title: An expert system for the quantification of fault rates in construction fall accidents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Expert witness reports, prepared with the aim of quantifying fault rates among parties, play an important role in a court's final decision. However, conflicting fault rates assigned by different expert witness boards lead to iterative objections raised by the related parties. This unfavorable situation mainly originates due to the subjectivity of expert judgments and unavailability of objective information about the causes of accidents. As a solution to this shortcoming, an expert system based on a rule-based system was developed for the quantification of fault rates in construction fall accidents. The aim of developing DsSafe is decreasing the subjectivity inherent in expert witness reports.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-four inspection reports prepared by the official and authorized inspectors were examined and root causes of construction fall accidents in Turkey were identified. Using this information, an evaluation form was designed and submitted to the experts. Experts were asked to evaluate the importance level of the factors that govern fall accidents and determine the fault rates under different scenarios. Based on expert judgments, a rule-based expert system was developed. The accuracy and reliability of DsSafe were tested with real data as obtained from finalized court cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  DsSafe gives satisfactory results.
authors: a Middle East Technical University , Turkey.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Talat Birgonul
authors: a Middle East Technical University , Turkey.
authors: Irem
authors: I
authors: Dikmen
authors: b Yildiz Technical University , Turkey.
authors: Cenk
authors: C
authors: Budayan
authors: c Demirel İnşaat Ltd Şti , Turkey.
authors: Tuncay
authors: T
authors: Demirel
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D060389:Construction Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005104:Expert Testimony / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D011482:Protective Devices; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017751:Safety Management / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014421:Turkey
keywords: construction fall accidents; expert systems; safety