Abstract

Despite advancements in safety measures, fatalities in the transportation sector remain disproportionately higher than in other industries. Transportation sector fatalities arise from a combination of demographic, environmental, and occupational factors that amplify the overall risk. While strides have been made in understanding the factors contributing to fatalities, there remains a critical gap in research focused on their temporal evolution. The goal of this study is to investigate the temporal evolution of fatality-linked association factors in the transportation construction sector. The methodology encompassed three stages. Stage 1 was preprocessing the data: the US Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, covering 3,792 fatality cases with 12 different features and 630 associated categories. Stage 2 applied the Apriori algorithm to generate if-then rules and identify critical factors. Stage 3 conducted a change mining analysis to examine temporal shifts in the rules for three demographic groups over three time periods, highlighting the risky combinations of features in the fatality data. Analysis revealed that for the first demographic group (White males), a critical combination of factors included (1) being an unskilled construction laborer; (2) working in the private sector; and (3) being struck by mobile equipment. But from a temporal lens, the significance of this combination decreased over time, potentially reflecting an industry-wide intervention. For the second group (males of other races), risky combinations evolved from pickup truck incidents involving employees (1) aged 20-24 years; and (2) with less than 1 year tenure in private ownership to work zone incidents involving (1) a forward-moving vehicle; (2) employees of large firms; and (3) projects in the South region. Finally, the third group (females) shows a consistent combination: (1) directing traffic; and (2) being a crossing guard. This work sheds light on historical trends and serves as a foundation for informed decision-making and targeted intervention strategies.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1943-5479; 0742-597X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 American Society of Civil Engineers, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Sep 2025

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