Latest figures show an increase in the number of fatal personal injury at work cases in the UK.
In the year ending March 2011, the Health and Safety Executive recorded 171 workplace fatalities, compared to 147 the previous year.
Despite this, the HSE said the number of serious injuries at work has dropped from 26,268 in 2009/10 to about 24,700. These figures take into consideration amputations, burns and fractures as well as more major injuries.
The amount of injuries classed as severe enough to necessitate at least four days away from work has decreased to 90,653.
Personal injury solicitor, Martin Underhill, said this latest data confirms that the UK still has the lowest rate of workplace fatalities in Europe and one of the lowest rates of work-related illnesses.
Whilst this is obviously good news, some sectors, such as agriculture and construction, have a disproportionately high number of accidents that lead to personal injury claims.
The HSE needs to clamp down hard on health and safety and enforce their powers in these industries in order to reduce the number of accidents. In many cases, accidents occur because the employer has not conducted a full risk assessment. In other cases, it seems speed comes before safety and workers rush in to do a task without thinking about the possible outcome.
Accident solicitors have to deal with many personal injury compensation cases every year where people have suffered personal injuries in the workplace, and a lot of them could easily have been avoided.
