Hazard recognition and risk perception in construction

A construction superintendent’s ability to recognize hazards and to perceive and assess risk is an essential skill for maintaining safe conditions on their construction sites. In a study that aimed to explore the degree to which construction superintendents are aware of hazards and how well they perceive the associated risks, 61 subjects were asked to identify the hazards in a typical construction project, to assess their risk level, and to estimate the probability and the severity of possible accidents. Some subjects were presented with photographs and construction documents, while others toured a virtual construction site using a 3-sided virtual reality CAVE. The method allowed both for analysis of differences in perception and assessment between distinct populations and for evaluation of the effectiveness of the virtual environment in demonstrating hazardous situations. Results show that construction superintendents with many years of experience are unable to identify all of the hazards in their work environment, and that there are important discrepancies between the way they assess risk levels and the way most formal safety risk assessment methods rate risk levels. Most subjects in the virtual environment assessed higher risk levels to hazards caused by moving equipment. They also identified more hazards correctly than the subjects who studied photographs and documents. Of primary concern is the apparent lack of correlation between hours of safety training and work experience on the one hand, and hazard identification and perception skills on the other hand.