제  목 : Heavy Accident Toll on "World's Biggest Construction Site"
  일  자 : 1996년 11월
  제공처 : Safety ＆ Health

 Safety on Berlin's vast number of building projects, from apartment
      renovation to huge office complexes, appears to be largely out of
      control, according to safety researcher  Eberhard Goebel from
      Berlin's Free Unrversity.The city claims to be the world's biggest
      construction site.

 "Sometimes there are lO different companies from all parts of
      Europe working on one project. They may each have different safety
      cultures and languages," says Goebel. "The labor inspectorate is
      completely overwhelmed."

 If regulations were properly followed by management, accident
      rates could be halved, says Eginhard  Wonneberger, head of the city's
      labor inspectorate. The inspectorate claims that poor organization
      along with a large number of foreign subcontractors, too much overtime,
      and time and price pressures act together to produce 11,000 accidents
      a year. Unreported incidents could push up this figure substantially,
      he says. In l995, 22 deaths were recorded, a 30-percent rise on l994.

 Rainer Egerman from Germany's Construction Cooperative, which
      handles workers-compensation insurance for the building industry,
      says poor coordination of interlinked phases of construction
      and inexperienced personnel are the chief causes  of injuries
      and deaths.

 With building activity on almost every block in the eastern part
      of the city, the public is also exposed to hazards. Pedestrians
      have been struck by objects falling from cranes and injured
      when loads placed against fencing collapsed onto sidewalks.
      Cranes regularly move load over busy streets and even occupied
      school buildings. A woman was killed afrer being struck by a falling
      girder as she emerged from an underground railway station l00
      meters from Berlin's luxury hotel area. The street should have been
      cordoned off, says Wonneberger.

 However, with only 25 officers, Wonneberger admits the department
      has little time to carry out inspections and spends most of its
      time processing applications for building permits.

 The current rate of building activity in Berlin should last another
      two years, says Goebel.