Analysis of occupational accidents for safety design.

Background: Safety design covers proactive actions as it analyzes accident risks early in the enterprise life cycle, and considers the designer acting on accident prevention as a member of the construction team.

Objective: This paper proposes an accident investigation to establish links between accident causes and design to support Prevention through Design (PtD) tools.

Methods: This article analyzed more than a thousand severe and fatal accident cases in the construction sector. A systematic analysis method was structured based on descriptions of accident causes and measures that could be taken to avoid accidents.

Results: Analyzing the severe and fatal accidents, the safety measures implemented in the project design could avoid at least 23.6% of the events. As a result, the architectural and structural designs were more effective in accident prevention. The reference percentages and the design types that are more effective in preventing accidents are analyzed through a representative sample of the analysis of the accident.

Conclusions: This research contributes to applying safety guidelines in design projects, directly assisting in project and construction management.