The establishment of conceptual framework to improve the current safety practice related to the accidents in material handling at construction sites: a case study for residential and infrastructure works in Pulau Pinang / Nurul Syakirah Mohd Shah

Material handling is part of occupational duties at construction sites. Recently, there were many accidents due to material handling which occurred at various sites in the country. These reports had been given wide publicity in the local media which raised great concern and anxiety among the public. Thus, the aim of this paper are; to determine the main causes of accident in material handling, investigate the main attributes of safety practice as a prevention tool for material handling accident, and to establish the conceptual framework to improve the current safety practice related to the accidents in material handling at construction sites. The data was collected through a questionnaire survey from 42 respondents and analysed using SPSS Software version 21.0 using ranking analysis (mean and standard deviation). Besides, direct observation method was also used and the data was analysed using frequency analysis in rder to support the finding from questionnaire survey. The results showed that most of the respondents agreed that the critical causes of material handling accidents are worker-related factors, management-related factors and material and equipment- related factors. The safety practices attributes matched the suitable main causes and the result of the synthesized literature review. From the survey, it was found that there were three (3) priority safety practice attributes for every cause of material handling accident which are; individual involvement, management commitment and on site precaution. Finally, all the findings will be used to develop a conceptual framework to improve the current safety practice related to the accidents in material handling at construction sites. It will serve as a guideline to construction practitioners especially for the contractors to monitor and take preventative action in future to minimize the occurrence of material handling accidents in general as to impose safety at the construction sites especially in the residential and infrastructure works.