March 9, 2017
Every year, hundreds of construction workers are involved in fatal safety-related accidents. Until that figure is decreased dramatically, the importance of incident investigations can never be underestimated.
Some Sobering Facts About Construction Fatalities
The BLS reports that in 2015, 937 construction workers were involved in fatalities. Sadly, this represents an increase over the previous year and the highest number since 2008.
An overwhelmingly large proportion of fatalities in construction for 2015 occurred as the result of a fall to a lower level (40%). Now consider this: for the same year, fatal injuries in the oil and gas extraction industries fell. And they fell by a lot: 38 percent lower than in 2014.
For EHS professionals, especially those who work in the construction industry, that’s particularly grim news. One of the top reasons for conducting incident investigations is to prevent statistics like these. To learn more about using investigation methodologies to uncover root causes, download our latest eBook.
What EHS Professionals Can Do
Construction safety professionals: it’s time to renew your focus on best practices and ramp up the quality of your incident investigations. What is your company’s protocol for maintaining safety and reporting incidents? What EHS tools are you using?
Judging by the BLS stats, one thing is clear: concentrating safety efforts on circumstances where falls are likely to happen is one way to approach safety for the coming year.
But stats are stats and give only a representation of the industry as a whole. If you want to improve safety numbers at your organization, it’s best to be working with precise data that gives insight into your very own workers and work conditions.
If you’re not using the right software—one that allows you easily collect data, among other things—you aren’t utilizing the best of what modern technology has to offer for the safety of your workers.
Improve your insights and learn from your incident investigations with safety software that’s customized for the construction industry.
Ready to change those BLS stats for the better? Visit Building Materials & Construction EHS Software to learn more.
