Construction fatalities rise

Analysis of the past six months shows 35 fatalities, compared with 32 reported for the same period last year – a year which saw the highest number of fatal accidents in the past five years.

The causes of these accidents, said the Confederation, are mainly falls from height and workplace transport.

Confederation director of health and safety Shelly Atkinson-Frost said that although the sector was working hard to improve its record, there was still much work to be done. ”The one factor to emerge from the statistics is that too many people are still being killed and injured at work. We must recognise the need to step up the level of improvement to our health and safety record.”

Until last year the general trend was always a decrease of 3.9%. However in 2006-07 there were 77 fatalities equivalent to 3.7 deaths for every 100,000 workers.

The confederation publishes a loose-leaf manual that can be updated with inserts, either by the Confederation as a service, or by a construction firm.