subject: Common Types of Construction Accidents [print this page] Common Types of Construction Accidents Common Types of Construction Accidents
Construction accidents can have a wide range of results. Sometimes, they are so bad that they can lead to injury and lasting damage for the worker or workers involved. Other times they are relatively minor and do not amount to much even though they still should not have happened. All construction companies take many steps to prevent accidents from happening. They work to make their employees as safe as possible while they are on the job. While it is true that an accident cannot be predicted, the right safety measures can be put into place so that accidents rarely happen. That being said, many accidents still happen each year. The following are some of the most common.
Accidents Involving Vehicles
One type of accident that happens is that a large vehicle strikes a worker. Many job sites use cranes and bulldozers and other pieces of heavy machinery. These are slow, but they are also much harder to maneuver than common cars. If workers are standing near the base of the crane, for example, the driver may not even see them.
In the same way, vehicles collide from time to time. This is a bit safer for the workers involved since the speeds are low, but can still cause a lot of damage to the machines. A backhoe could back up into another large vehicle or a parked truck, for example. No one would be hurt, be one of the machines could be damaged to the point that it would no longer work.
Accidents Involving Machines
There are other types of machines that sometimes fail as well. One example would be the hydraulic lifts and cranes that are used to carry things such as I-beams or shingles to the top of a structure. These are too heavy for people to carry by hand for such great distances, so the machines use cables and pulleys to move them instead. Most of the time, there are no complications. If the cable breaks for any reason -- because it was old and frayed, for example, or because the crane struck a building -- the materials can fall and pose a great danger.
