Construction technologies save lives

The incidence of construction workers’ deaths in Israel has increased recently in 30% (annually).

According to Workers’ Hotline statistics, Israel is in third place among developed nations in terms of fatal construction accidents – 2.5 times that of the EU nations per capita.

Despite their declarations of measures to be taken to deal with these accidents, it seems the authorities can’t find effective solutions to the problem. Besides special training programs, legislation, increased enforcement and penalization, they should consider getting the startup nation involved in introducing advanced technologies to increase safety at construction sites and prevent these unnecessary accidents.

The digital revolution we’re in the midst of facilitates the application of technologies including autonomous equipment, drones and sensors that can monitor the safety of equipment, cranes and elevators, and even monitor wind speed and precipitation at the construction site. IoT (Internet of Things) technology makes it possible for sensors to monitor these factors along with the real-time monitoring of physical and other factors relevant to worker safety such as their degree of tiredness through the use of sensors installed on their helmets or clothing.

Among the relevant Israeli companies which can help prevent work-related accidents are the following:

1. SafetyFirst
An Israeli company that uses artificial intelligence, IoT technologies and cloud technologies to create a solution which helps prevent work-related accidents at construction sites before they occur.

These technologies make it possible to monitor, in real time, every worker, activity, vehicle or piece of equipment in the work area, using artificial intelligence to detect dangers and alert workers and foremen so they can prevent the accident from happening.

2. Safeguard
This company offers a system which includes a mobile application and portal for managing safety performance at construction sites. The system digitizes work manuals such as instruction manuals and crane operation manuals, issues reminders, warnings, deviation reports and safety readings, thus providing a safe work environment and proactively circumventing dangerous situations.

This tool enables foremen and other users to perform coordinated, professional, effective safety inspections while minimizing the reaction time between the detection of a problem and its solution.

3. SiteAware
This startup offers drones that sample data from construction sites and create 3D models to aid decision-making regarding building progress and necessary safety measures.

The use of drones for monitoring should help builders save money and meet deadlines, but in my opinion their use in improving project quality and worker safety is even more important.
Watch here

4. INTSITE
This company offers tools based on unique algorithms in the field of computerized vision and self-learning technology to produce autonomic cranes which significantly improve safety as well as productivity at construction sites.

These cranes facilitate improved worker safety in several ways, perhaps the most basic being the detection of workers without helmets and alerting the relevant entities.
Watch here

5. SiteWatch
This company produces safety equipment for the industrial and construction fields. Among other things, the company offers smart helmets which alert the workers to dangers in real time, gather relevant information and analyze it.

The helmets alert not only the workers but also the foremen, other relevant workers, the company’s management, and, if necessary, the emergency services. As a result, accidents are prevented and dealt with more efficiently in real time, thus saving lives.

We Israelis have an amazing resource – gifted, creative entrepreneurs in numbers other countries can only envy. The government should encourage construction companies to adopt advanced technologies as well as interactions between the construction ecosystem (contractors, entrepreneurs, government bureaus, law enforcement organizations, etc.) and college students and hold a hackathon which will encourage students to come up with technological solutions for making construction sites safer.

The sanctity of human life is a fundamental principle.

Unfortunately, the government and the Knesset only woke up to the danger of electric bicycles after a celeb was killed.

The victims of work-related accidents are usually foreigners and Arabs whose lives, sadly, are considered cheap. Will the government only wake up when a celeb is killed? When someone is killed visiting an apartment he purchased which is under construction?

It would be far better if all the relevant entities got together to improve safety at construction sites by introducing advanced technologies whose cost is paltry compared to the value of human life. The introduction of these technologies will make the construction companies more innovative and more willing to adopt technologies in other areas which will make them more efficient and profitable.