DI itz on work injuries
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III The government and the Health & Safety Commission have launched a campaign to reduce fatalities and major injuries at work by 10% and to cut the number of working days lost from work-related injury and ill-health by a third.
HSC figures show that over the past three years 31 employees of haulage companies have been killed; nearly 3,000 were seriously injured. Although construction and agriculture have far worse records, transport has one of the highest injury rates in the service sector.
Measures will include tougher penalties for health and safety offences, and guidance about health and safety which is tailored to the needs of specific sectors and smaller companies.
HSC chairman Bill Callaghan says: "Work related illness and injury cost this country up to £18bn a year, while the cost in terms of human suffering cannot be measured. Unfortunately it is the victims themselves, their families and the taxpayer who bear much of this burden."
A German-owned company has been fined 115,0011 following the death of a warehouse manager who was crushed by a fork-lift truck.
Wicke UK, which manufactures castor wheels, admitted that operating instructions for the forklift at its site in Tipton, West Midlands, were in German.
The manager, John Millington, had raised a crate with the forklift to reach underneath; he accidentally caught a lever which brought the forks down on his neck.