An expert system for the quantification of fault rates in construction fall accidents

Introduction. Expert witness reports, prepared with the aim of quantifying fault rates among parties, play an important role in a court's final decision. However, conflicting fault rates assigned by different expert witness boards lead to iterative objections raised by the related parties. This...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of occupational safety and ergonomics 2016-01, Vol.22 (1), p.20-31
Main Authors: Talat Birgonul, M., Dikmen, Irem, Budayan, Cenk, Demirel, Tuncay
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidental Falls
Accidents, Occupational - legislation & jurisprudence
construction fall accidents
Construction Industry - legislation & jurisprudence
expert systems
Expert Testimony - methods
Humans
Occupational Health
Protective Devices
Reproducibility of Results
safety
Safety Management - legislation & jurisprudence
Safety Management - organization & administration
Turkey
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Introduction. Expert witness reports, prepared with the aim of quantifying fault rates among parties, play an important role in a court's final decision. However, conflicting fault rates assigned by different expert witness boards lead to iterative objections raised by the related parties. This unfavorable situation mainly originates due to the subjectivity of expert judgments and unavailability of objective information about the causes of accidents. As a solution to this shortcoming, an expert system based on a rule-based system was developed for the quantification of fault rates in construction fall accidents. The aim of developing DsSafe is decreasing the subjectivity inherent in expert witness reports. Methodology. Eighty-four inspection reports prepared by the official and authorized inspectors were examined and root causes of construction fall accidents in Turkey were identified. Using this information, an evaluation form was designed and submitted to the experts. Experts were asked to evaluate the importance level of the factors that govern fall accidents and determine the fault rates under different scenarios. Based on expert judgments, a rule-based expert system was developed. The accuracy and reliability of DsSafe were tested with real data as obtained from finalized court cases. Result. DsSafe gives satisfactory results.
ISSN:1080-3548
2376-9130
DOI:10.1080/10803548.2015.1123516