The construction industry involves many of America’s most dangerous jobs. Thousands of injuries and hundreds of fatal accidents happen on construction sites across the country every year. Common accidents include slips and falls, electrical shocks, and incidents involving machinery and construction materials.
If you’ve had an accident like this, you may need to consult with a lawyer to discuss your options in terms of legal action.
According to the National Safety Council (NSC), the construction industry accounted for the highest number of workplace deaths in the U.S. in 2022. Given the huge risks construction work poses, it’s vital to keep your safety (and that of others) in mind at all times when you’re onsite. Here, we’ve shared the five most important safety tips every construction worker should bear in mind while on the job.
Brain injuries are among the biggest risks on building sites, whether due to falling objects, falls from a height, or other types of accidents. The easiest way to mitigate this risk is to wear protective headgear onsite at all times, particularly while working on or near a scaffold. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets out different hard-hat requirements for different types of construction work.
It’s also important to wear sturdy boots with steel toecaps and non-slip soles. Depending on the specific type of work you do, you might also need to wear heavy-duty gloves, kneepads, a mask, or goggles.
As a site manager or coordinator, it’s your responsibility to maintain a working environment that minimizes accident risk. Basic orderliness is a huge part of this.
Keep areas neat by designating places for all materials and tools and ensuring they’re kept in these proper places. Never allow walkways or exits to become obstructed, and always be proactive about waste management.
Cleaning up a mess is easy, but maintaining high standards in terms of neatness at all times is more challenging. You need to put proper systems in place to avoid workplace accidents.
Working in construction generally requires you to use a number of tools and machines. To lessen the risk of injuries related to any of these, it’s helpful to become very familiar with the equipment you use, focusing on how it works and common ways in which dangerous situations arise.
Consider table saws, for example. They make it easy to cut and reshape large pieces of wood, but they’re also extremely dangerous in the hands of an inexperienced or careless operator. If you need to use a table saw, you should learn all you can about:
Perfection doesn’t exist, and things will always go wrong. Maintaining a safe construction site doesn’t mean avoiding every single mishap; what it does mean, though, is having sensible procedures in place to respond to problems when they arise.
As a site coordinator, encourage workers to report any issues they come across as soon as possible. This could be anything from a malfunctioning tool to an unsafe scaffold. Construction employees (particularly those without a lot of experience) often say nothing in situations like these in order to avoid attracting the attention of their superiors. So, it’s important to encourage these workers to report issues as they happen.
Finally, it’s important to prioritize proper education and training around safety. If you’re a construction employee, take the time to refresh your memory on best practices every few months. If you’re a manager or coordinator, consider introducing regular meetings or spot checks to make sure everyone on your site knows how to do their jobs safely.
If you’ve been injured in a construction site accident, contact The Cochran Firm Philadelphia today. Our team of construction accident attorneys will fight for every penny you deserve. You can call us at 800-969-4400 or get in touch via our online contact form.
