The Importance of Safety in Construction Sector: Costs of Occupational Accidents in Construction Sites

Occupational accidents cause important social and economic problems by loss of life and physical injuries. Construction sector involves high risk due to its production processes and labor intensive characteristic and because of occupational accidents the sector brings up against financial loss in large scale. In developing countries, construction sector is one of the most important sectors that have a great contribution to economic development with its employment capacity and added-value to the economy. On the other hand, due to the lack of preventive measures, occupational accidents occur, frequently in construction in Turkey. Major occupational accidents are defined as the cause of serious injuries and a long-term disability; minor occupational accidents are defined as the cause of insignificant injuries and short-term disability. Minor occupational accidents are not considered sufficiently, they are even not kept as a record. It is known that minor occupational accidents, which are not considered sufficiently and even not registered, cause great financial loss in workplaces. The aim of this paper is to investigate the cost of workforce loss caused by the accidents in construction sites by using the statistics of three construction sites in Turkey and to compare the financial losses of minor and major occupational accidents. In this study, three construction project are investigated in Turkey in 2009 and it is obtained that the cost of workday loss caused by major occupational accidents is 19431.75 $ and minor occupational accidents cause a loss of 6924.25 $. The cost of workday loss caused by minor occupational accidents are almost 35 % of major workday losses’. These costs presents the importance of preventive measures for workers’ health and safety in construction.