Analyzing Property Damage Due to Construction Safety Incidents

This major research project analyzes property damage resulting from construction safety incidents, focusing on the Australian construction industry. The study investigates the causes of accidents, including hitting by moving objects, falling objects, and contact with electricity, using data from 2006-2016. The research utilizes SPSS software to analyze data from South Australia and Australian Capital Territory regions. The project explores the relationship between incidents, property damage, project costs, and safety indexes. It also reviews strategies for mitigating accidents and reducing property damage, emphasizing the importance of safety policies, training, and accident prevention methods to ensure a safe working environment. The findings highlight the impact of incidents on project timelines and financial stability, offering recommendations for improved safety management and incident prevention within construction firms.

Running head: Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Major Research Project: Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Acknowledgement
Conducting the research study enhances me to improve my knowledge as well as analytical
ability. It gave me the chance to face challenges all the while and conquer them. It will not be
possible to conduct the research without the significant direction of my professors, companions
and every one of who have added to this advancing knowledge. I will also want to thank my
supervisor ________________ for helping me in my research work as well as given me his full
support during the research process. I would also thank all the participants within this study for
giving their time and helping me out. From the support of people, I am inspired to work on the
research in this subject area. Finally, thank you to my family members those help me and
encourage me. I would like to thank Swinburne University of Technology to carry out my
research work.
Thank You.

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Abstract
As the growth of the construction industry in Australia is blossoming, it causes an increase into
competition of the projects to execute among the construction firms. Those are achieved at
expense of the workers for their safety. Identification of various causes of the incidents into the
construction sites and means to reduce of those incidents are being acknowledged. This
particular study acknowledges the main causes of the accidents and suggested ways to mitigate
the accidents into the construction sectors. The location of the project is South Australia and
Australian Capital Territory regions. SPSS software is used to analyze the obtained data. The
data are obtained from 10 years (2006-2016) of data on property damage. From the research, it is
seen that the main victim of the construction site incidents are construction workers. Loss of time
into the project execution is the major effects which caused by the accidents. In order to ensure
safety and reduction of occurrence of incidents, proper strategies are used to minimize the
incidents and reduce the property damage. The construction firm must undertake as well as
implement of safety policies, gears and provide training on the safety measures. Accident
prevention methods are used to ensure a safe working environment to the workers.
Keywords: Property damage, Construction site incidents, SPSS software, Accident prevention
methods

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................8
1.1 Research Background............................................................................................................8
1.1.1 Serious claims by mechanism of injury..........................................................................9
1.2 Research Aim and Objectives..............................................................................................10
1.3 Research Questions..............................................................................................................11
1.4 Research Scope....................................................................................................................11
1.5 Research Outline..................................................................................................................12
Chapter 2: Literature Review.........................................................................................................14
2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................14
2.2 Overview of construction industry of Australia and its hazardous incidents......................14
2.3 Major incidents happened on the construction site..............................................................17
2.4 Analyzing the major causes of construction safety incidents based on its occurrences......21
2.5 Strategies to reduce occurrence of major causes and property damage..............................23
2.6 Summary..............................................................................................................................27
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................28
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................28
3.2 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................28
3.3 Research Approach..............................................................................................................30
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................32

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
3.5 Data collection.....................................................................................................................34
3.5.1 Data sources..................................................................................................................36
3.5.2 Data techniques.............................................................................................................36
3.6 Sample.................................................................................................................................39
3.7 Gantt chart for the research study........................................................................................39
3.8 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................40
3.9 Summary..............................................................................................................................41
Chapter 4: Results and analysis.....................................................................................................42
4.1 Different mechanism of the property...................................................................................43
4.2 Different ownership of the plant..........................................................................................47
4.3 Mean estimated damage cost vs. Property Mechanism.......................................................49
4.4 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (being hit by falling objects)..................51
4.5 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (being hit by moving objects)................52
4.6 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (contact with electricity)........................53
4.7 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (contact with underground services).....54
4.8 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Explosion)............................................55
4.9 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Exposure with mechanical vibration)...56
4.10 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Flood damage (natural disaster))........57
4.11 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hitting of moving objects).................58
4.12 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hitting of stationery objects)..............59

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
4.13 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Loss)...................................................60
4.14 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Due to Roll over)................................61
4.15 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Due to slide or cave in)......................62
4.16 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Due to Theft)......................................63
4.17 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hit by Trailer accident)......................64
4.18 Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hit by Vehicle accident).....................65
4.19 ANOVA: Property mechanism and time bracket..............................................................66
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations..............................................................................71
5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................71
References......................................................................................................................................78

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Table of Figures
Figure 3.1: Types of research philosophy 29
Figure: 3.2: Types of research philosophy 31
Figure 3.3: Types of research design 32
Figure 4.1: Bar diagram of different mechanism of the property 45
Figure 4.2: Pie chart of different mechanism of the property 46
Figure 4.3: Pie chart of different ownership of the plant 48
Figure 4.4: Bar Diagram of Mean estimated damage cost vs. Property Mechanism 49
Figure 4.5: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism 51
Figure 4.6: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (being hit by
moving objects). 52
Figure 4.7: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (contact with
electricity). 54
Figure 4.8: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (contact with
underground services) 55
Figure 4.9: Bar Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Explosion) 55
Figure 4.10: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Exposure
with mechanical vibration) 57
Figure 4.11: Bar Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Flood damage
(natural disaster)) 58
Figure 4.12: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hitting of
moving objects) 58

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Figure 4.13: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hitting of
stationery objects) 59
Figure 4.14: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Loss) 60
Figure 4.15: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Due to Roll
over) 62
Figure 4.16: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Due to slide
or cave in) 63
Figure 4.17: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Due to
Theft). 63
Figure 4.18: Column Diagram of Event Time vs. Number of Property Mechanism (Hit by Trailer
accident). 64

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Research Background
The research paper is based on analyzing the property damage due to construction safety
incidents. Verma et al. (2014) stated that the construction industry is being carried out of
hazardous environments which experiences of accidents into various levels of severity that cause
of minor as well as major injuries those results into a fatality. Ericson (2015) demonstrated that
tighten safety standards enhanced by better performance into the construction sites. Into the
construction sites, accidents are caused and due to its property is also damaged, therefore there is
a requirement of further research on this particular important subject. A lot of damages into the
property and taking of life into the construction industries are increasing due to an increase in
expenditure of the construction industry (Brauer 2016). Development of the project infrastructure
is a basic requirement of the world; therefore construction leads to unfortunate incidents. From
the point of view of the construction industry, accidents are unforeseen events in addition to
unintended cost. Therefore, accidents are such events those cause damage to the property.
Hughes et al. (2015) argued that within the construction sector, the accidents are unavoidable
which has a higher risk as compared to further occupants. The Higher rate of fatality into the
construction works is reported which causes industrial crisis because of accidents.
Ayyub (2014) mentioned that accidents are mitigated by the establishment of proper
safety management system (SMS) into the construction industry. The authorities are tightened
the safety standards in order to mitigate the accidents, but the problem is that it is still happening
which caused of property problems (Girgin and Krausmann 2016). Forecasting accidents into the
future construction project become advantageous into the required allocation of budget in order

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
to reduce the property damage into organizational financial stability. The description of each
accident was being reviewed in order to determine the working zone related factors which are
contributed to the construction safety incidents. Choudhry et al. (2014) highlighted that a
professional incident is investigated focused on the causes of the incidents. It enhances safety as
well as reduces the price. The employees complain that the compensation of workers is dived out
the business, but the research study shows that property damage, as well as downtime, is resulted
into accidents cost (Shen and Marks 2015). The key objectives of the management team are to
make sure that the accidents include of property damage incidents are being investigated. The
more construction safety incidents are reported; more issues are investigated and mitigated.
The construction organization can reduce people loss, property damage and
environmental damage. As per the accidental pyramid theory which was developed by Bird in
the year, 1969 showed that for each of the accidents there are less than ten serious accidents, 30
of the accidents due to property damage as well as 600 accidents with no visible damage (Gibb et
al. 2014). It is required to find out the cause as well solution for the property damage by
analyzing the past data as well as a pattern of the damaged caused. It analyzes to find out peak
time as well as the situation at which probability of the incidents is increased. In order to prevent
the incidents, it is required to decrease damage which affects the entire cost of the construction.
1.1.1 Serious claims by mechanism of injury
Over the last ten years, hitting by moving objects, hitting by stationary objects and hitting
by vehicle accident was the common cost mechanism of injury. It ends up incurring more cost
since there are huge into a number (Hughes et al. 2015). The hitting by moving objects as well as
falling objects is accounted for 44 percent and 29 percent respectively. Almost half of the serious
claims are caused by hitting by moving objects. During the last ten years in Australia, 27 percent

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
of fatal as well as 10 percent of the major injuries were related to the construction site (Girgin
and Krausmann 2016). As per the South Australian construction organization, experienced
workers have higher probable to cause of accidents, while the workers are employed by a smaller
organization is insecure. The accidents are also caused due to geographical location. The location
selected for this study in South Australia and Australian Capital Territory regions (Zhang et al.
2013). Major locations are taken for New South Wales, Queensland as well as Victoria. There
are significant reductions in the number as well as a rate of the injuries into the construction
industry over the last ten years.
1.2 Research Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research study is to get an understanding of the potential property damage
which is caused by the construction incidents. It also aims to provide relevant strategies for
effective management of the research study. Construction of the infrastructure is common
practice across the world; therefore various incidents are taking place in the construction sites
which lead to an increase in construction cost. The construction safety incidents are hitting of
moving objects, hit by falling objects, and contact with the electricity, explosion, flood damage,
slide, theft, exposure to the mechanical vibration and vehicle accidents. The main aim of this
research study is to investigate the construction sites accidents to analyze the critical causes as
well as effects. It establishes a relationship of the accidents with further project cost, time and
scope with influence on the national safety indexes. In order to attain the research aim, following
research objectives are required to achieve:
 To do content analysis of the data set of the property damage incidents case based on cost
estimation, property mechanize, property agency and type of equipment

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Analyzing the property damage due to construction safety incidents
 To develop of framework for summarizing damage by the identified attributes
 To develop strategies for efficient management besides the damage caused due to
property damage incidents on the construction site
1.3 Research Questions
This particular research study explores of following research questions such as:
1. What is the most common construction safety incidents happened into the construction
site leads to property damage?
2. What are the causes of the construction incidents?
3. What are the strategies used to decrease the occurrence of the major causes and decrease
of property damage?
1.4 Research Scope
In the current situation, Australia is facing a severe increase of construction cost due to
damage into the property incidents which are taken place into the construction site. In order to
decrease cost as well as damage to the construction infrastructure, various types of analysis are to
be carried out in this particular research. It finds out a pattern as well as a correlation between
estimated costs, property agency and mechanizes equipment types and others (Choudhry et al.
2014). In order to encounter the cost, there is a need to develop the strategies for the
management which are being obtained by analysis done for the data and findings of co-relation.
It also analyzes the damage as well as period and situation which are happened in the research
study.