Causes of crane safety risk in the Vietnamese construction industry

Abstract

Crane is one of the most important machineries in the construction field. They are used to move large or heavy loads on most construction sites. However, crane operations in construction are very dangerous activities and contribute to a big ratio of serious accidents around the world and in Vietnam. The paper aimed to identify and evaluate crane safety risk causes as well as groups of causes in the Vietnamese construction industry. The paper
evaluated from the perspective of various related people involved in crane activities, namely drivers, managers,
and workers. A well-structured questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale was produced and sent to collect
data from 60 valid crane-related practitioners. The paper finds 59 specific causes that give rise to crane safety risks in the Vietnamese construction industry. However, there are noteworthy differences in answers from managers, drivers, and workers. The managers, drivers, and workers showed the most common safety risks
“Stress of crane workers due to time pressure”, “Insufficient safety awareness and behavior of crane workers”, and “Subcontractor does not establish safety funds for the construction safety”, respectively. They pointed out that “Crane manufacturers with bad manufacturing quality” are the most severe cause of safety risk. The managers, drivers, and workers also showed the highest safety risk level of cause “Stress of crane workers due to time pressure”, “Insufficient supervise of main contractor for the crane foundation and installation task”, and “Government lacks a good implementation of certificate management and graduation for crane operators”,
respectively. Crane management of construction site-related causes is the most common safety risk and the highest safety risk level. Regulatory bodies and stakeholders-related causes have the highest degree of severity.