The Relationship Between Day of the Week and Accidents on Construction Sites in Saudi Arabia
Ammar, Dr. Abdurahman I. . 2019
Abstract
Construction is one of the biggest industries in the world. It has the highest casualty rates compared to other industries because workers are exposed to many uncertainties and hazards on construction sites. Statistics confirm that the probability of accidents resulting in death is five times the average of accidents in other industries. This results in loss of productivity, absenteeism, disability, and even fatality. There are a number of studies related to the accident day on construction sites that have focused on the distribution of accidents by the day of the week and they revealed conflicting results. Some studies found Monday to be the most dangerous day of the week, other studies found Wednesday to be the most dangerous day of the week. This study investigates the relationship between the day of the week and accidents on construction sites in Saudi Arabia. Data on accidents between 1424 to 1432 Hijri (2003 to 2011) were obtained from the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) which is a Saudi government organization that provides payments for retirement, work compensation to subscribers or dependents who work in public or private sectors. Analyses using ANOVA revealed that the rates of accident on the day of the week on construction sites in Saudi Arabia are significantly different from each other with a p-value of 0.00. In addition, Saturday and Sunday, which are the first two days of the work week in the Saudi Calendar (during the data time span), were found to have more accidents compared to the other days of the week. Accident rates of Saturday and Sunday were the highest at 20.15% and 21.27% respectively. Other days of the week ranged between 0.346% and 14.24%. It was also found that the rate of accident on Saturday and Sunday together as a group was 20.71% compared to 6.56% for the other days in the second group with a p-value of 0.00. This conclusion counters the popularly held belief that most fatalities occur on Mondays and Fridays. The different conclusions reached in this study might be contributed to the different work calendar in Saudi Arabia compared to other countries, i.e., the weekend in the US and European countries is Saturday and Sunday, but the weekend in Saudi Arabia is on Thursday and Friday (during the data time span), and currently it is Friday and Saturday beginning 1434 Hijri (2013). In addition, there might be other factors related to culture, safety, labor skills and other factors that may contribute to other conclusions which can be investigated in future studies.
حظيت مشاريع التشييد الحكومية بنسبة كبيرة من ميزانيات الدولة السنوية، وقد اهتمت حكومة المملكة في معالجة مشكلة تعثر المشاريع من خلال تأسيس وإطلاق عدة برامج ومبادرات ومشاريع، وبالرغم من هذا الاهتمام…
Construction workers are exposed to extreme conditions over a large portion of the work day during the different seasons of the year when working on construction sites. Some studies have…