Critical Control implementation & failures in fatal and serious construction accidents

This interesting study from Dr Roberta Selleck analysed 10 years of serious and fatal incident investigation reports from four international construction companies to:

i)                   Assess the reliability of their Critical Controls (CCs)

ii)                  Assess the factors that affect the reliability of CCs

Summary posted next week.

CCs are “specific safety barriers, which (i) directly prevent the unplanned release of energy, which cause major accident events, (ii) directly prevent the escalation of event consequences or (iii) are unique controls within an event pathway event”.

Some key findings:

·        Implementation of CCs across all MAE categories was found to be an average of just 57% (but with considerable variation).

·        Hence, just 42% of CCs were assessed as implemented and effective on average.

·        Effectiveness of CCs when implemented averaged 41%.

·        When implementation and effectiveness were assessed by MAE, mobile equipment and lifting operations had the strongest CC implementation rate. Stored energy had the lowest implementation rate overall.

·        “All four major-accident event categories were found to have a high proportion of weakly or not implemented Critical Controls and, therefore, were not effective in preventing the release of hazardous energies”

It’s open access, so you can read the full paper.

Authors: Selleck, R., Hassall, M., & Cattani, M. (2022). Determining the reliability of critical controls in construction projects. Safety, 8(3), 64.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.3390/safety8030064

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_this-interesting-study-from-dr-roberta-selleck-activity-7184680119246942208–x4a?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Other posts on barriers, controls:

1. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/04/08/controls-barriers-safeguards-whats-the-difference-does-it-matter/
2. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2024/04/09/the-problems-of-double-checking-and-lack-of-operator-independence-in-barrier-management/
3. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2023/06/14/performance-of-barrier-systems-and-functions-in-the-construction-industry/
4. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2022/04/14/human-factors-in-barrier-management-hard-truths-and-challenges/
5. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/critical-analysis-of-the-queensland-metalliferous-mines-fatal-accident-record/
6. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2022/03/22/the-hierarchy-of-controls-as-an-approach-to-visualize-the-impact-of-occupational-safety-and-health-coordination/
7. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2021/10/19/practitioners-perspectives-on-incident-investigations/
8. https://safety177496371.wordpress.com/2022/02/18/mini-post-critical-risk-management-as-imagined-vs-as-done/