The first thing which must be understood is that whether an accidents in construction site results in injury to a person or loss or damage to equipment, or not, it is still an accident which if repeated, may cause injury, loss or damage. Therefore ALL accidents in construction site need to be investigated with a view to eliminating the cause.
When an accident happens involving people and/or plant or vehicles many things have to be done quickly, e.g.
• Treatment of the injured person.
• The switch off of plant, vehicle or machinery.
• Precaution in case of fire.
• Redirection of road and road traffic.
• Having done this you have some decisions to make, e.g.
• Can the victim be moved ?
• Should you call the ambulance.
• Will you move the victim to the hospital or nearest doctor if so using what vehicle and where is it.
• Should you move the damaged plant or vehicle – there are legal restrictions.
• Do you need the police.
• Should the accident be reported to the Engineer.
• Who are the witness if any.
• Should you start investigating the accident now or later.
You cannot do all these things yourself, so it is better to stand aside, consider the whole situation, make decisions and organize others.
The two things you cannot avoid doing personally are the collecting and passing of information to the Project Office and the investigation of the accident.
Remember all accidents involving the injury of people who have to leave or be evacuated from the job and those involving damage to plant, vehicle and equipment are to be reported immediately to the Engineer or in his absence to the appropriate person at the Project Office. In the case of serious accidents the services of the Plant Inspector and the Project safety Officer should be requested. Always carry out an investigation and make out your report as soon as possible after the accident .