Workplace Hazards
The whole concept of the safety culture rose earlier when there were so many health and safety issues taking place. It is always debated that the safety culture displays a naïve method of conceptualizing processes of handling the risks and management in the firm and other contexts. The safety culture gives global characteristics of few common behavioral preconditions to disasters and accidents in huge risk technical systems. The health and safety measures are necessary by all the construction company especially as the construction companies include the safety of public and not just in the organization. This essay focuses on the company Kenoss Contractors which is a construction company and its safety issues it went through in 2012 (Taylor, 2015).
Kenoss Contractors is an engineering and construction company based in Australia. Kenoss Contractors Pvt. Ltd. was incepted in the year 1995 and it deals in the business of highways and street construction. It is a company of 50 employees and is a small enterprise. Since the company deals in the management of the highways and street construction, it really has a huge liability and duty to make people aware of the hazards if any on the ways by putting a signal or blocking him ways where there is a chance of any hazard. In the year 2012, it was fined for $1.1 million since a truck driver died under the national work safety laws (Linkedin, 2018).
There are a few of the hazards which can take place in the construction sites. The major and the most dangerous are falling from the heights. This majorly happens when there is some work going on in the construction of a building. This type of hazard usually occurs with the contractors who work on such sites. Then there are struck-by Hazards. These hazards are the major cause of the construction accidents. 72% of these accidents consist of the heavy equipment and one is four struck-by-vehicle deaths consist of the construction workers. In this case too, it was a hazard which can be called as Struck-by. There are many other hazards which causes in the field of construction (Kanchana & Joseph, 2015).
There are multiple factors with the help of which the safety breaches could be avoided. They are:
Start with Training: All the workers should be given the training as to how they can avoid the breach and fatal accidents which are caused in construction field.
Avoiding Safety Breach
Site Security: The access to the sites must be restricted not just for protecting the equipment damage but the security from in and out of working hours is also important to protect. The safety should be taken care of for the pedestrians as well.
Clear Signage at the site: The site must display the sign SWMS at every place in order for the safety protocols. It means that the 24 hours emergency contact number and the direction with the map would be in the office where the site is. The sign which is visible must also point out to the amenities, entry exit points and fire equipment kept for emergency.
Environmental Conditions: The conditions where the environment is extreme can cause fatal damage to the field workers as well as to the public. The emergency plan must be given for the clear guidelines so that any natural calamity can be at least easily escaped.
In most of the scenarios, the employer is bound to provide the personal protective equipments like vests, safety goggles and safety harnesses for construction workers (Charehzehi, 2012).
The construction firm in Canberra named as Kenoss Contractors Pvt. Ltd. was accused and found guilty as it had breached the new nationally consistent laws of safety because of the electrocution of the truck driver on one site in the year 2012. The person who died was named as Michael Booth. He was 48 years old and he dies because his tip truck hit the low slung power lines in the compound which is used by the firm. The project manager Munir al Hassani was also found guilty in the death of Michael. Later, his name was cleared when the ACT’s Chief magistrate Walker found that he was not the actual officer for the firm when it comes to the legal definition. This case was one of the kinds and first too in terms of the new laws and it was heard in the ACT’s industrial court. The court also heard that Booth was making his second delivery for the day at the time when the accident happened. Mr. Walker found the case against the firm Kenoss contractors and it was later proved too. The magistrate also said that the case was open and shut case. There were no signs of warning kept by the workers of the firm about the power lies and no tiger tails or flags were there in order to alerting the workers to their presence. There was no one to help Mr. Booth too for dumping the load and the power was also turned off (Albert & Hallowell, 2014).
Fatal Accident at Kenoss Contractors
The court ended with some of the proofs that were clearly pointing out to the breach of safety laws. There are: No safety signs were there for warning the people about the power lines, the management of the work site was very poorly managed, the contractor management was poor, there were no locks on the doors to the compound and it also looked like that it was meant for dumping the material, the power lines were not turned off while work, there was no spotter used (Inman, 2015).
The work safe commissioner Mark McCabe literally suggested that the prohibition notice was issues for the work to be ceased at an ACT construction site following the safety issues. Work Safe ACT actually inspected the Kenoss contractors firm in Molonglo and then after investigation they issues a prohibition notice and asked them to prevent the work in future at the site of Kenoss (OHScareer, 2012). That particular notice prevents every work done by Kenoss on the site till the time the Work Safe ACT is satisfied with the systems which are used for work in that firm. When they visited the place, there were multiple issues which they could actually find and then decided that this place was not at all safe for anyone to work in. Until the issues and all the concerns were resolved, the safe work actually stayed near to the site and monitored their each and every move till they were satisfied. Later when more concerns were still happening, they issue the notice for prohibition and it continued (Safework, 2015).
There are uncertainties at every place and every time. There is also unpredictability and sometimes lack of information which can cause the uncertainties. The different nature and the atmosphere which is not familiar at the sites of work generally make the uncertainties and feeling to construction staff members. The method which is unsafe, human element, equipment which is not safe, conditions at the job site, management and the one of kind nature are the major uncertainties which is the reason of the fatal accidents in the field of construction. The performance of the project is enhanced with the improvements in the safety. There are a few methodologies which point out to the upgrading of the safety standards (Asanka & Ranasinghe, 2015). Kenoss contractors were not even aware of the warning sign which was to be put at the time of the emergency or bad weather etc. This shows that the people had lack of knowledge. That is why one step which could have been taken is the training which could have been provided to the workers so that they would have had the idea about all the safety measures to be taken at the construction site (Isabel, 2017). The enhancements of safety must e proposed at the stage of design until the designers have the adequate information of the identification of risk. The development of the human resource has the important impact on the safety enhancements. There should have been a enough inspection of the field or site to be done at the time when they came to know about the power lines. The power lines were not even switched off at the time when the load was being dumped. This is clearly a lack of knowledge or an unethical move due to which the truck driver died. Supervisors are the major people in the act of safety management system because they are the immediate members of the staff to go to for all the workers. The roles and the duties which they follow is very important for the apt implementation of the maintenance of the safety (Bhattacharjee & Ghosh, 2011). There could have been the formation of the psychologically safe atmosphere for the human beings so that a positive environment would be created. Also, the things which were poorly managed would have been managed properly. After achieving this, there would have been in the increase of the reliability of the system and the performance of the workers would have been enhanced. Any company which is into a field of construction one or the other time faces the accidents whether they are low or high in terms of the damage. The records should have been found in the company about analyzing the work of the firm by safe work. Through this, safe work would have known if the company has been facing such issues very frequently or not. The dedication of the workers should also be motivated so that they would have been curious to know about the safety measures (Cheah, 2007).
Response to the Incident
I would have addressed the issue a sad note and yet as learning note so that these type of fatal accidents should not happen in the future. I would have become stricter in my job as well as would have given them the proper training so that the people could learn from their mistakes and do not make these mistakes again. I would have made them learn or might have taken the initiative of talking to the concerned person to take the apt measures to make the place hazard free (Bahn, 2013).
This essay talks about the safety and risk management case which happened in the construction industry company named as Kenoss Contractors. This company was fined with the $1 million due to a fatal accident occurred in the company in the year 2012. The essay gives a complete detail about the case as to what actually happened as well as talks about the safety measures which could have been taken and can be taken in the future to avoid these types of fatal accidents.
References
Albert, A., & Hallowell, M. R. (2014). Emerging Strategies for Construction Safety & Health Hazard Recognition. Journal of Safety, Health & Environmental Research , 10 (2).
Asanka, W. A., & Ranasinghe, M. (2015). Study on the impact of accidents on construction projects. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.civil.mrt.ac.lk/conference/ICSECM_2015/volume_4/Extract/SECM-15-088.pdf
Bahn, S. T. (2013). Improving safety culture: the impact of the construction induction training on theconstruction industry in Western Australia. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1390&context=ecuworks2013
Bhattacharjee, S., & Ghosh, S. (2011). Safety Improvement Approaches in Construction Industry: A Review and Future Directions. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0f3a/555b1c4243d5685fa1125cc6b52ec522bd5b.pdf
Charehzehi, A. (2012). Enhancement of safety performance at construction site. International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology , 5 (1).
Cheah, C. Y. (2007). Construction Safety and Health Factors at the Industry Level: The Case of Singapore. Journal of Construction in Developing Countries , 12 (2).
Inman, M. (2015). Kenoss Contractors fined $1.1 million for workplace death. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/act/kenoss-contractors-fined-11-million-for-workplace-death-20150819-gj2fra.html
Isabel, G. (2017). Occupational safety and health in construction: a review of applications and trends. Industrial Health , 55, 201-218.
Kanchana, S., & Joseph, S. (2015). Studies on Labour Safety in Construction Sites. The Scientific World Journal .
Linkedin. (2018). Kenoss Contractors Pty Ltd. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://in.linkedin.com/company/kenoss-contractors-pty-ltd
OHScareer. (2012). WorkSafe shuts down construction site after worker’s death. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.ohscareer.com.au/archived-news/worksafe-shuts-down-construction-site-after-worker-s-death
Safework. (2015). Work Health & Safety Perceptions. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/whs-perceptions-construction-industry.pdf
Taylor, G. (2015). Canberra construction company fined $1.1 million over death of truck driver. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-19/construction-company-fined-1-million-over-workplace-death/6708032
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