170 people from East Lancashire suffered serious accidents at work (From Lancashire Telegraph)

170 people from East Lancashire suffered serious accidents at work

10:00pm Saturday 22nd December 2012 in News

LAST year 170 people suffered serious injuries while at work in East Lancashire, new figures show.

There were also 759 people who needed at least three days off work as a result of a job-related injury.

Employers are being urged to focus on the real risks affecting workers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has asked businesses to rethink workplace safety provisions in the New Year after the number of deaths in Great Britain as a whole failed to show a significant fall in 2011/12.

A total of 173 workers were killed at work in Great Britain last year, compared to 175 deaths during 2010/11. More than 23,000 workers also suffered a major injury.

In East Lancashire there was also one work related death in the year.

Nationally high-risk industries include construction, which had 49 deaths last year, agriculture with 33 deaths, manufacturing with 31 deaths and waste and recycling with 5 deaths - making up more than half of all workplace deaths.

David Snowball, HSE's director for the north, said: “Each year, instead of enjoying the occasion, families of workers who failed to come home from work spend Christmas and the New Year thinking of the loved ones who are not there to enjoy it with them.

“Hundreds of other workers who have had their lives changed by major injury will be experiencing difficulties of their own.

“Health and safety in the workplace needs to be taken seriously. I hope that in 2013 employers will tackle the real rather than the trivial dangers that workers face and not mire themselves in pointless paperwork so we can reduce the number of workplace deaths and major injuries.”

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