Preventing Electrical Accidents at Construction Sites

Running head: Safety and Risk Management 1
Safety and Risk Management
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Safety and Risk Management 2
Introduction
The construction industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the whole world. It is
very crucial to the economic development of most countries. Gibb et al. point out that most of
the companies that deal with construction are located in the urban areas where most of the
construction takes place (Gibb et. al., 2010). Such construction includes real estates, bridges, and
roads. Apart from construction, the companies are involved in making alterations to existing
buildings, roads or even replacing them. The industry involves heavy engineering and poses
agreat risk to workers involved in the construction work.Canberra Industriesis a construction
company that has a work site at Turner (Bryne, 2015). It had hired a driver to transport and
unload gravel at the site when the driver was electrocuted by the low-slung power line and died.
The company was prosecuted for failing to provide a safe environment. This essay, therefore,
describes the company’s workplace, the hazards presented by the company to its workers and
how the company breached the safety rules.
Description of the Workplace
Canberra Industries does not provide a safe working environment due to unqualified
staff. There arevarious working strategies have been developed in various countries which are
referred to as directives.Gibb et al. assert that thesedirectives explain the responsibilities of the
employers, for example, risk assessment, theestablishment of prevention and protection services
among others (Gibb et. al., 2010). On the other hand, these directives stipulate the duties of the
workers, for instance, execution of the instructions and proper use of machinery and equipment.It
is the duty of the safety officer to ensure that these directives among other safety measures are
strictly adhered to (Fang & Wu, 2013). However, a safety officer must be qualified and should
displayprofessionalism in his job. Kenoss Industry displayed poor business culture since they

Safety and Risk Management 3
hired the general manager’s son who was not qualified for the job (Kazlauskaitė, 2016).
Therefore, the death of Michael Booth can be blamed on the company’s mistake, hiring
unqualified personnel. A qualified electrician could have pointed out the risk of electrocution on
the jobsite.
Kenoss’ work site is not a conducive environment. The power lines were hanging low to
the point that they came into contact with the tip of the lorry. A research conducted by Zhao et
al.shows that hundreds of construction workers are injured or murdered by overhead power lines
(Zhao et. al., 2009). The researchers argue that the construction businesses account for 39
percent of every job-related electrocution fatalities. In addition to that, theconstructionindustry is
ranked second highest cause of fatalities among all the occupations. Zhao et al. point out that, the
‘Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)’ demands that every individual
working with or around electricity should be trained. Additionally, OSHA has requirements
which clarify that all construction workers are supposed to be trained. The purpose of the
training is to ensure that the employees are aware of the dangers and carry out their duties
properly on the worksite (Ousa et. al, 2014). Therefore, KenossCompany should have trained its
employees and also should have put warning tags to the visitors who visited the company
Hazards in the Company
A hazard is an agent which can cause damage or harm to humans. In this case, the hazard
was electricity.Prattargues that when an individual is working in an area with electric circuits or
power tools, one can be exposed to hazards such as electrical shock (Pratt, 2014).). He points out
that construction workers are usually exposed to more hazards due to the fact that their worksites
are cluttered with electric wires. On the work site of the Canberra Industries,Kenoss contractors
had hanging power lines which killed the truck driver by electrocution. To make the matter