This explored the links between safety management system factors and accident precursors, via structural equation modelling.
Providing background:
· The factors affecting SMS performance were referred to as SMS factors, and undesirable events or factors that precede and indicate the approach of an accident are referred to as accident precursors
· Expanding on the definition, accidents precursors are “conditions, events, or sequences that precede an accident (Phimister et al. 2004; Saleh et al. 2013); more narrowly, they are undesired events immediately preceding and leading to an accident”
· This definition was used to distinguish accident precursors from other undesired events or factors like the poor implementation of a safety process
· Traditionally they say safety performance is measured by the frequency and severity of injuries, like TRIFR
· These types of indicators provide “historical information—that is, “after-the-fact” data about incidents (p. 24, Hinze et al. 2013b)—they are often referred to as “lagging indicators.”
· Lagging indicators are said to be less useful for proactively mitigating safety risks, and provide less insights signalling when an SMS is underperforming
· Various precursors have been identified, depending on industry. For instance, some include lack of protection, working without sufficient operational fall protection, and working on a scaffold without adequate guard railings as precursors for falls from scaffold
· Some data has grouped precursors into five categories – worker-related precursors (hazard ID and fatigue etc.), work team-related, workplace-related, site organisation factors; which is the groupings this study used
Results
Overall, they found:
· The occurrence of accident precursors can be largely attributed to adverse project conditions, including project schedule pressure, reworks and change orders
· Precursors related to worker-related factors (like fatigue, stress or behavioural) were mainly affected by the adverse project factors as above, e.g. tight schedules
· “SMS factors thought to be directly related to worker behavior improvement (worker engagement programs, behavior-based safety programs, and training programs) may have a limited impact on those worker-related incidents”
Precursors related to team-related factors, including miscommunication, misunderstanding safety requirements etc., followed a similar pattern as with individual factors.
That is, team performance precursors were “strongly influenced by adverse project conditions, whereas only a marginally significant influence was observed between behavior-focus safety programs and teamwork-related accident precursors”.
Further, adverse project conditions can create production pressure, and resultingly the pressure will increase the chance of miscommunication and the like. Hence, change management, minimising reworks and developing reasonable timeframes for the project to address accident precursors are important.
Accident precursors related to workplace-related factors (e.g. poor housekeeping, inadequate safety barriers, congestion and more) could be reduced by onsite risk assessment and mitigation efforts (including pretask assessments, inspections, constructability reviews).
A causal pathway was suggested by a model “starting from project participants’ commitment to safety, mediated through project administrative settings for safety management (setting safety performance goals and procedures, safety risk-management efforts), and ultimately to the prevention of workplace-related accident precursors”.
Accident precursors related to site organisation, like unclear emergency procedures, lack of mitigation of site environmental and ergonomic hazards, contributed significantly to the amount of resources dedicated to safety management. Hence, site-level efforts to address enviro and ergonomic hazards can be costly and may require significant early-stage efforts to better organise the construction site for better safety mobilisation and the like.
Precursors related to materials and equipment: plant usage is again significantly influenced by adverse project conditions. They argue that “Contractors might not be able to provide all adequate equipment, tools, and materials when the project is under the stress of a tight budget, schedule, or major rework”.
Workers may also need to optimise and workaround processes in order to accomplish their work.
They say that a notable finding of this study is the significant influence that adverse project conditions have on the occurrence of most types of accident precursors. That is, “even when a SMS is implemented, adverse project conditions can still cause the occurrence of accident precursors”.
The “mere implementation of several safety improvement programs or practices may not be powerful enough on its own to offset the impact of adverse project conditions. Therefore, SMSs should be integrated into the larger project administration and planning framework, including project design, project planning, human resources, change management, and quality assurance, to ensure their effectiveness in improving safety performance”.
Authors: Pereira, E., Ahn, S., Han, S., & Abourizk, S. (2020). Finding causal paths between safety management system factors and accident precursors. Journal of Management in Engineering, 36(2), 04019049.
Study link: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000738
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