Construction sites have always been dangerous, regardless of the numerous safety precautions that have been invented. This is why construction companies are strictly ordered to constantly upgrade the safety mechanisms on their sites to ensure that the frequency of accidents is lowered with time.
However, since the frequency hasn’t seen any significant drop even after the introduction of a variety of safety measures, businesses need to understand the severity of the matter to ensure they take the required safety measures. So, with the hope that this guide will prove beneficial, let’s dive deep into why safety is important and how you can enforce it on your construction site.
Types of Construction Site Accidents
Construction site accidents are fairly common across the world. Here are some of the most common causes of construction site accidents that can be avoided by little adjustments in the safety protocols.
Caught-Between Equipment
Construction sites comprise heavy machinery and equipment which can be difficult to maneuver by an average worker. In most cases, a portion of a body or the entire body gets caught by a piece of equipment, which can result in severe injury.
Fire, Gas Leaks, and Explosion
Fire injuries are extremely common in construction environments. This is why many companies often focus on protective measures that can reduce the effects of fire or explosion damage.
Repetitive Stress Injuries
Construction sites have many repetitive jobs that can inflict repetitive stress injuries in the back, wrists, ankles, and joints in your body.
Importance of Safety in Construction Industry
Safety is a basic human necessity. In this day and age, it shouldn’t be a luxury for construction workers, considering the multitude of advancements in the construction sector. Let’s take a look at what happens if construction sites are equipped with the recommended safety measures.
Compliance is Mandatory
Many construction sites often ignore the compliance requirements for certification of their site being safe. Irrespective of the occurrence of accidents, compliance is mandatory for construction companies. The importance of compliance is acknowledged by implementing the recommended safety precautions.
Frequency of Work-Related Accidents Decreases
The introduction of safety measures results in a drop in work-related accidents. Even in a city like New York, construction companies that incorporate the required safety measures considerably decrease their accident rates.
New York City is famous for a lot of things. However, somehow the unusually high frequency of work-related construction accidents goes unnoticed. The construction industry is guilty of managing many personal injury cases that ought to be handled with care. For this reason, if you are ever in need of a construction accident lawyer in New York, you should make sure that you conduct proper research before trusting someone blindly. Since the frequency of accidents is extremely high in NYC, you should be able to land a suitable law firm without the fear of any scams. However, it wouldn’t hurt to take precautions.
Reduction in Time & Money
Other than the advantage of low injury count, working in a safe environment also has a direct impact on both time and money for both employer and employees. Since a construction site is dependent on its workers, downtime for any worker results in a delay in the performance of the designated tasks. For this reason, it is only practical to implement the designated safety measures to reduce time and money for both parties.
How to Ensure Safety in Construction Sites?
Now that we know that safety precautions are necessary for a construction site, let’s go through some ways that can be adopted to ensure safety.
Keep the Construction Site Tidy
Your construction site needs to be tidy to ensure that no slips or trips can take place due to scattered equipment.
Never Put Yourself or Others at Risk
Always try to avoid taking any kind of risk that involves both you or any other person. Since the stakes are so high on a builder’s site, you should always think and act safely on site.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is Essential
Safety can be ensured by adhering to the rule of being in your personal protective equipment (PPE) suit at all times to prevent potential injury to your head and other parts of the body.
Access to a safe working environment is a basic right for every construction work around the world. For this reason, construction companies are obliged to follow the required safety protocols and ensure that their construction sites are free from hazardous areas and equipment. However, these measures can only be deployed if the construction company considers safety a priority. This is why if you are a construction company owner, you need to fully understand the importance of safety in a construction environment to implement the required safety measures.
