Scaffolding accidents and UK workers

There are a variety of reasons why workers in the construction industry suffer personal injuries in scaffolding accidents.

In the US, a piece of research by the Bureau of Labour and Statistics detailed how 72% of workers injured in scaffolding accidents reported the cause of their personal injury as being because of planking/support failing to hold their weight, slipping at height or an being hit by a falling object.

Anecdotally, the experiences of UK construction workers who sustain injury in scaffolding accidents reflect this figure.

These types of scaffolding accidents can be attributed to several factors: low-quality scaffolding materials, loose bracing, ignorance of or flouting of HSE guidelines, or insufficient safety training of staff.

Scaffolding accidents are one of the major work injury hazards in the UK, and their dangers affect around 2.3 million construction workers, slightly less than 70% of the total construction industry workforce.

UK scaffolding accidents have a very high mortality rate. The reasons for this will be obvious to anyone with experience working on scaffolds in the UK construction industry.

Working at height significantly multiplies the potential for suffering serious or fatal injury in any work accident. While a windy day might just be a mild inconvenience to most UK workers, high winds can easily destabilise any shoddily constructed scaffold and put workers at serious risk.

In adverse weather conditions it is especially important that engineering contractors regularly carry out regular checks on the integrity of scaffolding structures. In large scale scaffolding constructions, these are required every seven days anyway.

The HSE offer a brief outline of a scaffolding contractor's obligations, which include paying strict attention to the following:

• Safe scaffold design
• Duty rating and actual imposed loadings on scaffolds, particularly wind loading when scaffolds are clad with debris netting or sheeting
• Arrangements for stabilising scaffolds, e.g. ties, buttresses, etc
• Risk of impact by construction plant or vehicles
• Frequency and thoroughness of scaffold inspection arrangements
• Selection and testing of scaffold ties
• Permit application procedures, where appropriate
• Public protection
• Systems in place for the handover of new or adapted scaffolds
• Training and competence of scaffold erectors
• Adequacy of scaffold foundations
• Prevention of unauthorised modifications

Making a no win, no fee claim for scaffolding accident compensation
If you have suffered personal injury in a scaffolding accident then you may be entitled to work accident compensation.

Here at YouClaim we have a panel that is comprised of some of the UK's leading work injury solicitors.

Specialists in the field, they have years of experience in successfully resolving construction accident compensation claims.

At YouClaim, we guarantee that, win or lose, you will never have to pay anyone a penny to fund your claim.

We also guarantee that, in event of your claim being successful, we never take a cut from your damages award, meaning you will keep 100% compensation.

If you wish to speak to someone today, simply call 0800 10 757 95.

Alternatively, you may wish to discuss your claim on e-chat, request a call back or fill out an online claim form with details of your scaffolding accident claim.