Making Zero Accidents a Reality

This study assessed the impact, in a large project setting, of the five high-impact Zero Accident Techniques identified in the 1993 CII study. RT-160 identified 10 key topic areas that contribute to improved safety performance. Although the five topics from the 1993 study were among them, they are being implemented with some notable differences.

The 10 topic areas follow in the order of how a safety initiative might take place:

1. Management commitment   
2. Staffing for safety   
3. Pre-project and pre-task planning   
4. Safety education (orientation and specialized training)   
5. Worker involvement   
6. Evaluation and recognition and reward   
7. Subcontractor management   
8. Accident/incident investigation   
9. Drug and alcohol testing   
10. Contract type        

RT-160’s related research focused on short-duration projects (commonly referred to as shutdowns, turnarounds, or outages) to assess the unique characteristics of these projects; particularly, the rapid buildup of the workforce. Its results were consistent with the key topic areas for RT-160 above, but RT-160a identified additional factors that influence safety performance on shorter projects:     

1. Transferring workers from other projects to perform the work    
2. Hiring workers a few weeks before the short duration project    
3. Shorter work weeks and project duration    
4. Smaller crews or worker-supervisor ratios    
5. Incentivized contracts