INDIANAPOLIS — Zurich North America is working with remote video coaching company Arrowsight to place cameras at construction sites that provide daily replays of both safe and dangerous behaviors to reduce injuries, the companies announced.
Arrowsight records footage of workers performing hazardous tasks, such as handling live loads or working at heights, and has engineers review it for safety compliance, Adam Aronson, CEO of the Katonah, New York-based company, said during an interview Tuesday at the IRMI Construction Risk Conference.
A short video showing safe and dangerous behavior is then sent to the site manager for review during safety meetings the next day.
Pilots of the project show that the video reviews significantly improve compliance with safety rules, Mr. Aronson said.
“When you can take a 70% compliance to a 97% to 99% compliance, that’s when the needle can get moved,” he said.
The battery-powered cameras will be compulsory for Zurich construction policyholders in New York and are available for sites in other states, said Tobias Cushing, New York-based head of construction at the insurer.
The combination of New York’s construction labor law, or scaffold law, which imposes absolute liability on owners and contractors for height-related accidents, and New York City’s “challenging jury jurisdiction,” increases construction losses in the state, he said.
As a result, in New York, workers compensation and general liability insurance comprise 7% to 10% of construction costs, compared with 3% to 5% in other states, and contractors are often required to take deductibles of $5 million per claim, he said.
“We’re not vilifying the worker; we’re saying, ‘Hey, the technique is off. Let’s remind everybody of the proper technique,’” Mr. Cushing said.
Policyholders using the cameras can qualify for “significant” risk management credits from Zurich to offset or cover the cost of the cameras, he said.
The process reduced workers comp claims frequency by more than 50% in the pilot projects, the companies said.