ABSTRACT
Ever since the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (SSEZ) in March 1979, the local construction industry has made significant progress and the scale of construction has been greatly expanded. As a result of such developments, employment opportunities in the construction industry flourished. Most of the construction workers were poorly educated and had little awareness of the safety hazards on site. Consequently, during the construction boom period, a high accident ratio resulted. During the period 1982 to 1986, statistics indicated that 102 were killed, 213 seriously injured and 509 slightly wounded in Shenzhen construction sites. In 1985, 41 persons were killed. During the following years, about 15 to 20 persons lost their lives working on construction sites. While the accident statistics in the industry have improved over the years, construction site safety continues to be a major issue on the industry agenda.
