Page 20 - Procanvass

SAFETY CULTURE IN PROJECTS

“I find that in common, routine nonconformity, mistake, misconduct, and disaster are
systematically produced by the interconnection between environment, organizations,
cognition, and choice”
-Diane Vaughan

“S
afety is not a Management, It is a culture.” It should be top driven, driven down to the juniors. Aim of
safety and therefore the culture which grooms safety is to prevent incidents/accidents before they
happen. This requires awareness of Dos and Don’ts at all level. These dos and don’ts have to be
unambiguous and have to be imbibed through appreciate polices. This can’t be enforced. This should be the core
job of the leadership at all level i.e. PMOs/Sites etc.

Recently inaugurated (June 2016) World’s longest and  Falls – 39.9%
deepest GOTTHARD BASE TUNNEL in Switzerland,  Electrocution – 8.2 %
(delivered on budgeted time and money) have been  Struck by object – 8.1 %
reported with 9 labours dead during construction. It  Caught-In/between* – 4.3 %
was one amongst the longest running projects, which  Others – 39.4
almost took 17 years for completion. UNITED STATES (*This category includes construction workers killed
DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR reported with 4821 when caught-in or compressed by equipment or
workers killed in 2015(3.4 per 100,000 full-time objects, and struck, caught, or crushed in collapsing
equivalent workers) — on average, more than 92 a week structure, equipment, or material)
or more than 13 deaths every day. Out of this, 20.5%
If you find these number quite high then you are in a
were in construction-that is, one in five worker deaths
big trouble. Comparing these numbers with casualties
last year were in construction. The leading causes of
private sector worker deaths (excluding highway in INDIA will make you stunned. The deaths at a
collisions) in the construction industry were falls, construction site in the year 2014 in India was reported
followed by electrocution, struck by object, and caught- approx. 37,514. This is really a huge count. Since the
construction sector is the most vulnerable segments of
in/between equipment or machines. These "Fatal Four"
were responsible for more than half (60.6%) the the unorganised labour in India, safety culture is matter
construction worker deaths. of concern. It is estimated that about 165 per 1000
workers get injured in the construction sector.

18