Collaborative approach drives US safety improvement

According to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) the fatality rate in US construction has fallen -47% in the last ten years.

This has been accompanied by a -38% fall in recordable accidents, and the AGC says both improvements are due to a switch by federal authorities to a ‘collaborative' approach to safety supervision.

AGC figures show that in 1998 there were 1.7 fatalities for every US$ 1 million invested in construction. Today the fatality rate is 0.9 per US$ 1 million - a -47% drop.

On a per capita basis, the fatality rate has fallen from 12.9 per 100000 construction workers in 2000 to 9.6 per 100000 in 2008, a -25% decline.

Commenting on the reductions, Chuck Penn, executive director of the AGC's Shreveport chapter said, "There is no doubt that the collaborative approach is working. While even one fatality is too many, it is hard to think of another government programme providing so much improvement in so little time."

Under this collaborative approach, the US Occupational Safety & health Administration (OSHA) and contractors alike have committed to providing additional training as well as data analysis and other support to improve safety.