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We all know that construction equipment or other heavy equipment are extremely dangerous. Construction sites and very prone to fatal accidents and disasters, every worker in such sites have to exceedingly cautious while handling such heavy equipment. It is pertinent for every single one of the employees to follow safety guidelines to avoid potential disasters at all times. Even one second’s ignorance can cost them their life or limbs. Similar other types of accidents construction accidents also take place mostly due to the person’s negligence or usage of faulty instruments.

It has been observed that a large number of accidents are reported every year that take place in construction sites and account for the death or injury of thousands of workers. For these reasons not only does the project owners lose huge sums of money but the employees of these families also suffer from great loss and go through pain. Four construction site accidents were reported in the 2012, all of which took place at the World Trade Centre (WTC) construction project.

So what are the common types of accidents that occur in construction sites?

Classification of construction accidents or heavy equipment disasters can be done on the basis of their severity, whether the economic loss encountered is big or small or if the amount of loss of lives and injuries caused are big or small. It can be caused either due to design ignorance, equipment failures, and worker’s carelessness or simply due to natural disaster causes. On the basis of the location of such heavy equipment accidents they are grouped as and residential building site accidents, tunnel accidents and highway construction site disasters.

Some types of heavy equipment accidents can be listed as:

Ladder Accidents
Saw Blade Accidents
Crane and Truck Accidents
Elevator Accidents
Power Tool Accidents
Welding Equipment Accidents
Scaffolding Failure
Cable and Rope Accidents
Forklift Accidents

To name a few of them other categories may be listed as collapse of building components, labor related disasters, fire and explosions, falling of objects, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) violations leading to disasters etc.

Some labor related disasters can be listed as:

Iron Worker Accidents
Painter Accidents
Brick Layer Accidents
Plumber Accidents
Carpenter Accidents
Union worker Accidents
Maintenance Worker Accidents

Based on the project type or location they can be categorized as: –

Parking garage collapse, tunnel construction accidents, highway construction, demolition mishaps, residential building site disasters, bridge building site disasters, excavation accidents etc.

What are the common causes of disasters in sites with heavy equipment?

Most commonly accidents involving being struck by tools, equipment or being hit by falling objects usually take place due to insufficient planning of site storage, inadequacy of tool belts to ensure safety while using them, lack of toe boards on scaffoldings.
Improper usage of heavy construction vehicles such as cranes, trucks, hoists etc. can also lead to fatal disasters.
Certain trenching disasters may place workers in danger of being trapped under soil and rocks, increasing their risk of having asphyxiation, breathing of poisoning fumes and drowning in underground water. Derisory excavation wall support, failure of protective systems, unsuccessful soil inspection and unsafe passage into and out of the trench may generate such kind of construction accidents.