Falls from height biggest cause of death from
accidents at work
Fatalities from workplace
accidents for 2006/07 show a slight rise on the
previous years figures -
25th February 2008
Figures for 2006/07,
show that the biggest cause of fatalities from
accidents at work in the UK is still caused by
falls from height, which accounted for 19 percent of
incidents.
The next most common causes for fatalities caused by
accidents at work are being struck by falling or
moving objects and being hit by a moving vehicle.
The Health and
Safety Executives (HSE) provisional figures show
241 fatalities caused by
workplace injuries for the
year 2006/07 which is up by 24 on the previous years
figure, though this was the lowest number on record.
The overall long term trend is still a reduction in
fatalities caused by
injury at work, though this has
slowed down over the last fifteen years with little
movement over the last five years.
Agriculture is the worst industry for fatalities per
headcount with 8.1 deaths per 100,000 workers, or 34
for the year 2006/07. Construction had the most
deaths caused by an accident at work with 77, or 3.7
per 100,000. These two industries account for around
46 percent of the total fatalities caused by
accidents in the workplace.
