Question:
Discuss about the Primary Internal and External Risk Factors.
The workplace is definable as the place where work is done such as companies, shops, and construction sites. Such workplaces there are always very many issues such as risk and hazards that occur to the employees (Smith, 2015). Hazards are agents that pose potential harm to an individual in a workplace while risk is the probability of an individual to face and exposed hazard in a work environment. The process of identifying the potential risks refers to as risk assessment (Lathrop & Ezell, 2017). Most of the dangers that occur in workplaces include, fire, falling, injuries from the machines (Fonseca & Duaute, 2014). Safety and Risk Management is a requirement in every organization and construction sites. The uncertainty of the accidents calls for proper procedures and implementation of the laid down policies. . Many organizations tend to run away from or assume any accident experienced in the premise. The article analyzes risk and hazards that happened in a construction place through outlining how safety policies get breached, how to resolves such hazards, what could have been done differently to prevent the accident and a personal approach to the situation.
Accidents are uncertain events and are paramount to our everyday’s life, such as in homes and workplaces. Proper strategies and methods should be put in place to avoid and address accidents in case of their occurrences through a process known as Safety and risk management .Safety and risk management is a systematical method of understanding, analyzing and discussing such foreseen risks and coming up with proper ways to avoid their occurrences. (Goerlandt et al., 2015)There are common international standards constructed to control and address the most common hazards that may occur in construction sites. The commonly used standards in safety and risk management include; International Standard Organization (ISO 31000), which is a codified risk management and mandated to oversee that all construction companies observe all the principles and procedures to the latter during management of risks. China Ocean Shipping Company (COSO 2004) and Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC 2009) Is a commission that is tasked by the government about accountability to provide ethics to the shipping companies Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) mandated to provide the general view on the hazards related to chemicals in a workplace (Hawkers, 2014). Globally there are a large number of construction firms that are less concerned with the safety and risk management leading to a large number of employee accidents reported.
The most common of accidents in the construction industry include; tripping accidents accounting for about 38.8% of the total accidents in the Construction Company (Kasprowicz, 2017). About 9.6% of deaths in the construction company results as workers stuck between machines and objects. Electric shock accounts to about 8.6% of the total deaths experienced in the construction company, the use faulty and unmaintained machines account for 7.8%, while noise hazards, hazards caused by harmful and corrosive chemicals ( Carisson et al., 2010). The study shows that death rate in Construction sites is higher than the average of all industries making it very essential for the employers and employees to take control of safety and risk management procedures. These systems provided by Construction Health Risk Working Group, CONIAC, and it ensures that every policy is observable by every construction engineer and if not, it awards proper punishment. The laid down policies are very many for example no employees are expected to catch the disease as a result of the kind of work done. From the previous accidental and death reports, more than 100 people are likely to die when exposed to prolong health hazard at the workplace or slip due to wrong tile, or material used (Zhao, 2014). It is mandatory for the employer to check and control the health of the workers and advising them accordingly, failure of which the company would be charged, fined and even imprisoned for a lifetime when found guilty of the safety breach.
The incident discussed was an accident that occurred at a road and construction site known as Fine Roads Company, FRC. On 10th December 2010, while road construction was going on, Kevin Ragnarok, who was a truck driver in the company got an accident while was on duty. On a fateful day, Kevin was transporting gravels to a disposal site; unfortunately, the truck was unable to make a stop and landed into a valley resulting to Kevin’ death. The unfortunate incident left the family in grieve as the widow could not take care of the three children Kevin left behind since FRC had blocked all Kevin’s financial benefits. As a result of Kevin’s wife, Cathrine decided to seek indulgence from the court and Safety, Health Organization. The court ordered for an investigation on the accident to make a judgment. From the police investigations, it was conclusive that FRC breached the safety and risk policy that led to Kevin’s death.
It came out that on a fateful morning; Kevin had filed a report with the Transport Manager of the truck mechanical problem, such as loosened break and poor status of the tiles that were exhausted. Unfortunately, Transport Manager, Mr. Wairiako dismissed Kevin as being lazy and does not feel to work on that day. Mr. Wairiako further stated to Kevin that, the truck service would only be possible in a week’s time; therefore, Kevin had no option but to use the vehicle within the poor state. Because of the heavy load, and the poor grip of the tiles, the truck could not make a stop leading it to lose control and overturn. From the investigations, police realized that other trucks and machines were in a poor status, thus placed the lives of the employees to health risk such as muscular constraints, the worker did not have protective wears such as helmets and gumboots which means they were prone to any falling or sharp object.
The court resolved that FRC should compensate Kevin’s family by paying a penalty of $ 46,500 due to the breach of safety risk. Though the compensation would not entirely replace Mr. Kevin from the heart of the family, it was an easy way of showing some remorseless and served as an example to other companies that neglected the safety issues. The company was also suspended for one year to acquire good trucks and machines that will not put the lives of their workers into danger.
It is miserable that the accident occurred and yet it was something that was much avoidable if FRC management team was responsible. The Transport Manager did not oversee the responsibilities of checking and maintain the conditions of the trucks and other machines. Mr. Wairiako further failed to listen to the issues that were presented by the truck operator, Mr. Kevin hence. Had all these been done, Mr. Kevin would still be with the family.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, 34% of the road accidents attributed to mechanical failure (Yu et al., 2016). So it is very critical to focus on the status of the vehicles before driving it using it in any way. The most mechanical failures are the failure of tires and wheels such as the tire blowouts and worn tires, which accounts for about 30%. The blow-out can happen due to worn-out tire and over or under-inflated that reduces the ability of the driver to take control of the vehicle (Grote, 2012). The worn out tires tens to lose tread hence compromises the grip on the ground during bad weather seasons, hence the car becomes less responsive and takes more distance to brake. Replacing the worn out tires and maintaining the optimal tire pressure and checking the tire alignment are ways of preventing the mechanical failures in the roads (Smith, 2017). According to the reports, 22% of the traffic accidents result from the brake failures that commonly contribute to the faulty brake lines as a result of brake fluid drainage (Gharaie et al., 2015).Antilock Brake System (ABS) that is designed to prevent the wheels from locking up automatically when the driver hits the brake very hard, it also prevents slipping and loss of control. Brake failure can allude to the worn out pads and disc that are meant to stop a vehicle within a shorter distance when the driver presses the brake. When the vehicle fails to stop within a short distance, then there is a high probability of an accident occurring (Stella &Anthony, 2017). Preventing accidents caused by such mechanical problems calls for regular vehicle maintenance and inspection of the brake system. Other common mechanical problems are such as failure of steering due to an unbalanced suspension that results to lose control of the vehicle by the driver and low visibility conditions during nighttime and foggy seasons making it harder to see the approaching vehicles (Yang et al., 2012).
It is notable that employees are the core of every business organization and therefore it is very critical for the management to ensure that the workplace is very useful and satisfactory for the employees ( Ha & Kang, 2015). The manager should always review the policies to keep them updated with the changing times. Therefore, proper equipment should always be selected and maintained, and suggestions should be encouraged from the staff.
In case of an accident, the manager should carry out a proper investigation to ascertain the cause and make an appropriate action such as compensating the victim to avoid any legal tussle, and in any case, the manager can prove to the court that the company has a positive attitude towards the health and safety policies.
The investigations help the manager to know the areas of the security breach, and take corrective measures to prevent future occurrences; the investigation also provides information to the insurer of the company to make proper compensation.
The manager also should encourage all employees to report any sigh of hazard to more than one authority and make a follow-up to any address of the issues.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the management has to ensure the safety of all employees in the workplace. The management is entitled to see the premise conforms to the policies of the Building and Construction Authority and the Health and Risk Organization. In a case of any negligence of the safety and risk awareness to the employees such as providing poorly maintained machines, or exposing the workers to risk due to lack of protective wears and any other person within the premise, then the engineer should be held responsible and used as an example to others. Policies and procedures must be in a written form and communicated to the employees as frequent as possible, and any risk issue raised by an employee should be well considered and addressed immediately. Employees are also required to take responsibility by avoiding risks as much as possible, and should not engage themselves with faulty machines therefore frequent risk assessment is essential and will help in preventing such mare accidents in the workplace.
References
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