Accident causes analysed
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE ANNUAL REPORT of the Chief Inspector of factories published last week shows that there were 256,930 reported accidents in 1.974 including 479 fatalities. These compare with 272,518 accidents in 1973 and 549 fatalities.
One area where fatalities continue to increase is in accidents involving fork-lift trucks, which accounted for 27 fatalities in 1974 compared with 21 in 1973 and only eight in 1971. Reports from a survey indicated that 90 per cent of accidents involving fork-lift trucks could have been prevented by taking practical precautions.
A particular area of risk concerns work on construction sites with dumpers (39 per cent), earthmoving plant (18 per cent) and lorries (17 per cent) as the items of plant most likely to be involved in serious accidents. Falls from vehicles, overturning accidents, collisions and vehicle defects continue to account for a high proportion of the transport accidents.
A particular hazard is the fitting of two-wheeled goosenecked trailers in such a way that the trailer load is transmitted to the rear extremity of the tractive unit, giving rise to a highly dangerous overturning situation. This has already resulted in the front wheels of some tractors rearing up, and in one case the tractor crushed the driver against the trailer.
HM Chief Inspector of Factories Annual Report 1974 is available from HMSO price £2.05 plus postage 24-ip firstclass letter post