Legislative Interventions And Cost Of Treatment In Construction Accidents

Costs of Accidents

Discuss about the Legislative Interventions and Cost of Treatment.

The main purpose of this report is to identify and analyse the costs incurred due to construction accidents, the current safety practices and the most suitable strategies to be adopted in order to make sure any accidents are avoided and if any the right measures are taken as fast as possible to avoid further damages in terms of the victims health and the organisations reputation as a whole. Good safety programs are vital not only to help reduce injuries and saving workers lives at the construction site but also in reducing costs incurred, increasing profit margins and productivity (World Health Organization. (2015). Amadon Bakri 2006 recommended that it’s important that construction industry improved its image by adopting new and efficient ways of avoiding and handling hazards at construction sites.

The case under scope involved a structural failure of formwork failure that led to the injury of two individuals (manual workers) one severely injured and the other escaped with minor injuries mostly bruises.it occurred during the placement of concrete to a section of third floor suspended slab. Multi-storey in-situ concrete structures basically rely on wet concrete that is placed by temporary supporting it using formwork and back props to help keep it in position until the required time when it dries and gains its own strength to be able to stay in place. These props are used to help distribute the loads to the floors beneath. The formwork was not effective as it collapsed owing to the weight of the wet concrete.

The suspended first and second-floor slabs had been designed to as post-tension banded slabs, and both had been stressed and fully grouted. The first and second floor had a joint construction detailing at about two thirds span just before grid G. the sector of slab between grid g ad grid h had been finished up to the building joint only and had to stay in that particular state until the neighbouring slab north of the construction joint were made Owing to its inability to be a cantilever, these slabs had to depend on back propping and formwork for support.

However, it did not work as planned as the formwork collapsed during the placement of concrete owing to the weight of the concrete. The sequence was as follows: the first floor to second floor back props started failing with time as the concrete was being placed because they became overloaded. This also produced visible deflections on the second-floor slab.

Direct and Indirect Costs of Construction Accidents

This, in turn, leads to the third-floor slab weight to be exerted solely on the second-floor slab which had no support since the back props of the first floor had failed. The load proved to be too much for the second-floor slab which resulted to the failure of the second-floor slab along the entire edge of the band beam adjacent to grid h. the second-floor slab collapsed as a result. With zero support from second floor slab through back props the third floor slab I progress also collapsed resulting in injury of two workers and a lot of damages.one of the victims sustained minor injuries and healed in a matter of days and was able to work again while the other one got severely injured on the leg which left him unable to walk again .Those injured were rushed to the hospital since there was no assigned health team at the site the construction was paused for a while to solve the issues that came up as a result.

Generally, the construction sector is among the most unsafe industries due to the nature of environment construction sites offer that is not remotely safe for those involved especially manual workers (Dwyer, T., 2013). For instance, during the period between 2007 and 2008 14,500 cases of compensation claims related to the construction industry were handled. It's, however, true to say the cases have dropped from 3.1%  in the year 2000 to 2001  to 2.2% in the years 2006 to 2007 even though it still higher than the average rate of Australia generally which is a mere 1.4%.

Accidents that occur in construction sites have proven to be very expensive (Zhang,.2013). In Australia, researchers have proven beyond reasonable doubt that construction work related injury account for the 3rd highest percentage of the costs incurred due to work-related injuries  the highest being manufacturing followed by health community services. Recurrences of these accidents have led to the industries movement of safety practices. (Zhang,.2013).

An in-depth analysis of the involved costs of construction accidents can assist stakeholders and workers understand the importance of safety practices from an economic perspective 

The very first  study of construction accidents was done by Heinrich in 1959.He stated that there are two types of construction accident costs ; direct and indirect and proceeded to conclude that indirect costs were far much greater (much as 4 times)than the direct costs. ASCC (2009)

Severity Level of Accidents

Direct costs can be defined as the directly measured in monetary terms while indirect costs are those that are quantifiable by either labour time or existing quality and afterward converted to their monetary equivalent (Drury, C.,2013).

Direct costs are those that involve compensations of the victims in monetary or others terms as agreed by the employers ASCC (2009). Indirect costs, on the other hand, include lost potential output, productivity, current and future earnings and the costs of providing incapacitated workers social welfare programs. Direct and indirect costs are again categorised into other sub-categories as shown in the diagram below

This classification is used in various countries to analyse the cost of construction hazards.

According to (NOHSC 2004inorder to accurately calculate the costs of construction accidents there should be identification and definition of the various classifications of the economic costs affecting the main economic representatives. Depending on the severity of the accident a scale for measuring the degree of impact has been created. It’s been then used to calculate the costs in order to determine the level of direct and indirect costs that resulted from the accident under the scope. The table below shows the scale and the terms under the severity of the accident is viewed.

The method for calculating the overall costs incurred is outlined in the following six steps.

1. Classify the main groups of economic costs borne by economic agents. (Employers, employees and the public)
2. Identify the most suitable way of measurement for the identified cost items.
3. Differentiate the degree of severity of each case by allocating different cost structures in terms of the amount for each case.
4. Allocate the costs according to the degree of severity.
5. Identify the number of accidents falling to each group and the amount of time lost due to the particular incident.
6. Then determine the average cost of a particular accident by summing up the allocated cost of each cost item.

Being able to determine the number of costs endured by workers managers and the public is of the essence as it allows a comprehensive understanding of the reasons to offer a particularly safe working environment for all individuals involved.

The following the classification of costs involved in construction accidents,

Production disturbance costs (PDC) – these are costs involved during the period (usually short) which the involved organisation works to return to the initial position before the incident.

• Human Capital Costs (HCC) – they are long-term costs incurred due to loss of production potential that results from restoration of the production levels as they were before the incident(Sun Zou.,2010).
• Medical Costs (MEDC) – these are the costs that result from the victims and community through medical treatment from work-related injuries.
• Administrative Costs (ADMINC) – costs incurred when compensating the injured or incapacitated workers, investigating the occurrences and the legal costs.
• Transfer costs (TRANC) – costs incurred due to administration taxation and welfare payments for the injured workers.
• Other Costs (OTC) –these are costs that haven’t been classified in the other areas above which may include the cost for caretakers and support and variations.

The average cost of a construction accident can be simply calculated by using the average cost associated with each item and then accumulated over each cost item to come up with an overall estimate. The table below shows the calculated items that encompass the total cost. the estimate for the major cost groups that have been identified so far depending on the severity of the case.

By investing in safety measures and practices, construction industry organizations could convert those otherwise high-cost losses resulting from accidents to savings instead. As such construction organisations should ensure both physical and cultural inputs into safety management so as to cut those unnecessary costs incurred due to accidents.

Calculation of Costs Incurred

The case under scope involves a construction accident that led to injury of two of the manual workers.one of the victims got severely injured on the leg that left him permanently unable to walk ever and therefore would not return to work as before in terms of the type of job and probably his future income if at all he gets employed again. The other one sustained minor injuries that healed in a matter of days and was well again.

In these cases there both direct and indirect costs incurred and are both of high expense. The direct costs incurred include the payment of the victim's treatment expenses for both of them and the compensation for the injuries sustained with more expenses on the one that got severely injured because of the extent of the severity of his injury(Veblen, 2017).

Indirect costs can also be clearly seen in this case as the victim with the severe injuries lost productivity and past and future earnings. If he had continued working he would have been able to earn income which he is no in a position to currently. Due to his injury, he may never be able to work again and if h does he will most probably earn less than what he used to. Therefore he was compensated for his current imposed situation, and that forms part of indirect costs.

Indirect costs were also incurred by disruption of schedule as the construction activity had to be paused in order to handle the emergency, loss of time as there had to be investigations and reports concerning the incident, clean up and repair to the pre-incident status which not only involves time but labour and finance too and equipment damage (Douglas, M., 2013).

Indirect expenses were also incurred during replacement of damaged construction materials which are in any case very expensive. The employer also had to pay workers to redo the work that had already been paid before the structure collapsed.

As much as workers are majorly the leading causes of the accident in construction sites, this case is however different from the mistake here should be placed on the contractors. The contractors should have ensured that the particular structure formwork and back prop design drawing were done to suit the project. This should have been done by having the formwork design engineer carefully studying them and raise awareness of any problem which may result from defective design.

Importance of Offering Safe Working Environments

The construction activities should also adhere to the project schedule step by step with close supervision by the respective individuals depending on the current activity (Rummler. P., 2012)

The principal contractor is responsible for involving the needed professionals for each and every activity in the construction from the architect to the various engineers.

Also, it’s very important for the manual workers to report any unsafe condition which may arise at any given moment in order for the management team to take the right measures.

The construction management teamshould, however, be able to determine unsafe condition before the construction especially the ones that are as a result of the involved professionals such as an error in the design drawings. Generally speaking, all construction industry organisations should adopt effectively and up to date safety management practices in order to not only improve their competence in the field but also safeguard the worker's wellbeing and the community as a whole(Perrow,2011).

Conclusion

Considering the implications that result from construct accidents a good example being the one mentioned in the above case, it's important for all construction organisations to adopt the best practices to ensure safety in such places. This includes but not limited to deploying the right professionals in order to ensure the right procedures and resources are used, training the workers, close supervision by the respective professionals, having a medical emergency team close by.by doing this, it would ensure that cases like the ones above are avoided completely or at least reduced. Such cases become a liability to the employer as some of the victims cannot live comfortably without receiving huge amounts of compensation. From the report its clear that indirect costs incurred in construction accidents are way greater than the direct costs. This study has proved that comprehensive study of the costs of construction accidents is necessary for any organization to fully comprehend the far-reaching implications of construction accidents on both the individual and the employer organization. The victim may become incapacitated to provide for their family while the organization's reputation is tarnished. For this particular case, the organization needs to ensure the professionals employed have the right qualification and attend to their job to the best of their knowledge (Reason, 2016).

References

Douglas, M. (2013). Risk and blame. Routledge

Drury, C. M. (2013). Management and cost accounting. Springer.

Dwyer, T. (2013). Life and death at work: industrial accidents as a case of socially produced error. Springer Science & Business Media.

Guthrie, R., Ciccarelli, M., & Babic, A. (2010). Work-related stress in Australia: The effects of legislative interventions and the cost of treatment. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 33(2), 101-115

Perrow, C. (2011). Normal accidents: Living with high-risk technologies. Princeton university press

The reason, J. (2016). Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Routledge.

Rummler Brache. (2012). improving performance: How to manage the white space on the organization chart. John Wiley & Sons.

Sun Zou., 2010. Understanding the True Costs of Construction Accidents in Australian Construction Industry. In W099-Special Track 18th CIB World Building Congress May 2010 Salford, United Kingdom (p. 184).

World Health Organization. (2015). Global status report on road safety 2015. World Health Organization.

Zhang, S., Teizer, J., Lee, J. K., Eastman, C. M., & Venugopal, M. (2013). Building information modeling (BIM) and safety: Automatic safety checking of construction models and schedules. Automation in Construction, 29, 183-195.