Health and safety practices in the Christchurch rebuild - how relevant is the Heinrich Safety Pyramid?

Abstract

Health and Safety is at the forefront of the construction sector projects in New Zealand particularly as the post-earthquake rebuild gets underway in Christchurch. Health and Safety best practice on all project sites needs to be constantly reviewed, updated, and implemented to reduce on-site accidents. The research investigated whether Heinrich's (1931) Safety Pyramid was relevant to Christchurch's post-earthquake rebuild projects in the civil construction sector. The selected literature specifically focussed on publications that involved or reviewed the validity of Heinrich's Safety Pyramid. Archival accident data in New Zealand for the year ending June 2103 was reviewed and to complement this data a questionnaire was prepared, and distributed to one hundred construction personnel working on civil construction rebuild projects in Christchurch in the latter part of 2013. In addition, semi-structured interviews were subsequently conducted with five selected personnel including project managers, supervisors and labourers. The reviewed and collected data were analysed with the resultant finding that Heinrich's Safety Pyramid was still considered to have relevance for safety practices on Christchurch's post-earthquake rebuild projects in the civil construction sector.