Box Hill Crane Accident: Analysis and Recommendations for Construction Site Safety

This report analyzes the Box Hill crane accident in the construction industry and provides recommendations for improving safety at construction sites. It highlights the challenges and threats in the industry and emphasizes the importance of following health and safety procedures. The report concludes with recommendations for the government and construction site workers to ensure compliance with occupational health and safety policies.

Running head: MANAGEMENT
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Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive Summary
The accidents and the hazards in the occupation causes some of the social and economic issues.
These includes the loss of life and the physical injuries. The construction sector involves high
risk due to the process of the production and the characteristics of the labor intensive factors. In
the developing countries like Australia, the construction site is one of the most essential sector
that have some of the greatest contribution towards economic development. There has been
various of the occupational hazards within construction site and the report highlights the context
of the Box Hill crane accident in the year 2018. It states the death of the worker due to the
sudden fatality in the construction crane. The report sheds light on the case, the analysis and the
recommendation for the construction site for avoiding hazards at the workplace followed by the
relevant literature review regarding health and safety procedures in the construction site. The
report concluded with some of the valuable recommendations for the government and the
construction site workers towards following the OHS policy.

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Introduction
Safety and health is one of the most essential factor not only for the terms of the human
but also regarding the view from the occupational point. According to Lin and Mills (2001) the
safety at the workplace helps in the reduction and avoidance of the injury, pain and the sufferings
of worker. The high rate of the interest together with the good images towards the safety of the
workers reduces the absence sand also increases the productivity of the workers. The safety and
the health at the workplace tends to reduce the cost related to the accidents and the ill health thus
making the business a place for success and profit. As per the research studies, investments and
the following of the standards of the safety and health leads towards a better performance of the
organization (Martínez-Aires, Rubio Gámez and Gibb 2016). The report highlights the context of
the health and safety standards at the construction area of Australia. The paper illustrates some of
the major challenges and the threats that appears in the construction area and what are the
required steps that needs to be taken for the improvement of the health and safety in the
workplace and the relevant systems that needs to be implemented. Highlighting the context of
the Australia and the case of the Box Hill crane accident in the year 2018, the report aims to shed
light on the case, the analysis and the recommendation for the construction site for avoiding
hazards at the workplace followed by the relevant literature review regarding health and safety
procedures in the construction site.
Case description
There has been numerous of the reports regarding the accidents and the fatal injuries at
the construction site throughout the world in the current time. Though most of the companies

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reported of following and adhering to the Occupational work and health safety policies, stull the
number of the fatal accidents and the injuries has not reduced in number (ABC News. 2018).
One such case is the Box Hill crane accident that put the safety at the worksite under the
spotlight.
According to the news, the worker who was being killed due to the workplace hazard in
the construction site at Thursday was a laborer by profession. The 48 year old as killed at the
Box Hill while more than a couple of tome of the concrete landed over him who used to work
directly for the builders of the construction site. As per the reports, the family and the mother of
the worker has been completely devastated and traumatized after losing him
(Constructionadvisor.com.au. 2018). The reports elaborated the incident where the cable over the
crane was carrying the bucket that was full of the concrete suddenly snapped and fell down
accidentally. The cable in the construction site that goes through the shelve is attached the hooks
takes up the loads up and down. The sudden cause of the malfunction resulted the cable to
accidentally snapped and cause the load to fall. The reports suggested that for several of the
frantic minutes, the other workers and the mates of the construction site tried to free the worker
desperately who was buried alive under the heavy steel bucket with furthermore contained more
than a couple of tones of the wet concrete. The other workers of the construction site of Box Hill
stood over the planks of the wood and used their shovels to help him to get out but the worker
reported dies before they can help him. Furthermore the operator of the hammerhead
construction crane who experienced those moments of earlier dropping of load due to
malfunction watched the entire accident and the hazard on horror. Another worker who was just
behind the deceased was able to get saved after he was being pulled from the pit from the
foundations of seen to be residential tower at Box Will shortly after 12.30pm (NewsComAu.

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2018). The worker who got saved was covered from head to toe in the concrete and had been
suffering from multiple of the critical injures at his chest, head and abdomen. He was admitted to
the hospital and had been fighting to his life at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (Driscoll et al.
2015). The third man who was also working with them was lucky enough to escape with some
minor injuries when the kibble accidently fell at the Watts Street and the Whitehorse Road with
the sound of a loud bang which was similar to a house being demolished. In short it has been
proved again in the Box Hill crane accident that in the construction industry and in the
construction site often people go not get to see second chances and this gets tragically proven
each and every time.
Literature review
This section of the report highlights the review regarding the literature of the construction
site hazards and the importance of the maintenance and the practice of the health and safety
regulations. According to Eaves, Gyi and Gibb (2016) the construction sector tops the rank in the
chart in the terms of the rate of the deaths and the fatal injuries within the developing countries.
It has been reported to be one of the most risky sectors while comparing with the other
employment sectors. It has been estimated that the workers or the employers of the construction
sector tends to face high risk of the death with 3 times more death chances and 5 time more
injury chances. As per the statistics of the Australian Social Security Association, the
construction sector in Australia is at the first place with more than 37.34% of the occupational
accidents in the sector. According to the research study by Sanchez, Pelaez and Alis (2017) some
of the most common category of the accidents in the construction sectors are the falling objects,
the slashing of objects, electrocution, falling from height, struck with heavy objects, collapsing

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of building and crane, machine accidents , organ trapping by heavy machinery parts and some of
the other deadly accidents in the construction site.
As per the research study by Demirkesen and Arditi (2015) the construction industry has
been one of the most significant industry n the terms of the contribution towards the gross
domestic product of the country. The industry being both economically and socially essential,
workers in the employment generally perform a wide variety of the diversity of the activities
with some of the associated risks and patterns. Workers are directly exposed to the associated
risk of the design building, materials and the chronic and fatal injuries that tend to occur at each
and every juncture of the entire process (Nadhim et al. 2016). As per the research findings of the
author, there are two of the major categories of the hazards that can happen in the construction
sites .These are namely the risk of the physical injury hazard and the risk of the ill health hazard.
The physical injury hazard includes the working equipment and the handling of the manual
works like the roof work, the excavation and the manual handling. As per the analysis of Tunji-
Olayeni, Afolabi and Okpalamoka (2018) hazard tend to have some of the high risk regarding the
physical injury which can furthermore cause some of the direct injury towards the worker at the
site. These in case of severe factors tends to cause deaths. Hazards that have some of the risk
towards the ill health can furthermore be notified for the longer period and causes sickness or
death after some of the period.
Case Analysis and recommendations
The issues related to the occupational health and safety in the construction industry has
become one of the essential factor in the recent years. As per the current study of Box Hill crane
accident, there needs to be a highlight over the accidents happening in the construction industry.

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The incident of the Box Hill crane accident thus needs to treat as the wakeup call else more
people will be dying in the construction industry (Wasilkiewicz, Albrechtsen and Antonsen
2016). The other workers of the industry who were present at that place that furthermore includes
the crane driver were incredibly traumatized due to the fatal injury and the tragic incident of the
48 year old worker. The accident has been the eye opener for the promoters and the construction
companies regarding the daily checks and the tight regulations. The fairly vigilant crane
companies have shaken up and this accident has led the government of the country to some of
the drastic steps towards the improvement of the rues and the regulation of the construction site
together with ensuring of the daily checks regarding the crane operators and the checking of the
hydraulics.
Some of the recommended steps that includes for the analysis of the case highlighted
above includes the practice and following of the occupational health and safe procedures
together with ensuring of the protection of the construction site workers. According to Niu et al.
(2019) in Australia has been heavily regulated with some of the several layers of the safety
protocols within the place as per the peak body. Furthermore it has been recommended for the
daily inspections by the operators of the cranes in the construction site who must be holding
valid risk work license and the maintenance personnel together with the independent
assessorship. This would be furthermore be followed by the rigging equipment and the
inspection of the regime in the daily basis.
Recommendation
No one should be going to work and die. For having safe sites in the projects in the
construction sites of Australia, it is important for the owners of the construction company, the

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contractors and the project managers to adhere by the WHS policy norms and the standards.
They should always emphasis on the development of the safety policies of the contractors, the
cost that is associated with the measures of the safety , the enforcement of the legal requirements
laid by the ministry of the labor safety inspectors and also the training of the staffs before the
field work employment (Schwatka, Hecker and Goldenhar 2016).
The construction industry in Australia uses the labor intensive construction method that
has relatively poor level of the safety and the health record due to the accidents and the high
level of the fatality (Chen, McCabe and Hyatt 2017). For the development of the safety rate in
the constructions sites that are co-related with some of the major possibility of the challenges and
the hazards, some of the possible methods or ways that are can be applied are improvement of
the maintain of the hazards, the proper use of the safe guards, safety campaign, develop of the
safety culture, the worker’s psychology and the creation of the safety environment in each and
every site.
The Ministry of labor in Australia should ensure that the sites of the building construction
needs to be regularly visited by the safety inspectors for ensuring the compliances with the
existing regulations and the laws (Zaira and Hadikusumo 2017). The national construction author
of Australia with the confirmation and the mandate of the registered constructors should include
the measures of the safety for recording the areas of danger that needs to be checked again and
ensure that the employees of the organization follows the safety rules. The workers and the
employees of the construction site furthermore needs training regarding the issues of the site
safety for enabling their own protection.

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Conclusions
Thus it can be conclude from the above discussion the construction sector tops the rank in
the chart in the terms of the rate of the deaths and the fatal injuries within the developing
countries. It has been reported to be one of the most risky sectors while comparing with the other
employment sectors. It has been estimated that the workers or the employers of the construction
sector tends to face high risk of the death with 3 times more death chances and 5 time more
injury chances. The paper illustrates some of the major challenges and the threats that appears in
the construction area and what are the required steps that needs to be taken for the improvement
of the health and safety in the workplace and the relevant systems that needs to be implemented.
It illustrate the context of the Australia and the case of the Box Hill crane accident in the year
2018. The report explains the analysis of the case that happened, the injury and the death of the
workers in the construction site. The report furthermore illustrates the recommended measures
that needs to be taken and highlight the factors that requires attention as recommendation so that
no people go to work and die.

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