Industrial Accident Lawyer Issues Warning As More UK Workers Die
30/01/2010
A leading workplace injury solicitor has claimed that fatalities in the workplace remain far too high, despite a fall in official government figures released today.
The Health and Safety Executive's workplace fatality figures have revealed 151 people died at work in the UK between April 2009 and March 2010, a decrease of 15% on the previous year’s total of 178 and down on the previous five-year average of 220.
But despite the reduction, David Urpeth, an industrial accident lawyer with Irwin Mitchell, has warned that there is still work to be done in reducing what he believes is still an excessive number of deaths in the workplace, particularly in agriculture and heavy industries.
"The figures are undeniably heading in the right direction and is a reflection of UK-wide improvements to health and safety practices in the workplace,” he said.
"However, we should be talking about people's lives, not statistics – rather than admiring the fact that 27 fewer people died at work, we should be asking why 151 lives were lost and why so many families were torn apart last year.
"The figures show that there is still much work to be done in this area, especially in industries such as agriculture and construction, which represented the largest proportion of deaths, with 38 and 41 deaths respectively."
The full Health and Safety Executive statistics can be seen at http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/fatalinjuries.htm
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