Site Safety Management
18% of this examOSHA 1926 applied from the superintendent's chair: the Focus Four hazards, the trigger numbers for excavations, ladders, and scaffolds, the competent person's role, and the incident reporting clocks. Like the Business & Finance safety domain, it's tested almost entirely through numbers and definitions.
Core concepts
The Focus Four kill the most workers
Falls, struck-by, caught-in/between, and electrocution account for the majority of construction fatalities. Safety programs, toolbox talks, and inspections concentrate there — with falls historically the leading killer and the 6-foot fall protection rule the front line.
The competent person runs site safety
A competent person can identify existing and predictable hazards AND has authority to take prompt corrective action (1926.32). One must classify soil and inspect excavations daily and after rain, and inspect scaffolds before each shift and after any event affecting structural integrity.
Excavation and ladder numbers
Excavations 5 feet or deeper need a protective system (sloping, benching, shoring, shielding) unless entirely in stable rock; egress within 25 feet of lateral travel at 4 feet deep. Extension ladders set at 4:1 (a 20-ft support height puts the base 5 ft out) and extend 3 feet above the landing.
Engineering controls and the reporting clock
OSHA's silica standard requires engineering controls first — wet cutting with integrated water delivery, not dust masks and fans. When incidents happen: fatalities reported to OSHA within 8 hours; in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and eye losses within 24 hours (1904.39).
Key facts to know cold
Where it lives in your books
The real exam is open book. Knowing which book — and which tab — answers this domain is worth as much as memorizing it.
Lookup strategy
- · Same tabs as Business & Finance: Subpart L scaffolds, P excavations, X ladders — your existing tab set works on this exam too.
- · Scenario questions still resolve to a printed number or the competent-person definition (1926.32). Find the number; don't reason from memory.
Reading isn't learning — retrieval is.
12 questions in this domain, each with an explanation and source.