After the discovery of the problems that exist in construction
safety risk assessment in Hong Kong, this paper
highlighted the need for a systematic risk assessment
approach for safety professionals. A Risk Assessment
Model (RAM) was developed for the prototype of an efficient
risk evaluation tool for promoting occupational
injury prevention priorities for workers from different
trades. To establish the model, the major types of work
trades, accidents and causes in Hong Kong, with the methods
for assessing risk levels of different work trades and
accidents, were studied. Construction work was found to
be a high-risk occupational area in industry based on the
accident research compiled from official institutions. This
was explained by the combination of many reasons, such
as high-risk nature of construction work and limited
knowledge and lack of trade risk awareness of construction
workers. It is understandable that the most effective way
for improving safety performance is to prevent accidents
before they occur. Thus, safety risk analysis is a necessary
foundation upon which safety management can be built
and risk assessment becomes a critical task, which forms
an integral part of safety management systems. To improve
safety performance of construction industry, safety professionals
must ensure safety management on-site. Improving
safety professionals’ knowledge and awareness of safety
risks will affect quality and reliability of risk assessment.
Previous research revealed that safety professionals lacked
systematic risk assessment techniques and that they conducted
assessments based on of their own experience and
knowledge, which limited reliability. However, good work
practice also positively affects on-site safety performance.
To achieve good work practice, effective communication
should be sought with workers. Effective safety instructions
should be provided to workers and safety awareness should
be increased. All workers should be aware of their job
risks. The developed RAM is an effective and efficient tool
to help identify and predict the existing risk levels for major
trades and also to improve the safety performance by
implementing safety measures for the high risk trades predicted
from the RAM in their early stage of projects.
Therefore, the RAM is suitable for the existing and future
projects which require the understanding of risk levels for
major trades an