Construction Most Dangerous Industry in 2019/20
The construction industry proved to be the most dangerous for employees in 2019/20, with 40 people working in the building trade losing their lives on the job.
According to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) latest statistics, 111 people lost their lives in an accident at work in 2019/20. This is the lowest number of deaths happening at work on record in Britain.
It is a drop of 38 from the 149 deaths seen the previous year and a significant fall from the 179 seen in 2008/09.
The HSE does not consider the Covid-19 pandemic – which resulted in millions of people being made to work from home – to be the “main driver” of this drop, but said it could be a “contributory factor”.
Most dangerous industries
After the construction sector, some of the most dangerous industries were those where jobs cannot typically be done from home. Agriculture and farming continued to present risks to workers, with 20 people dying in this sector.
Manufacturing saw 15 people killed in workplace accidents, while transport and storage recorded 11 deaths.
The most fatal accident type proved to be falling from a height – 29 people died this way. A further 20 people were killed when they were struck by a moving vehicle, while 18 workers died when they were hit by a moving object.
15 people were killed by something collapsing or overturning and then trapping them. Coming into contact with moving machinery caused the deaths of 11 people.
Non-fatal injuries
Roughly 693,000 employees suffered a non-fatal injury at work in 2019/20, while 1.6 million workers experienced work-related illnesses and poor health.
Among the most common injuries were musculoskeletal disorders, with 152,000 employees reporting new cases in 2019/20. In total, 480,000 people were found to be suffering from a work-related musculoskeletal disorder that year.
Some of the most common causes for these disorders are manual handling injuries and repetitive strain injury.
The most common injury sustained at work was slipping or falling on the same level, at 29% of all injuries occurring this way. Manual handling injuries caused 19% of all injuries, while being struck by a moving object caused 11%.
Being the victim of violence at work caused 9% of injuries, while falling from a height was responsible for 8% of all non-fatal injuries happening at work.
Managing risk at work
HSE chair Sarah Newton said: “Although Great Britain continues to be up there with the safest places in the world to work, these figures highlight the scale of the challenge HSE currently faces in making Britain an even healthier and safer place to work – this includes our role in the response to the pandemic to ensure workplaces are Covid-secure.
“We must continue to drive home the importance of managing risk and promoting behaviours to ensure employers work right so that workers are able to go home healthy and safe at the end of each day.”
If your employer has failed in its duty of care to you and you’ve suffered an injury as a result, you could be able to make an accident at work claim. First4Lawyers can help guide you through the process.
To find out how, just give us a call, request a call back or start your claim online.
