ASSESSMENT OF PATTERN OF ACCIDENT OCCURRENCE ON BUILDING CONSTRUCTION SITES IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Abstract

The construction industry has earned the reputation of being a dangerous and highly hazardous industry because of the disproportionately high incidence of accidents and fatalities that occur on construction sites around the world (Smallwood and Haupt, 2008). Despite previous studies as regards to construction worker’s accident, there has not been any study relating to the pattern of accident occurrence to construction workers most especially in Abuja, Nigeria. This goes to show that there is indeed a great need to study the pattern of accidents to construction workers. This paper views accident patterns as it occurs according to fatal and non-fatal accidents, age range of accident victims, month the accident occurred and the types of accidents. A descriptive research design was used in executing the study using 20 randomly selected companies which tick off the selection criteria for collection of archival data. Data collected were analyzed using percentile analysis. Results from the data analysis show that an up and down pattern exist in accident occurrence in the Nigerian building construction industry and recommends the creation of a construction health and safety agency that will oversee the implementation of safety laws.