Safety Plus: Making Zero Accidents A Reality

This research effort is a follow-on effort to the zero accidents work sponsored by CII in the early 1990s. Since that time, it has become apparent that changes have occurred in how safety is being addressed by many progressive, proactive construction firms. This study identifies the current best practices in the construction industry that make a difference in safety performance and that move the industry toward the goal of zero accidents.

The Making Zero Accidents A Reality Project Team identified the following nine key topic areas that contribute to improved safety performance:

1. Demonstrated management commitment
2. Staffing for safety
3. Planning: pre-project and pre-task
4. Safety education: orientation and specialized training
5. Worker involvement
6. Evaluation and recognition/reward
7. Subcontract management
8. Accident/incident investigations
9. Drug and alcohol testing

These topic areas, discussed in this research summary, are listed in order of how the development of a safety initiative might take place. There is no attempt to prioritize them. The project team suggests that these initiatives be taken as a consolidated group as good safety performance cannot be achieved with only one of the topic areas being implemented. Of course, it is readily agreed that demonstrated management commitment is of paramount importance.