Ho, Volta Region, September 12, 2017//-Occupational accidents in developing countries such as Ghana could be minimized if workers adhere to safety rules and regulations. In this study, accident risk factors within some selected automobile repair workshops in Ghana were assessed for adherence and violation.
There were two stages of data collection. First, an observational study was conducted to identify safety regulations adhered to and violated. Second, 375 questionnaires were administered to mechanics from local garages, government institution garages and international automobile company garages.
The study was performed by a neutral third party and assisted by experts in related fields, such as a very experienced car accident attorney. This was done to ensure the veracity and neutrality of the results. Said results showed that several car accidents that occurred in recent years in standard road driving conditions were caused by malfunctions of the vehicles, which could be tracked down to poor maintenance work at automobile repair workshops. Thanks to Online First Aid training experts many people got the right treatment. The use of faulty tools and equipment, workers physical condition and non compliance to standard safety rules and regulations were the main causes of a large percentage of the accidents observed. Many people believe that estate planning is something done only by the wealthy or by the elderly. The fact is, this could not be further from the truth. Whether you are young or old, it is important to meet with estate planning attorneys so you can have your affairs in order in case something goes wrong. When most people think of Hyannis, MA Estate Planning Attorney, they think of making a will. It is true, of course, that planning attorneys assist with the creation of a valid will that will stand up in court and that will prevent your heirs from fighting over your assets and possessions at the time of your death. However, estate attorneys do much more than simply help you to draft a will. Estate planning attorneys can recommend comprehensive strategies to help you to protect your assets and your wealth not only from being subject to high estate taxes but also from being lost if you become ill or incapacitated. Estate planning attorneys can do this by helping you to create trusts to protect your assets, or by helping you to make appropriate plans for long-term care insurance. Estate planning attorneys will also help to make sure that you are taken care of if something happens to you so you are not at the mercy of family members to act on your behalf during their time of grief. Estate planning is the process of managing and parceling out an estate to reduce the taxes owed and to transfer assets to beneficiaries after someone dies. The goal being that all of your financial wishes are met upon your death and are not determined by a court. You plan your estate through legal entities like trusts, wills, powers of attorney, health care surrogacies, etc. These are critical legal tools that will help your spouse and your family after you die and avoid having your estate go into probate and be settled by a judge. When you begin to make a plan, you will want to go through an attorney to make sure that all of the requirements are in order for your final wishes to be carried out appropriately as per the laws in your particular state. There are some things you can do to prepare to meet with your estate planning attorney.
In addition, failure to wear personal protective equipment (PPE)/gear the use of appropriate wedges to prevent rolling of tires when working on vehicles and the provision of fire extinguishers in the shop area in case of a fire outbreak were the most violated safety regulations.
According to auto accident attorneys to prevent or minimize frequent occurrence of accidents, the respondents mentioned that safety seminars should be conducted on regular basis so as to keep them informed about standard safety practices, it is also important for citizens to know that they should hire an auto accident attorney merrillville in whenever they can in a collision.
- Introduction
1.1 Background
Mechanics are a key human resource in the automobile industry in every economy. In developing countries such as Ghana, most mechanics are in the informal sector with a marginal number of them being employed in the formal and government institutions to be in charge of the organization’s automobile workshops.
Their key roles include maintenance and repair of vehicles. Similar tasks are being performed in India by automobile repair workers. Tasks such as vehicle spraying and painting, repair of vehicle parts, body cleaning, Skilled Welding services and general work are performed by automobile repairers (Vyas et al., 2011).
These activities are not without hazards and therefore it is important to apply safety rules and regulations. An accident is usually an unplanned and unexpected event which results from a mistake somewhere, somehow and by somebody (Aniekwu, 2007). There are several risks which causes accidents in the automobile repair workshops. Mechanics (or workers) in the automobile industry are exposed to a lot of occupational health risks, and one those is when they try to repair the windshield, for reason that this work will be make just for professional you can check this website, did you know cars and learn more about this.
According to the Environmental law some of these risks include exposure to hot noisy environments, presence of dust, fumes, oils, grease and other chemicals, strenuous work postures, the use of improperly designed tools and machinery and working in poor psycho-social environments (Hunt et al., 2000; ILO, 2000; Rongo et al., 2004).
For instance a study conducted in Tanzania shows that auto body workers’ are exposed to hazardous particulates or vapours from grinding, cutting, welding, car preparation, and spray painting processes in the auto body shops is well established (Rongo, 2004).
Taha (2000) also indicated that workers in auto-mechanics, including welders, are exposed to asbestos, metal dust, organic solvents, paint pigments and automobile exhausts, which pose serious risks to their health. Therefore adherence to safety rules and regulation to reduce occupational risks and hazards within the automobile repair workshops is very important. Leave the job to professionals to make sure everyone stays safe. If you’re looking for a new car paint protection in Sydney, check out Ceramicpro Sydney.
Almost all industries have safety regulations which help to prevent accidents or reduce it to its barest minimum and this applies to the automobile workshop.
This is because the occurrence of accidents within an industry whether fatal or non-fatal an auto accident attorney should be call, waste funds and resources and time of the industry or owner of the workshop. It is therefore essential for automobile workers to adhere to safety regulations to reduce occupational accidents.
Furthermore, studies show that mechanics have higher rates of occupational health hazards compared to workers in other occupations (Valuri and Routley, 1994; Leung, 1978). In developing countries such as Ghana, enforcement of automobile workshop safety regulations is lacking especially the local garages.
Most of these workshops are in the informal sector and their owners or supervisors were apprentice trainees. They lack the requisite knowledge in automobile workshop safety regulations.
However, automobile workshops of government organizations or institutions are supervised by professionally trained automobile engineers who have appropriate and adequate knowledge in automobile workshop safety. The international automobile companies have standard automobile workshops where safety regulations are maintained and enforced.
A report from International Labour Office shows that hundreds of thousands of accident cases were recorded in workshops (World of Work Report, 2012). These included automobile repair workshops of which some of the accident cases resulted into deaths.
However, in developing countries such as Ghana, occupational risk factors in the informal sectors are not well documented. In addition, most of the local artisans working in the informal automobile sector are not well educated and often uninformed regarding safety practices and risks involved in violating these practices.
Therefore this study sought to investigate accidental risk factors within some selected automobile repair workshops in Ghana for adherence and violation of safety rules and regulations.
1.2 The automobile repair workshops in Ghana
The most common automobile repair workshop in Ghana is the local garages where a group of automotive mechanics come together to offer automotive maintenance and repair services. They operate under the informal sector with normally one master owning the shop.
The shop is normally built on a piece of land hired from a landlord. A typical local automobile repair workshop has master mechanics that have different specialization in automotive systems. They include automotive electrician, automotive mechanic, welder, brake binder, interior vehicle liner, body sprayer etc.
However, in Ghana, a classical local automobile repair workshop has not less than three master mechanics in their specialized areas of automotive electrical, automotive mechanic and brake binder. Each master normally has apprentice trainees who are studying under them.
Similar study conducted by Adei et al. (2011) in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana also indicated that about 54% of sprayers including auto body sprayers, practiced their work in the open air but stored their solvents and equipment in small wooden structures, 13.3% of sprayers practiced in a wooden structure which served as their workshop, and also storage place for their solvents and equipment.
Another group of automobile repair workshops are garages owned by one person but employs automotive mechanics specialized in different areas. Automobile repair workshops belonging to this category are few in number relative to individual masters owning their garages.
They are also engaged in the repair and maintenance of vehicles. Workshops owned by international automobile companies are also opened to the general public for general vehicle repair and maintenance but most people do not patronize their services because of the relatively high fees charged.
In Ghana, vehicle owners prefer local automobile workshops for carrying out repair and replacement of parts. This is usually because of proximity and low service charges.
- Methods
2.1 Study area description
The study was carried out in five regions in Ghana, where automobile repair workshops especially local garages were dominant. The researchers classified the automobile repair workshops into three categories.
Category A consists of local repair workshops which are very common and normally patronized by almost all vehicle owners. Category B repair workshops are those that belong to the international automobile companies such as Silver Star Ltd, Toyota Ghana Ltd, Rana motors, Mechanical Lloyed, PHC Motors etc.
Because of the high safety standards ensured in these companies, accidents are rarely recorded. Category C comprises of automobile repair workshops in government organizations or institutions such as Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ghana Water Company Ltd, Ghana Audit Service etc.
In these organizations, there are automobile repair workshops where the vehicles of the institutions are repaired and maintained. Most of these workshops are not opened to public vehicle owners for servicing.
2.2 Data collection techniques
The study used multi approach techniques in data collection. It involved observation and questionnaire administration to workers from each category of automobile repair workshops identified.
This approach was used because of its complementary effect of strengths and weaknesses associated with each method. This approach was chosen to increase the validity of the study by enriching the scope, depth and knowledge derived from the data.
2.2.1 Observations
Observations were made by the researchers by visiting the three categories of the automobile repair workshops identified four times on different occasions informally.
During the trip, factors causing accidents, most violated safety rules and accident prevention factors were observed within the automobile repair workshops. These factors were recorded on an observational chart.
2.2.2 Survey
A pre-tested interviewer administered questionnaires to some mechanics outside the selected regions. Identified mistakes were corrected and questions rephrased to avoid ambiguity.
The questionnaires were administered to respondents from the three categories of automobile repair workshops identified. The questionnaire comprised both the open and close ended questions.
Questions were centred on contributing occupational accident factors, most violated safety rules and accident prevention factors.
2.3 Sampling
In all, 375 automobile repair workers who responded to the questionnaire make up the sample size. Two hundred and ninety five (295) respondents were local garage workers, seventy (70) respondents were from government institutions or organizations with automobile repair workshops and ten (10) respondents from international automobile companies.
The respondents from the local garages were selected randomly whiles the transport officers and workshop supervisors were purposively selected for garages of government institutions and international automobile companies respectively.
The sampling size was strongly influenced by willingness of respondents to participate in the studies especially at the international automobile companies.
2.4 Data analysis
The questionnaires were edited, coded and entered into Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS) version 16 software where the responses tabulated. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to establish whether significant differences existed between accident and safety factors.
- Results
3.1 Demographics of respondents
The study shows that most of the respondents (95.2%) were males whiles 4.8% were females. This is not surprising because most repair works in the automobile workshops in Ghana are carried out by males.
The respondents had different educational levels with most of them (28.8%) being basic educational certificate holders (Table 1). Furthermore, most of the respondents who had up to tertiary education were the ones working in the government institution’s automobile garages and international automobile companies.
The study further indicated that respondents had various positions at their workshops with most of them being apprentices (44%) as shown in Table 2. … http://www.academia.edu/5230529/Accident_and_safety_violation_in_automobile_repair_workshops_in_Ghana.
Study by Ho Technical University
