• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.261-268
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• 2022

In road work zones, pedestrian workers' habituated inattention to warning alarms from construction vehicles can lead to fatal accidents. Previous studies have theorized that human factors such as personality traits may affect workers' inattentiveness to workplace hazards. However, there has been no study that directly examined how road construction workers' personality traits affect their attention to warning alarms within a work zone and the likelihood of engagement in a struck-by accident. This study examines how workers' sensation-seeking (especially boredom susceptibility) is related to inattention to warning alarms while performing a task in road work zones. An experiment with actual road construction workers was conducted using a virtual road construction environment. Workers' attention to repeatedly presented warning alarms was measured using eye-tracking sensors. In response to workers' frequent inattentive behaviors, a virtual accident was simulated. Results revealed a significant association between boredom susceptibility and workers' engagement in the virtual accident, a consequence of inattentiveness to warning alarms. The findings suggest that workers' personality traits predispose them to tune out warning alarms and become vulnerable to accidents in road work zones. The findings of this study can be used to develop targeted interventions aimed at preventing workers' inattention to repeatedly exposed workplace hazards, thereby contributing to reducing fatal accidents in road work zones.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.111-116
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• 2012

This study analyzed the accidents and researched on risk of the actual condition in roof works. This study revealed that 68% of accidents in roof works occurred on small sized construction sites. And 79% of accidents are caused by fall. It is simply because most laborers do not wear the safety harness and the mounted equipment is not properly installed. According to our research, we realize that most of roof works have some risk of the fall accidents. Most of roof working sites have the danger of falling at ladder and temporary walkway. In oder to prevent accidents in roof works, the basic rule such as wearing the safety harness must be followed.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.383-389
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• 2020

Accidents on construction sites involving fires do not occur as often as accidents involving falls from height or collapses. However, once a fire accident occurs, there is a high risk of a large number of casualties. Fire on construction sites is affected by working conditions and the types of activities the construction workers are engaged in at the sites. This study aims to identify activities and working conditions at construction sites that are vulnerable to fire, and analyse how they correlate with each other and how they affect the causes and consequences of fire accidents at construction sties. I analysed 40 fire accident reports and listed the situations vulnerable to fire at construction sites considering direct causes, activities, and working conditions. The most dangerous combination of fire hazards can be the heating devices used during rest/sleep in the office/cabin/storage during cold weather. The next most hazardous combination can be sparks arising from painting, waterproofing, insulation, plumbing, or welding/melting work in an underground or confined space.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.121-128
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• 2023

Construction industry is considered as one of the most high-risk industries for work-related injuries and fatalities, accounting for more than half of fatalities in Korea. Advanced countries have recognized the critical role of designers in preventing construction accidents and have established regulations on design for safety. In line with this, the Korean government have also implemented regulations that require owners and designers to review the safety of design outcomes. However, it has been observed that designers face challenges in identifying hazards and integrating design solutions at the design stage mainly due to their shortage of required knowledge and skills. This study aimed to examine design solutions that can be applied to prevent fall accidents in the construction industry, and to establish a relationship between these solutions and fatal fall accidents occurred over the past three years in Korea. This study also analyzed the relationships of four variables (construction type, cost, work type, and fall location) with design solutions. The results indicated that all four variables have significant relationships with design solutions, with fall location showing the strongest relationship. The design solutions and their relationships with fatal fall accidents identified in this study can be utilized in identifying hazard and integrating design solutions to ensure design for safety.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.545-554
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• 2020

As recent safety accidents at construction sites can lead to serious accidents that threaten the lives of workers, the role of safety managers in charge of safety management has emerged. However, the current construction safety management system requires the improvement and simplification of the work contents due to the excessive workload and inefficient safety tasks of each person. In this respect, the main purpose of this study is to reduce the occurrence of construction safety accidents by deriving correlations using 2×2 Matrix analysis techniques through expert opinion, simplifying unnecessary tasks and identifying areas requiring improvement. Therefore, if this research reduces inefficient safety manager work and reduces job stress caused by excessive simple document work, thereby efficiently reorganizing safety manager's work to prevent blind spots of hazards and risks, it will ultimately have a great effect on preventing safety accidents at construction sites.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.25-32
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• 2022

This study analyzes the impact of occupational accidents on economic growth and labor productivty losses in Korea between January 2008 and July 2018, using the Vector Error-Correction Model (VECM). According to the analysis, the occurrence of occupational accidents was revealed to reduce the number of employed workers and also hinder economic growth. This can be reinterpreted as the reduction of occupational accidents does not cause labor losses in the industry, rather may induce economic growth. Also, the findings discovered that an increase in the number of workers may lead to increase in the probability of occupational accidents in the short term. This suggests that greater number of work-related accidents may occur during the early stages- due to new employees' lack of knowledge related to safety at workplace.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.29-33
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• 2008

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Labor for the past 6 years, work-related accidents in the construction industry have been on the continued increase, resulting in social and economic losses that are difficult to determine at an exact amount. However, the number will likely get much bigger if unreported cases are included, considering the fact that the aforementioned statistics are based soley on the applications filed with Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service. The practice of businesses choosing not to report and dealing with industrial accidents in an unauthorized manner is defined as "concealment of industrial accident". The reason the employers tend to engage in the concealment practice even at their huge cost is a "pre-qualification" scheme for the applicants in the government procurement process. Under the pre-qualification scheme, the applicants with a high rate of industrial accidents receive a low grade and become less attractive candidates in the procurement process, thus losing an opportunity to win a contract. Such failure relates directly to the fate of business organizations, to survive or not. That is why they are making all-out efforts to obtain a high grade in the pre-qualification evaluation. With regard to the accident-concealment problem, the following can be mentioned as preventive measures: (1) To exclude a rate of industrial accidents from the pre-qualification scheme; (2) To strengthen the institution of imposing penalties on the occurrence of industrial accidents; (3) To introduce private insurance system to the current industrial accident compensation insurance; and (4) To give non-recognition treatment to industrial accidents that were not reported upon occurrence. In conclusion, the concealment problem can be resolved if the aforementioned measures are to be taken continuously along with corrective measures against institutional deficiencies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.129-135
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• 2014

In recent studies, construction industry workers with higher job stress and lower work ability were more likely to experience accidents at their workplace. Likewise, fatal accidents rate was higher among simple labor workers compared to technical workers. Therefore the evaluation of a worker's job stress and work ability seems to be important in preventing the occurrence of fatal accidents. To search for ways to reduce job stress and to improve work ability, the current study conducted a job stress analysis based on age, years of service, skill level, hobbies, sleep patterns, and monthly income. For this, the Korean occupational stress questionnaire short form and the Work Ability Index (WAI) developed by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH) were used. In this study, SPSS 12.0K statistics program was used for statistical analysis and significance was verified by the Kruskal-Wallis test and non-parametric tests. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : (1) Simple labor workers had higher job stress and less work ability than technical workers. (2) The more experienced workers had lower job stress and higher work ability. (3) In the case of workers who slept a lot, work ability was higher and job stress was less. (4) Monthly income influenced on the job stress and work ability. (5) Job stress and work ability in accordance with the age difference was not significant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.26-35
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• 2023

Sparks cause most fire and explosion accidents in the manufacturing industry during hot work, which ignites surrounding combustible materials. Such incidents lead to high casualties due to suffocation from toxic gases and lack of evacuation. Therefore, the government recently enacted and revised 'The Occupational Safety and Health Act' to prevent fires and explosions at work sites, incorporating legal standards for fire observers, which are important in preventing accidents and the spread of fire during hot work. However, there are notable shortcomings in conducting professional cause analysis of these accidents and in aligning them with advanced foreign legal standards. Additionally, there is a lack of literature review reflecting the manufacturing industry characteristics. Despite the recent enactment and revision of legal standards, gathering sufficient opinions and professional reviews remains insufficient. To address these gaps, interviews were conducted with safety and health workers, analyzing recent fire and explosion causes in domestic manufacturing industries, and reviewing both domestic and international legal standards. Conclusively, proposed improvement measures were centered on the professionalization of fire observer education, enhancing their roles and authority realistically, and improving fire observer placement and operation standards. Consequently, additional 'Occupational Safety and Health Act' standards are necessary for fire observer education and defining the government's role. Second, precise legal standards outlining the role and authority of fire observers are required. Third tailored fire observer arrangements and management standards appropriate for varying work characteristics and company sizes are required. This study emphasizes the importance of supplementing relevant legal standards to prevent fire accidents in the manufacturing industry.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.786-790
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• 2005

As the scale of building construction is larger and more complex and the adaptation of new technology is increasing, the tendency of the risk serious accident cases is increasing now. Especially, the accident rate is below 10% at the building construction workers in Korea but among the total industrial accidents it exceeded by 35%. To prevent a construction accident, it is essential that not only to have a through grasp of the characteristic of safety problem but also to establish of efficient safety counter plan are required. According to the type and situation of building construction, the acquirement of necessary information is useful to prevent the hazard of work and establish the counter plan. Among the safety information it is a thing of especial importance that to estimate the hazard of work types for building construction to prepare the counter plan of safety. This study will analyze all of the1600 accidents of the building construction works from the data of KOSHA(Korea Occupational Safety &Health Agency) which were collected during 11 years(1992~2002) data relating to serious accidents of the building construction works, and suggest the counter plan according to the each work type in building construction works.