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.

The HSE's statistics on fatalities caused by workplace accidents in 2006/07 are available by visiting their web site at www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/fatl0607.pdf.

 

 

accidents at work - training at work - personal protective equipment - lifting and handling accidents - slips and trips at work -  what to do if you suffer injury at work - how our claims service works - injury compensation settlement - lifting injury at work -  IPAF training - the claims process - health and safety at work