Health and Safety Course: Prevent Construction Accidents and Injuries With EMCARE Health and Safety Courses

Construction sites involve various hazards and risks that affect the safety of construction employees. There are various cases where there has been an accident or injury on a construction site that could have been avoided if the correct preventative steps had been taken. We have outlined the various construction accidents and injuries that can affect construction employees and how to prevent these risks with an EMCARE health and safety course. We have included extra preventive steps to take that ensure that safety is a top priority on your construction site.

Construction Accidents and Injuries:

When working on a construction site, construction employees are at risk of these various accidents and injuries.

1) Falling from Heights:

Construction sites often need employees to work from heights, whether this is on the roof of a structure, on scaffolding, up ladders, or inside elevator shafts. There are various risks associated with working at these great heights for construction employees.

1. Failed Safety Equipment: When working from a height, construction employees need safety gear to keep them safely attached to a secure point to prevent the risk of falling. If there is an issue with the safety harness or protective rail, and the construction worker slips or loses their balance, they will fall off the top of the structure. This can result in broken bones, severe head injuries, and is the most common cause of death on construction sites.
2. Scaffolding Accidents: Scaffolding needs to be correctly erected and secured to prevent the risk of a construction site accident. If the scaffolding is incorrectly constructed due to negligence or insufficient training, if the safety rails are inadequate, or if the wooden planks that are being used are rotten or damaged, there will be a scaffolding accident that can result in injury or death.
3. Lost Balance: When working on a ladder, construction employees often feel confident in their ability to use the ladder without safety equipment or a person holding the ladder. If there is an instance where a construction employee loses their balance, they will fall and face various injuries.
   

2) Machinery Accidents:

Heavy machinery is abundant on construction sites, which increases the risk of accidents and injuries. The most common accidents involve mobile construction machines, such as loaders, dozers, and dumpers. Mobile construction machine accidents occur if the driver mistakenly drives over unstable ground and sinks the machine or if the driver loses control of the machine resulting in an overturned construction machine. These accidents can be dangerous for the driver and those nearby.

Construction machine accidents can also be caused by a lack of maintenance. If the construction machinery is not sufficiently maintained, there can be accidents caused as a result of malfunctioning machinery, loss of power, or dropping heavy loads. The dangers of injury are increased when construction machines that have not been maintained are used on a construction site.

3) Body Strain Injuries:

Construction work is laborious and can put a severe strain on the employee’s bodies. Back, neck, and arm strains are common injuries that construction employees face due to the constant heavy-lifting required by construction work. If the construction employees are not trained on safe lifting methods and ways to protect their bodies, the constant wear and tear on the bones, muscles, and joints can also lead to sprains, tears, and musculoskeletal disorders.

4) Exposure to Hazardous Materials:

Construction workers are constantly exposed to hazardous materials on a construction site. Solvents, dust, and mould are a few of the hazardous materials that construction employees will have to deal with during construction projects. Exposure to these hazardous materials can result in injury, diseases, and even death.

One of the major hazardous materials most construction workers are exposed to daily is cement. When inhaled, cement dust can cause respiratory tract irritation and difficulty breathing. When cement comes into contact with the skin, it can cause skin irritation commonly referred to as concrete burn.

5) Electrocution:

Construction sites often include the risk of electrocution for construction employees. Power lines, exposed electrical wires, and faulty electric power tools are a few of the causes behind construction employee electrocution on a construction site.

6) Vehicle Accidents:

Construction sites need various vehicles to transport materials around the site. When numerous construction teams are operating at the same time on a construction site, there are going to be numerous types of vehicles on the site. This can result in vehicles colliding with one another in an accident, causing damage to the vehicles and injuries to the drivers or construction employees that can get entrapped in the collision.

7) Head Injuries:

Head injuries are common on construction sites. Dropped materials or tools can land on the heads of the construction employees resulting in concussions, cuts, and if the construction employee is not wearing a hard hat, brain injuries.

8) Fires and Explosions:

Fires and explosions can occur on construction sites which places construction employees under threat. We have highlighted a few of the possible causes behind a construction site fire or explosion.

1. Flammable Dust: Numerous construction site processes result in dust formation in the air. If there is a collection of dust in an enclosed space on the construction site, and there is a spark either from welding, cutting metal, or lighting a flame, the dust will combust and explode. This can result in devastating burn injuries, death, and severe damage to the construction site.
2. Fuel: Most construction sites store fuel on-site to increase efficiency. If the fuel is incorrectly stored or if employees are smoking near the fuel source, the fuel can ignite and cause a fire on the construction site.
3. Exposed Wiring: Alongside the risk of electrocution, exposed wiring can also come into contact with a flammable material and result in a fire on the construction site, endangering the lives of the construction employees.
   

Prevent Construction Accidents and Injuries with EMCARE Health and Safety Courses:

The best method to reduce the risk of construction site accidents and injuries is health and safety training. By equipping your construction employees with the necessary health and safety skills, you are increasing their ability to perform their work safely and therefore reduce accidents and injuries on the construction site. EMCARE offers a health and safety course for various aspects of construction site safety.

EMCARE offers a range of practical and theoretical health and safety courses that will provide construction site employees with the necessary knowledge and skills to ensure safety. We have outlined four relevant EMCARE health and safety course options that will be useful for construction site safety.

1) EMCARE General Health and Safety Course:

The EMCARE General Health and Safety course cover the essential basics of health and safety for employees in a workplace. This course will cover aspects from the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 (OHS Act 85), how to practically apply safety measures, and the importance of safety in the workplace. The main focus is on ensuring that everyone enrolled in the course adopts a safety ethos for their working environment.

This is a short course that takes between 4-8 hours to complete and will provide construction employees with relevant skills to ensure safety in the construction workplace.

2) EMCARE Working at Heights Course:

The EMCARE Working at Heights course covers all practical and theoretical skills for safely working at a height. The focus is on instilling an attitude of safety in students which they can then apply to the workplace to reduce their risk of falls.

This EMCARE course is critical for construction employees who will be working at heights. The training will adequately prepare the construction employees to consistently ensure safety, and therefore reduce the risks of accidents or injuries.

3) EMCARE Safety Officer Course:

The EMCARE Safety Officer course is a comprehensive course on all the necessary skills needed for a person to sufficiently perform the responsibilities and duties of a safety officer in the workplace.

Having a trained safety officer on a construction site is critical to ensuring the risk of accidents and injuries is reduced. Enrolling a select construction employee in the EMCARE Safety Officer course is an important step towards ensuring construction site safety.

Every EMCARE health and safety course is facilitated by a professional trainer. All EMCARE trainers are highly experienced and qualified to offer the best health and safety course training. We ensure that the skills and knowledge taught to our students are easily transferable to their workplace, therefore making sure that we can provide your construction employees with relevant health and safety course training.

It is easy to enrol your construction employees into an EMCARE health and safety course for construction accident and injury prevention. There are EMCARE training facilities located all over South Africa, enabling easy access to a health and safety course within the area of your construction site. EMCARE makes it effortless to equip your construction employees with the health and safety course training necessary for construction site safety.

Extra Construction Accidents and Injuries Prevention Tips:

We have outlined additional preventative tips to reduce the risk of construction accidents and injuries.

1. Machine Operating Training: Ensure that all your construction employees are sufficiently trained and experienced to safely operate construction machinery. This will reduce the risk of expensive construction machine accidents and any possible injuries as a result of the accident.
2. Personal Protective Equipment: Provide every construction employee with the correct personal protective equipment that is suited to the work they are required to do. You also need to regularly assess the quality of the personal protective equipment and repair or replace it as necessary to ensure safety.
3. Safety Meetings: Hold regular safety meetings with all construction employees to discuss safety plans and the importance of safety on the construction site.
4. Construction Planning: The project management of the construction site needs to be done correctly, and altered as necessary, to make sure that multiple construction crews are not unnecessarily working simultaneously on the site. Reducing the number of construction employees present at a construction site through careful construction planning reduces the risk of accidents and injuries.

About EMCARE:

EMCARE is a health and safety training facility. At EMCARE, you can receive training in health and safety, emergency medical, firefighting, and first aid. We provide a health and safety course across a wide range of industries to ensure that you have access to the exact health and safety course you need.

EMCARE provides everyone in South Africa with access to a health and safety course that will benefit their career or increase their safety skills. We are dedicated to providing all students at EMCARE with high-quality training to ensure that everyone walks away with relevant skills and confidence in their training from their selected health and safety course.

Prevent construction site accidents and injuries with an EMCARE health and safety course and our additional preventative tips.