WORKING AT HEIGHT SAFETY AT HEIGHT
Last year, 40 people went to work and never came back, because they’d fallen from a height and
died. That’s the tragic story told by the most recent figures from the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), showing falls from
height continue to be the most frequent cause of fatal accidents in the workplace.
The same stats also reveal more than 5,000 people in the past year were injured due to a fall from height while at work. The figures suggest these non-fatal falls accounted for around 920,000 lost working days, costing a total of £770m. This is made up of a combination of losses to the employer and the individual themselves, as well as the price of benefit payments and lost taxes.
The number of at height incidents remains stubbornly high. There has been little progress made in reducing them over the past few years – but why? And if legislation won’t bring these numbers down, what will?
I asked Harvey Dun of Time Consultancy, an industry expert on working at height, and he shared some insights. “Because people are not robots and not everything is foreseeable, accidents will occasionally
If legislation won’t reduce working at height accidents, what will? Phil Jones, Managing Director of William Martin, discusses.
happen, but incidents can be avoided,” he said. “We can’t eradicate risk entirely, but, in my experience, it’s rare that a person makes a serious mistake when they have the right equipment for the job and are properly trained to use it.
“MORE THAN 5,000 PEOPLE IN THE PAST YEAR WERE INJURED DUE TO A FALL FROM HEIGHT WHILE AT WORK.”
“What we can prevent are those accidents that occur because a job is not planned or risk assessed correctly, someone doesn’t follow procedure, workers don’t have the right equipment, it doesn’t fit properly or they don’t know how to use it. And those things usually happen because doing things right takes longer, and costs more money.
“So, in my view, if we want to reduce falls from height, we need to concentrate on three things: money, management and resource.”
I agree with Harvey that we can cut working at height injuries and fatalities through better planning and supervision of works, selecting the right contractor, equipment, and work method. Then we must ensure adequate management, supervision and monitoring is in place. All these things are less effective if the senior
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