The drivers of rising accidents at construction sites in Uganda

Abstract

Recently, the issue of safety performance has been focused on construction projects in both developed and developing countries (Charehzehi and Ahankoob, 2012). As a matter of fact, the construction industry contributes in a significant proportion to economic and social development. However, it is also considered to be the most hazardous industry in terms of personal safety and health. Many factors are involved in the accident occurrence at construction sites. As the growth of construction industry blossoms in Uganda, this also causes an increase in competition of projects to execute between construction firms which are however achieved at the expense of the workers welfare and their safety. Therefore investigating the drivers and causes of accidents on construction sites and proposing ways and means of reducing these accidents should be acknowledged. This study examined the major drivers of accidents at construction sites in Uganda and suggests ways of mitigating these accidents on construction sites. A structured questionnaire was administered and descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, Relative Importance Index (RII) and Ranking were used for the analysis. The results revealed that worker characteristics and management were the main drivers of accidents on construction sites, and labourers were also the major victims of these site accidents, loss of time in project execution was the major effect caused by these accidents in project execution. To ensure safety and to reduce the occurrence of construction site accidents to the minimum, management of construction firms must undertake and implement recommendations of this study such as implementation of safety policy, use of safety items and gears, training on safety measures and accident prevention methods, ensuring safe working environment and enforcing safety rules.