Researchers used a risk assessment framework to examine patterns of construction accidents in a report published April 18. “Unraveling the evolutionary patterns of construction accidents: a risk assessment framework based on average mutual information theory” appeared in Scientific Reports, a Nature Portfolio journal.
The researchers found that fatal psychological and physiological factors in construction accidents often included “illegal operations,” “illegal commands,” and “command errors.” The top management factors in construction accidents were “inadequate occupational safety and health management structure and staffing,” an “incomplete or unimplemented system of accident and hazard investigation and management,” and an “inadequate or unimplemented occupational health management system.”
The report’s authors recommended that construction employers properly delegate safety responsibilities, educate employees on safety procedures, and develop emergency plans.
Detailed recommendations included the following:
- Improving safety and health management by allocating safety management personnel, standardizing safety managers’ responsibilities, providing employees with hazard controls and suitable personal protective equipment (PPE), and actively improving working conditions;
- Strengthening safety and health management through regular safety inspections to uncover potential safety and health hazards and informing relevant departments of any inspection findings; and
- Regularly revising the company’s occupational safety and health management system.
May 5–9 is National Construction Safety Week, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and its partners are sponsoring the 12th annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction that week. Recommended “stand-down” activities include fall safety toolbox talks, safety equipment inspections, and rescue-planning exercises.
Judge vacates OSHA citation of DISH Network
On March 18, an administrative law judge (ALJ) with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated OSHA’s citation of DISH Network LLC for an allegedly willful fall protection violation. The ALJ’s order became a final review commission order on April 17.
On September 7, 2022, two OSHA compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs) having lunch across the street from a Sonic restaurant in Syracuse, New York, noticed an individual on Sonic’s roof who didn’t appear to be using fall protection. One of the CSHOs took photographs.
The CSHOs returned to the area office when they couldn’t reach the assistant area office director and obtained permission to open an inspection.
DISH Network employs about 3,200 field technicians nationwide, with 23 who were employed at its Syracuse office at the time of OSHA’s inspection—a fact cited in the ALJ’s decision.
The assistant area office director authorized an inspection and assigned one of the CSHOs to return to the worksite.
OSHA’s case relied on the photographs, but review commission precedent doesn’t accept photographs alone as evidence of a violation and the CSHO didn’t climb a ladder to see where the restraint rope of the fall protection system was anchored.
The ALJ also concluded that DISH Network required its employees to use fall protection, provided fall protection equipment, and trained its employees in the use of fall protection equipment. The employer even had a no-tolerance policy for violations of its fall protection work policies. The company had previously terminated employees for breach of company safety policies. The ALJ decided that OSHA failed to establish its case and vacated the agency’s citation.