TOP Factors Affecting Safety of Tower Crane Installation / Dismantling in Korea

The construction industry accounts for about 35% of all workers, making occupational safety in complex and dynamic construction work environments a major concern in Korea. The occupational accident rate in Korea has decreased in the last 10 years. However, the growing number of occupational injuries and their deadly consequences has raised questions about the safety record of the construction industry. The accident rate per 1000 workers in this industry has grown from 6.55 in 2009 to 8.38 in 2012. The severity rate and the total work loss per annual working has also increased from 2.34 in 2009 to 3.05 in 2012.

Construction of high-rise buildings, large-scale apartment blocks, or construction in urban areas (especially busy downtowns) demands increasingly greater use of tower cranes. Tower cranes rank fourth as objects involved in accidents, behind temporary structures (e.g. scaffolding), construction machines (e.g., backhoes), and construction vehicles. About 2100 crane-related accidents are reported annually and 23.7% of these occur on construction sites. Tower cranes are associated with 7.2% of all lifting equipment accidents in Korea.

Between 2001 and 2011, there were total of 38 fatal accident cases involving tower cranes in Korea. These accidents claimed the lives of 53 persons (workers) and 15 persons were injured, for a total of 68 victims of tower crane-related accidents. Accidents occurring during installation/dismantling of tower cranes accounted for 68.4% of all fatal accidents. Therefore, the installation and dismantling of tower cranes on construction sites is an inevitable task, but also one of the most dangerous in the construction industry. Categorization by work phases revealed that 36.8% of all fatal accidents occurred during climbing, followed by 18.4% during dismantling, and 13.2% during installation (erection).

The total accident analysis identified “Not following work procedures” as one of the main causes of these accidents, followed by “unsafe acts of workers.” The focus group investigation revealed the following factors that adversely affected the safety of the tower crane installation/dismantling:

• competence of the workers;
• roles of stakeholders such as principal contractors in the tasks;
• deterioration of tower crane components; and
• working conditions for conducting the tasks.