Serious occupational accidents in the construction industry

The aim of this study is to examine three hypotheses based on the review of literature concerning occupational accidents in the construction industry. The data concern 102 victims of 99 serious occupational accidents. Of these 102 victims, 35 worked in the construction industry. The first hypothesis assuming the higher risk-taking tendency among victims of construction accidents than among victims from other industries was not confirmed, because the construction victims took significantly less risk at the moment of accident than the other victims. The main contractors' victims had significantly higher values on the risk-taking scale than the subcontractors' victims. There were more falls among construction accidents than among accidents in the other industries, which confirmed the second hypothesis. In line with the third hypothesis, an increased accident risk was shown among subcontractors' workers. © 1995, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.