Incident Causation Model for Improving Feedback of Safety Knowledge
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 130, Issue 4
Abstract
In order for the construction industry to improve its poor safety performance it needs to learn from its mistakes and put the lessons learned to good use. This need calls for effective feedback mechanisms that can transmit information derived from incident investigation to be utilized in safety planning. The feedback should be at two levels; first, feedback to the Safety Management System that had failed, and second, feedback to the safety planning of future projects. The first level of feedback can be achieved by basing the investigation on an incident investigation model that explicitly identifies system failure. The second level of feedback can be achieved if both incident investigation and safety planning share the same incident causation model, such that the information from each process can be retrieved and utilized in the other process smoothly. One prerequisite to fulfill the two levels of feedback is the development of an incident causation model. In this paper, the modified loss causation model (MLCM), which is able to meet the above-mentioned purposes, will be presented. The MLCM is developed based on an extensive literature review and application on 140 actual accident cases obtained from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower, Occupational Safety Department. In this paper, the model’s application will be demonstrated through a case study, which involves codification of investigation information based on an actual incident report, and a safety planning process based on a hypothetical case.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 130 • Issue 4 • August 2004
Pages: 542 - 551
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 17, 2002
Accepted: May 12, 2003
Published online: Jul 15, 2004
Published in print: Aug 2004
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