title: Understanding causes of fall and struck-by incidents: What differentiates construction safety in the Arabian Gulf region?
abstract: Rapid growth in the Arabian Gulf region has fueled an explosive pace of construction and a rise in risks of occupational injury. Scarcity of pertinent data, however, makes it hard to determine whether accident characteristics, causal factors and remedial interventions identified elsewhere apply to the Gulf in comparable ways. This difficulty stems from unusual construction sector characteristics, notably a heterogeneous mix of expatriate laborers and firms working without a common language, work culture or labor practices. Does this change the mix of accident types or the ranking of main causes and priority remedies? To answer this question, a sample of 519 incident records was analyzed to determine whether accident types and frequencies are comparable to elsewhere. Site safety experts were then interviewed to determine whether rankings of factors and interventions should be similar. Findings are that types are indeed comparable, but the rankings of factors and interventions may not be. Main factors have to do with worker skills and training, experience, use of safety gear and risk perception. The overarching safety issue, however, is that firms and governments do not have strong incentive to address these factors.
authors.affiliation: School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, United States. Electronic address: fass@utdallas.edu.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fass
authors.affiliation: School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, United States. Electronic address: Rami.yousef@qu.edu.qa.
authors.forename: Rami
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yousef
authors.affiliation: Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, United States. Electronic address: liginlal@cmu.edu.
authors.forename: Divakaran
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liginlal
authors.affiliation: School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, United States. Electronic address: priyanka.vyas@utdallas.edu.
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vyas
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D060389:Construction Industry / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D008877:Middle East; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards; D011361:Professional Competence; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: Construction safety; Fall and struck-by accidents; Middle East