Call for better workplace safety after 28 fatalities

MORE than 19,000 people were injured at work and 28 people died due to workplace accidents in the last year, official figures have revealed.

The Health and Safety Executive said the total of 19,135 injuries and deaths amounted to  368 incidents every week.

The death toll was highest in Greater Manchester which reported 10 fatalities during 2007/2008, while there were nine such incidents in Lancashire, five in Cheshire, three in Cumbria and one in Merseyside.

The HSE said the figures should act as a “stark reminder” to the region’s employers and their staff that they should resolve to make their workplaces safer in 2009.

David Sowerby, the HSE’s North West regional operations manager, said: “Behind these statistics are cases of real suffering and, for some, hardship through loss of income. We are asking that businesses take practical action to manage the risks people face in their day-to-day work.

“Each year at this time HSE reflects on the number of incidents in the preceding 12 months, and each year the same patterns are repeated.

“Again, our inspectors have found that falling from height and being struck by falling or moving objects were among the chief causes of death and injury. If workplaces could eliminate these factors, both of them avoidable, these startling figures would be hugely reduced.

“Each of the injuries catalogued here is not only a personal tragedy for the individual concerned and their family, it also translates into lost working time and a cost to the business involved. When it comes to workplace safety we cannot be complacent, we all have a role to play in 2009.”