Little to celebrate as construction and demolition remains deadly.
The number of workers killed in Britain last year has fallen, official statistics published today show.
Provisional data released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reveals that a total of 148 workers were fatally injured between April 2012 and March 2013, compared with 172 in the previous year. Of these, 39 fatal injuries were recorded in the combined construction/demolition sector – a rate of 1.9 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared to an average of 53 deaths in the past five years and a decrease from the 48 deaths recorded in 2011/12.
The overall rate of fatal injury has dropped to 0.5 per 100,000 workers, below the five-year average of 0.6.
Britain has had one of the lowest rates of fatal injuries to workers in leading industrial nations in Europe consistently for the last eight years.
“These figures are being published in the same week as the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, and are a reminder to us all of why health and safety is so important. Although the number of people killed at work has dropped significantly, last year 148 people failed to return home to their loved ones,” says HSE chair Judith Hackitt. “The fact that Britain continues to have one of the lowest levels of workplace fatalities in Europe will be of little consolation to those who lose family members, friends and work colleagues.”
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