Otoos Hosts Construction Industry Leaders at New York Build Expo

fessional can tinker with the weighting of these indicators to see what works best for their organizations or individual sites in improving safety metrics,” Martin said.

Team leaders must also take on the responsibility of establishing a culture of holding each other accountable.

“Successful integration of technology in construction safety is only as good as the culture you establish to implement it,” Becker explained.

ership for their own safety, and that of others,” he said.

The panel also agreed on the importance of setting expectations and training employees.

“The first challenge for us is to be aligned with any employee that works with us,” said Netanel.

Proptech company Otoos hosted a panel at New York Build 2023 at the Javits Center. The panel, “Technology in Construction Safety: Finding a Reliable Source of‘ Truth,’’ featured a discussion of how construction safety can be achieved for all projects.

The panel consisted of six speakers: Dr. Linda F. Martin, principal at KLME Martin Associates LLC; Kyle Becker, director-construction at Carmel Construction; Mark Drozdov, OSHA authorized instructor, environmental health and safety university professor at The Cooper Union; Ashraf Omran, P.E., executive director of cranes and derricks at the New York City Department of Buildings; Doron Netanel, CFO at Electra USA, Inc. and CEO and president of Electra’s Captive Insurance Company and Michael Rubin, OSHA defense attorney at Ogletree Deakins.

“We were thrilled to bring together industry leaders for this panel discussion,” said Yaron Goldman, general manager of Otoos.

Moderator Dana Kfir, Otoos director of customer success, noted that in order to even start the discussion around safety data, culture has to be an important aspect of that.

“It’s a delicate combination — you want to instill a safety culture, be transparent and encourage people to speak up, and then you also want to be factual and be sure not to expose your organization to lawsuits,” Kfir said.

Safety is often looked at as a matter of compliance and not given the required weight to protect job sites.

“When it comes to safety, we only think of it when something happens,” said Rubin.

One of the most difficult tasks for a safety professional is to key in on the leading indicators that drive continuous improvement.

“The benefit of having data feeding into one place is that the safety pro-

In the next segment, Drozdov talked about how often the question comes up regarding who is responsible for safety. While people often think one individual is to be held accountable, that is almost never the case.

Also discussed was who is responsible for safety regulations on a job site. Drozdov said he felt this question is almost offensive when asked in the field or by other industry professionals.

“Every person has some level of own-

Most often, technology can help streamline these processes. Omran has implemented technology such as black boxes, which monitor crane activities. He emphasized the importance of having implementing technology to ensure all guidelines are being met.

Goldman said, “I found that the answer to ‘What is more critical? Employee lives or financial profit?’ is only sometimes clear-cut, and there is a constant tendency to treat profit as more important.”

He also pointed out the frequency of the slogan “safety first” but the lack of effort and investment to achieve it.

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