Accidents
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SERIOUS transport accidents at work will get greater attention from the Health and Safety Commission.
HSC chairman Dr John Cullen said: "Transporting people and materials about a workplace can be a dangerous business, and as other occupational hazards came more under control, the persistence of serious accidents involving transport at work becomes increasingly evident" As a result a new Health and Safety Executive leaflet is being produced containing a checklist for those concerned with transport safety.
Inspectorates within the HSE will also be making detailed investigations of transport accidents, and carrying out examination of the precautions taken by companies to ensure safe transport at their sites.
Dr Cullen said that since 1980 more than one in five fatal accidents reported to the HM Factory Inspectorate alone have involved worksite transport, while the HSE report Transport Kills showed that many need never have happened.
"A transport accident at work often results in serious or fatal injuries, and expensive damage to plant and materials. In most cases accidents happen because people fail to recognise potential hazards, or assume, wrongly, that the movement of vehicles on worksites needs no special attention," he said,