Risk analysis of falling from heights in the growing construction industry

Based on the data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of injuries and fatalities caused by falls from height (FFH) accidents at construction sites is one of the highest, making the construction industry relatively unsafe compared to other industries. This study has been made to find out the most common causes, probabilities, and appropriate mitigation measures in construction fall incidents in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The findings obtained from NSW Construction Blitz in 2019 was used to analyze the probability of the common potential causes of falling from ladders, voids and edges, scaffolds, formworks and, mobile scaffolds and fall restraints. Five fault tree (FT) diagrams were used to illustrate various accident causes in order to determine the probability of risk of FFH in NSW. Following that, a schematic modeling was entered into Genie software for results validation and to determine the main contributor of FFH incidents. From this study, falling from voids and edges has the highest likelihood of falls in NSW with a probability of 27.15%. This is followed by falling from mobile scaffolds and fall restraints with 7.92%, which is closely followed by falling from scaffolds with 7.68%. While falling from ladders and falling from formworks were not too far behind, with 2.17% and 1.05% respectively. Preventative measures were then discussed for FFH accident scenarios. These findings will aid in the prevention of particular incidents and increase the overall level of safety on construction sites in NSW.