Handling weighty machinery and inherent safety risks is unavoidable in the construction industry. Experts believe that tapping into the potential of artificial intelligence offers a game-changing chance to elevate safety protocols on construction sites. This includes the careful execution of risk assessments, showcasing how AI can play a crucial role in strengthening safety measures across different aspects of the industry.
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Artificial Intelligence Combats Safety Risks
There are many potential dangers in heavy construction, according to Jacquelyn Oduro, the director of the WorkSafely program for the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association. These dangers include excavation and digging incidents, accidental starts from energized equipment, moving paving equipment, and electrical hazards. Accordingly, artificial intelligence can mitigate some of these dangers and is anticipated to minimize even more of them.
Longtime AI enthusiast and suburban Washington, D.C., patent attorney David Cain asserts that the technology has the potential to improve construction site safety in numerous ways. By analyzing data collected from sensors on equipment, artificial intelligence can determine when a piece of equipment is likely to break. In this way, businesses can do maintenance or replacement on their equipment before it fails.
Moreover, artificial intelligence has made monitoring building sites feasible in real-time.
Cain claims that artificial intelligence can monitor building sites in real-time to identify safety infractions by utilizing sophisticated picture recognition and machine learning techniques. Workers who engage in potentially hazardous actions, such as not wearing the appropriate safety equipment, can be identified by artificial intelligence.
As mentioned, an evaluation of risks and an analysis of potential outcomes are already being performed using it. Using data from previous projects, artificial intelligence may recognize patterns and trends that assist in predicting prospective safety issues. It also can examine data from previous incidents and near-misses to detect high-risk activities, locations, and times of the day. As Cain explains, performing predictive machine maintenance can help eliminate issues before they occur, aside from risk assessment.
In addition, your location can be monitored all of the time by a remote video surveillance system paired with artificial intelligence, which can reduce loitering, theft, and damage. It reportedly enhances operational efficiency and capacity by removing the need to devise security measures for the site and mitigating project disruptions caused by misappropriated materials and equipment, among other concerns.
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Fatalities in Construction Industry
On a construction site, there are many moving parts, and risks are lurking around every corner, making the possibility of accidents and injuries for workers significantly higher. Tragically, some of these incidents that occur on construction sites have led to deaths or serious injuries that may contribute to disabilities that last a lifetime.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States of America, 4,764 people passed away while on the job in 2020. Construction extraction and transportation and material moving workers contributed to 47.4% of fatal occupational injuries, accounting for 1,282 and 976 workplace deaths.
Furthermore, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that there were 5,190 fatal work injuries registered in the United States in 2021. This represents an increase of 8.9% from the 4,764 fatal work injuries that were recorded in 2020. After the pandemic, the fatal work injury rate rose to 3.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers from 3.4 in 2020 and 3.5 before. However, although witnessing a 2.6% decline in fatalities from 2020 to 2021, the construction and extraction occupations had the second highest number of deaths in the workplace.
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