Knowledge discovery of correlations between unsafe behaviors within construction accidents

Abstract

PurposeKnowledge discovery related to unsafe behaviors promotes the performance of accident prevention in construction. Although numerous studies on accident causation models have discussed the correlations of unsafe behaviors with various factors (e.g., unsafe conditions), limited research explores correlations between unsafe behaviors within accidents. The purpose of this paper is mining strong association rules of unsafe behaviors from historical accidents to clarify this kind of tacit knowledge.Design/methodology/approachA case study was adopted as the research approach, in which accident records from building and urban railway construction in China were selected as data resources. The groups of unsafe behaviors extracted from accident records were expressed by the definitions of unsafe behaviors from safety regulations and operating procedures. Frequent Pattern (FP)-Growth algorithm was used for association rule mining, and the critical correlations between unsafe behaviors were represented by the effective strong rules.FindingsThe findings identify and distinguish correlations between unsafe behaviors within construction accidents. In building construction, workers and managers should pay attention to preventing unsafe behaviors related to personal protective equipment and machines and equipment. In urban railway construction, workers should especially avoid unsafe behaviors of inadequately dealing with environmental factors.Practical implicationsTacit knowledge is transferred to explicit knowledge as the critical correlations between unsafe behaviors within accidents are determined by the effective strong rules. Additionally, the findings provide practice guidance for safety management, to collaboratively control unsafe behaviors with strong correlations.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of safety knowledge in construction and provides a further understanding of how construction accidents are caused by multiple unsafe behaviors.

Cascading vulnerability analysis of unsafe behaviors of construction workers from the perspective of network modeling

“…When an error occurs in one unit and propagates to the next unit and makes it fail, the cascading effect occurs (Khakzad and Reniers, 2015). The cascading effect between unsafe behaviors reflects that safety accidents can be caused by single unsafe behavior and chain reactions of different unsafe behaviors (Guo et al, 2021b). The emergence of unsafe behaviors of a construction worker will affect and improve the possibility of other unsafe behaviors.…”

Semantic Network Analysis Using Construction Accident Cases to Understand Workers’ Unsafe Acts

“…The construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries in the world, and many studies have shown that unsafe behavior by people is a major cause of construction accidents [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. These accidents can be attributed to unsafe conditions in the workplace, that is, physical factors such as when the workplace environment is inadequate, and unsafe acts by workers, that is, human factors such as inappropriate responses by workers to hazardous situations [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”