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already in place.
This of course leads to the question how without the easily accessible accident figures can the industry be sure it has all the training provision it needs in place, even given that mandatory courses and even non-regulatory training courses are in place with many of the providers, whether they are independent training services or those put in place by industry bodies themselves.
It well may be that these figures are available to the industry and that in researching this article they are just not open to public view. It may be that they are available at a cost somewhere, but at this time this author cannot say where or how they can be found.
Where there is a serious question mark over the current accident figures is that whilst over the past 20 or so years the statistics have shown a marked decrease in incidents, injuries and deaths as previously mentioned, the past few years have shown what has been termed in the HSE publications as a ‘levelling off’. The problem is that, even within its own data presentation, HSE simply states that figures have shown this levelling off with no apparent reasoning for it or comment on how and when it might be addressed or who should be involved in formulating a plan to address the situation. No doubt HSE is looking into it, at least we would hope so, but there is little if any indication of how to get involved in the process if required or desired.
Given that the HSE general construction figures are those that show this levelling off it must be assumed, without any other more specific figures to show anything different, that the water and other utilities sectors are following the same course, although this might be something of a big assumption. But, without the figures it is the only one that can be made.
This must lead to questions about why this levelling off has occurred, is it likely to continue and what can be done to rectify the stagnation in safety improvements if it does. Probably most important process would be to establish a system of
monitoring that would highlight where the main problem areas are that need to be addressed.
POTENTIAL AREAS OF CONCERN
As with all such things there are a number of possible reasons why the relatively consistent fall in accident statistics has appeared to stagnate. The following will look at various possibilities that might be affecting the changing trend of accident figures, although some will probably say that they are utter nonsense or simply implausible given the safety training requirements in place at the current time.
Could the change in trend be due to something as small as the way in which figures are gathered and analysed. Whilst there has been no obvious change or announcement that this author can call to mind that would support this possibility, there is always the chance that someone somewhere has chosen to present the data in a way that is slightly different from the presentation used in previous years. This could have a significant impact on how numbers look in any final output. However, as no ‘big noise’ has been made about the levelling off by either HSE or anyone else that would be likely to make such a noise there is potentially little to support this theory. If anyone knows any different please let me know.
Another aspect that may have significant bearing on the current trend in accident statistics is the financial
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| December 2016 | drain TRADER 5
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