Brief History Of The Zero Accident Goal In Construction Organizations

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2.5 Factors that assure a zero accident goal in construction organisations
2.5.1 Brief History of the “Zero Accident” Concept
If we go back in time, the concept of “every accident is avoidable” started in the early 1800’s and was introduced by the DuPont group of companies, due to the high rate of workplace accidents (Eichendorf, (n.d).
According to Zheng (2008:18), zero plans first appeared in the business world as a management ideology in the 1960’s. In 1962, zero defect management or zero shortcomings was first used by a division of the Martin Marita Company situated in Orlando in the United States of America (USA). In 1963, a zero defect program was carried out by a U.S General Electric Company within the whole company and increased the …show more content…

This concept deals with hazards and problems of post through full participation and safety prediction to assure that workplace H&S are satisfied, in order to create a bright safety climate Zheng (2008:18). According to Farooqui (2011:33) the “Zero Injury” philosophy is based on the belief that all worker injuries for significant periods of time can be successfully prevented. The term “Vision Zero” according to Azim et al. (n. d.:1) is an image, that can be seen as mind-set shift, interpreted on the belief that it is ethically unacceptable for a person to be seriously injured or killed …show more content…

(2014:726) Heinrich made an important conclusion in 1931 “the direct causes of an accident are unsafe behaviour of people and the unsafe condition of objects, where the unsafe behaviour of people is the main cause”. They continued in saying that 50 years of the 20th century the U.S figured out that 2% casualties were caused by natural disasters and 98% within the capacity of people. This statement is confirmed by several parties as depicted in Table 2.6.
Table 2.6: Statistical results of accident causation Source: Fu et al. (2014:726)

2.6 How to achieve “zero accidents”
Identifying the reliability of the “zero accident”, measures must be taken to achieve this objective. According to Jenkins (2006:6); Mwanaumo (2013:50); Farooqui (2011:35) the U.S Construction Industry Institute (CII) commissioned a zero accident study and identified nine best techniques/types of activities that construction industry stakeholders and contractors can adopt if they are to promote H&S. These practices are as follow:
1. Demonstrated management commitment;
2. Staffing for Safety;
3. Safety planning – Pre-project and pre-task;
4. Safety training and education;
5. Worker involvement and participation;
6. Recognition and

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