Seventh International Conference on Construction in the 21 st Century (CITC-VII) “Challenges in Innovation, Integration and Collaboration in Construction & Engineering” December 19-21, 2013, Bangkok, Thailand Relating Construction Safety Performance Lagging and Leading Indicators Rehan Masood (Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) Abstract Injury/fatality rates in construction have been increased in last decade and mostly unreported due to lack of legislative body for administration of occupational health and safety in economic sectors. There is major difference found in types of construction accidents investagted in previous research studies and national statistics. Highlighted types are tool accidents; fall from height; struck by material; heat strokes; head and eye injuries which are mainly caused by defective equipments with low maintanance operated by operatives with less knowledge. Recording accidents including injuries and fatalities with proper investigation on construction sites is a lagging indicator used by contractors to measure their safety performance in specific period of time fortnightly, monthly, quaterly, biannually and annually. These statistics are used in project reports to head office and even clients. Few construction firms analyze the cost of accidents and incorportate in site overheads. Contrary, safety climate is mostly adopted leading indicator which is a measure of psychological construct of safety culture defined as product, manifestation, indicator, abstraction; snapshot and temperature of safety on construction site. A safety climate questionnaire survey (based on likert scale 1 ~ 5) was conducted on twenty three constructions sites of diversified types as infrastructure, high rise buildings, facility buildings, roads and bridges. 76% of response have been received from sixty one workers of different trades (for work, steel fixing, concreting, plaster, scaffolding and related helpers). Results showed mean score of safety climate statements (related to construction hazardous, incidents and accidents) revealed as investigations are mainly used to identify who is to blame (3.61); my supervisor/safety manager welcomes reporting safety hazards/incidents (3.70); in our work environment working with defective equipment is not allowed under any circumstances (3.61); and accidents which happen here are always reported (3.82). Responsibility of accidents is not taken by either management or workers but role of supervisors is also critical which relate safety issues with self-performance. Productivity has given priority on safety due to tight schedules on construction projects which urge managers and supervisors to ignore hazardous conditions. Major reason of accident is defective equipment endorsed in psychological perspective including site ergonomics and, plant and equipment. Accident reporting is not efficient part of site culture as contract based or daily wage workers have job insecurity which leads number of incidents to a severe accident. There is clear weak relation between lagging and leading indicators of safety performance as most accidents are happening due to tools but workers perceive that proper PPE is provided and no tools are defective. In light of current study, it is recommended that construction firms should provide tools and equipment without defects and well maintained site environment. Keywords Accidents, Safety climate, Workers, Safety performance, Pakistan