ranking of the factors, the scores were then transformed to importance indices
based on the following formula.

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 Relative importance/difficulty index = w (1)
AN

where w is the weighting given to each factor by the respondents, ranging from 1 to 5, A is the highest
weight (i.e. 5 in the study) and N is the total number of samples. Based on equation (1), the relative
importance index (RII) can be calculated ranging from 0 to1. Table 3 shows the relative importance
index of each factor affecting construction site safety.

Ranking Factors affecting site safety Relative importance

index

1 Lack of attention from leaders 0.92

2 Reckless action 0.90
3 Poor safety conscientiousness of managers 0.88
4 Non-certified skill labor 0.87
5 Lack of emergency measure 0.87
6 Poor equipment 0.85
7 Lack of training 0.80
8 Poor equipment maintenance 0.80
9 Non-rigorous enforcement of safety regulations 0.76
10 Non-definite organization commitment 0.75
11 Lack of experience of managers 0.75
12 Non-effective operation on safety regulation 0.75
13 Poor of education of laborers 0.74
14 Poor safety conscientiousness of laborers 0.73
15 Not-strict operation procedures 0.70
16 Lack of technique guide 0.70
17 Lack of personal protective equipment 0.68
18 Non-perfect of safety and regulations 0.67
19 Overtime work for labor 0.65
20 Lack of protection in material carrying 0.65
21 Lack of protection in material storage 0.64
22 Lack of teamwork 0.63
23 Shortage of safety management 0.60
24 Poor information flow 0.60
25 Lack of innovation technology 0.55

Table 3 Relative importance index of each factor affecting construction site safety

In Table 3, the respondents rank the first and the third, with a relative importance index of 0.92 and
0.88. It indicates that leaders play a very important role in safety management in construction.

Reckless action is graded the second, with a relative importance index of 0.9. According to China
Statistical Yearbook of Construction, fatal employees were 46 (4.19%) resulted from reckless action in
1999.

Non-certified skill labors is graded the fourth, with a relative importance index of 0.87. In
construction, some activities are professional, such as tower crane and gantry operation, and framework
and scaffold erection etc. In 1999, the fatal employees were 102 (9.3%) and 46 (4.19%) resulted from
gantry and framework erection respectively.

Lack of emergency measure is ranked the fifth, with a relative importance index of 0.87. In general,
construction firms have no emergency measures in China. This is relative to the factor lack of attention
from leaders and poor safety conscientiousness of managers.

The respondents grade poor equipment and poor equipment maintenance is ranked the sixth and the
eight respectively, with a relative importance index of 0.85 and 0.80. In 1999, the fatal employees were
95 (8.66%) resulted from the problems of construction equipment.

Lack of training is ranked the seventh, with a relative importance index of 0.80. One of the
characteristics in China construction is that there are a large number of peasant-workers in the first line,

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who have low education level. The percentage of peasant-workers trained in the construction industry is
very low, that is, 3% of peasant-workers have been trained and gained professional certification; 7%
trained for short-term; and 90% non-trained (Zhang, 2001). Being lack of necessary training easily
results in site accidents.

The respondents rank non-rigorous enforcement of safety regulations the ninth, with a relative
importance index of 0.76.

The respondents grade non-definite organization commitment the tenth, with a relative importance
index of 0.75.

Conclusion

By international standards, the construction industry in China performs very badly in the area of safety.
All the construction firms have records of site accidents. The significant effect of site accidents is on
reputation of firms. The obvious cause of site accidents is dropping from high-rise projects. Although
there are factors resulting in construction site accidents, the main factors include lack of attention from
leaders, reckless action, poor safety conscientiousness of managers, non-certified skill labor and
lack of emergency measure.

References

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posted feedback. Journal of Safety Research, 15, 7-21.

Hinze, J. (1981) Human aspects of construction safety. Journal of the Construction Division, ASCE,
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Hinze, J and Raboud, P. (1988) Safety on large building construction projects. Journal of Construction
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Jaselskis, E.J. and Suazo, G.A.R. (1994) A survey of construction site safety in Honduras. C onstruction
Management and Economics, 12, 245-255.

Laufer, A. and Ledbetter, W.B. (1986) Assessment of safety performance measures at construction sites.
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Leopold, E. and Leonard, S. (1987) Cost of construction accidents to employers. Journalof

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Tam, C.M., I.W.H.Fung and A.P.C.Chan (2001) Study of attitude changes in people after the
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