Analysis of Occupational Injuries in a Large Construction Project in Saudi Arabia

Construction is one of the most hazardous industries as revealed by the high recorded injury rates all over the world. The objective of the current study was to analyze the non-fatal occupational injuries in one large construction project in Saudi Arabia and to investigate the factors behind the occurrence of these injuries. The data were analyzed in terms of the occupation of the injured worker, time of injury, injured body part and cause of injury. The results show that there were some patterns in the characteristics of non-fatal occupational injuries in the project. About 51 % of the recorded injuries were major requiring three or more days away from work, while the remaining (49 %) were minor. The occupations with the highest number of injuries were steel fixer (35.6 %), carpenter (32 %) and laborers (19.6 %). The body parts most vulnerable to injury were the hand (40.9 %), foot (15.3 %) and leg (12 %). The most common causes of injury were falling objects (28.6 %), struck against objects/equipment (16.8 %) and slips/trips (16.7 %). The time between 7: 00 to 11: 00 a. m. appeared to be the most dangerous hours of the day with 48 % of the accidents. The outcomes of this analysis suggest that those factors known to be related to accidents should be considered in the design of accident prevention programs.