The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is launching the ‘Shattered Lives’ campaign to highlight the devastating consequences of simple slips, trips and falls in the workplace.
According to HSE figures, every 25 minutes someone breaks of fractures a bone at work. In Great Britain last year, 45,749 people were injured.
Sadly, every week, one person dies from a slip, trip or fall at work and the costs are also escalating. Slips, trips and falls in the catering and hospitality industry cost British society £31 million last year, while the food retail and food manufacturing industries’ serious injuries carried a price tag of £50 million combined.
However, the construction, building and plant maintenance industry came in highest with a total cost of £139 million.
Dr Elizabeth Gibby, head of the Injuries Reduction Programme, HSE said: “Each year slips, trips and falls cost the British society nearly £811 million. But what these figures don’t reflect is the extent to which these injuries affect individual workers and their families.
“Slips, trips and falls can be viewed as being minor, funny accidents but the effects are not. It can lead to major injuries, and a lifetime of disability or time off work and in worst cases fatalities. ‘Shattered Lives’ will encourage people to change their attitudes: if you spot a hazard, don’t assume somebody else will sort it out.”
HSE’s Shattered Lives campaign will offer guidance to employers and employees in the construction, building and plant maintenance and food manufacturing and retail industries, where the incidence of injuries resulting from slips, trips and falls is highest.
