Management and Economics of Construction Safety in Hong Kong

Preface

PREFACE Notwithstanding the many efforts and achievements made over the past 10 years or so, construction safety in Hong Kong has remained an issue to all stakeholders in the construction industry,including developers, contractors, subcontractors, supervisors, workers, the government as well as the general public. In 1998, the accident rate per 1,000 workers reached a record high of 247.9; this figure dropped to 60.6 in 2007. Similarly, the number of construction accidents has shown a consistent and gradual decline since 1998, from 19,588 in that year to 3,042 in 2007, the lowest in the past 10 years. However, construction accidents in 2007 accounted for 18.9% of all industrial accidents in Hong Kong, and on comparing the accident rate (60.6) with the corresponding rate of 29.3 for all industries, construction is more accident-prone with the highest accident and fatality rates among all industries in Hong Kong (Occupational Safety and Health Statistics 2007, Labour Department). This book addresses the concern for construction safety in Hong Kong, and is intended to provide a useful reference to practitioners in the field as well as students in undergraduate/postgraduate studies. The book draws upon available literature on the subject and results of recent research studies, and provides comprehensive information and analysis on various aspects of construction safety management and economics,including safety programmes and their performance, safety management systems, safety legislation, safety - - - - - vi ii MANAGEMENT AND ECONOMICS OF CONSTRUCTION SAFETY IN HONG KONG auditing, accident investigation, site supervision, and financial costs, social costs, and human pain and suffering costs of construction accidents. The book consists of two parts, the management and economics of construction safety. Chapter 1 provides the background for the subsequent chapters. Chapters 2 to 7 focus on the discussion of construction safety management, and the last three chapters, Chapters 8 tolO, are concerned with the monetary and non-monetary costs of construction accidents. Chapter 1 begins by giving an overview of construction accident statistics in the five Asian countries or regions, namely Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. The data are also compared with the data from the UK. Hong Kong has recorded significant progress during the period, but still has the highest accident rate and fatality rates among the six places. Chapter 2 reports on three research studies carried out in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the UK, with an aim to examining the problems and difficulties encountered in the implementation of safety programmes and to offer some possible solutions. Chapter 3 describes the construction safety management system as required under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings (Safety Management) Regulation, and reports on a survey which aimed to solicit feedback and difficulties from companies in implementing safety management in Hong Kong. In Chapter 4, the background and the recent development of construction safety-related legislation in Hong Kong are introduced. Chapter 5 discusses the use of safety auditing as a tool to measure the performance or the effectiveness of safety management, and concludes from the results of a survey that safety auditing should be used in the proactive prevention of accidents. In Chapter 6, some methods of accident investigation together with the types of reports used are presented. Chapter 7 discusses the role of the site supervisor in safety management of a construction site. Chapter 8 discusses the financial costs of construction accidents, and concludes from the results of a research study that the optimum safety investment on a building project in Hong Kong is about 0.8% of the contract sum. Chapter 9 discusses the social costs of construction accidents and the impact ofsafety investment on social costs,and based on a research study, has come up with the "social cost reduction to safety investment increment ratio" indicating an upward trend in social safety investment and a corresponding downward trend in social costs. An estimate of the human pain and suffering costs of construction accidents is presented in Chapter 10. ...