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Investigation on fatal accidents in Chinese construction industry between 2004 and 2016

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Abstract

This paper summarizes a number of fatal accidents that occurred in the Chinese construction industry from 2004 to 2016, and more detailed analysis is conducted on the data between 2010 and 2016. The data collected from 2010 to 2016 reveal that 3817 fatal accidents occurred during the construction of buildings and municipal facilities. Analysis is conducted to reveal the reasons of these construction accidents. The number of fatalities and accidents, the types of accidents, the effect of climate factors, the time period distribution of accidents, and provincial distribution are analyzed and compared. The results show that, falling from heights is the main cause of fatal accidents. The number of fatalities and accidents varies sharply across provinces and is closely related to the climate (the same gross output with less accidents in the cold weather areas). Due to annual transferring and traditional Chinese Spring Festival, project schedule is generally arranged less in December, January, and February so that a lower number of accidents are reported in these months. Daily, accidents in the afternoon are higher than that in the morning.

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Acknowledgements

The research work described herein was funded by the Innovative Research Funding of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No. 18DZ1201102). This financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean, and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Wan-Lin Meng & Shuilong Shen

  2. School of Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC, 3001, Australia

    Annan Zhou

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  1. Wan-Lin Meng
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  2. Shuilong Shen
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  3. Annan Zhou
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Correspondence to Shuilong Shen.

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Meng, WL., Shen, S. & Zhou, A. Investigation on fatal accidents in Chinese construction industry between 2004 and 2016. Nat Hazards 94, 655–670 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3411-z

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