Staying safe and avoiding construction accidents

Way back in the time of ancient Babylonia, even before the days of Jesus and the Romans and all that, you had to be very careful if you happened to be a builder.

If you built a house and skimped a bit on the mortar, or if you got some cowboys in to do the job whilst you sat back and sunned yourself with a cuppa, then you could have faced big trouble. And big trouble in Babylonia (modern day Iraq) really did mean big trouble.

That's because if a house that you'd built collapsed and killed its occupants then that was the end of you. Babylonian law was harsh and unforgiving and you'd swiftly be executed with an axe. Now that's an incentive to do a decent job if ever there was one.

Mercifully, the laws of today are a little less brutal but, justifiably, you'd still be well and truly for the high jump if you left someone dead or with serious personal injuries because of your dodgy handiwork.

Instead of an axe-wielding executioner, however, it would be the Health & Safety Executive and the courts dishing out the justice. In addition to this you may well find yourself facing the wrath of a no win, no fee claim. Slightly less deadly, but potentially painful all the same.

Nowadays, in the UK at least, incidents of houses falling in on those inside are fairly few and far between and thank goodness for that. Even reports of structures collapsing during building are somewhat rare but sadly there are occasional construction accidents of this type and workers sometimes lose their lives as a result.

Such incidents are more of a problem abroad than they are in the UK and foreign builders, labourers and other workers are regularly hurt because of construction accidents of this type.

Any trip to a country in the developing world will reveal building sites swarming with workers wearing flip-flops and very little else. Hard harts, high-vis vests, toecaps, gloves and shirts are something of a rarity and it's not uncommon to see blokes practically hanging off bendy-looking bamboo scaffolding with one hand whilst banging in nails with the other.

It's fair to say that if that sort of thing was happening on a British site then safety bosses would have a field day and heads would roll, not quite in the Babylonian style but the site would be shut down and there would undoubtedly be fines, work injury compensation claims and sackings galore.

It's because of the strict approach to building site safety adopted in the UK that there are comparatively fewer work accidents on our construction sites. Many sites offer a safety bonus which the workers receive in their pay packet if injuries are avoided and this can be a great encouragement to act safely and responsibly.

On the other hand, a safety bonus can simply cause people to keep quiet about any personal injuries they have suffered because they don't want to be seen as making others lose out on money.

Have you been hurt in a construction accident?
Safety bonus aside, if you've been injured in a construction accident that wasn't your fault you could be in a position to make a personal injury compensation claim with YouClaim.

We're the accident claim experts and we've helped hundreds of workers from all over the country to claim damages after being injured on building sites. We never take a penny of our customers' money and you can be sure that your compensation claim is being dealt with by some of the best personal injury solicitors in the country.

Making a no win, no fee construction accident claim with us is totally cost-free at all times and everything you win will be yours to keep. We won't confuse you with complicated legal talk but instead will explain everything in plain and straightforward English.

So get in touch with us today if you feel you deserve personal injury compensation because of a construction accident.

You can chat online to one of our expert claims advisors from the comfort of your computer, you can request a call back and we'll call you when it's most convenient or you can simply pick up the phone and call us any time of the day or night on 0800 10 757 95.