Personal injury solicitor news
10/10/2007

HSE warn keep safe when working at height from vehicles

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has taken a positive approach towards reducing the number of falls from vehicles, a type of accident which calls for the expertise of thousands of personal injury solicitors every year.

As many as three million people in the UK load and unload from their vehicles on a daily basis, making their chances of being harmed in a fall from height more likely. The economic and human cost of falls from vehicles was more than £36 million in 2004/05, which is of a great concern to the economy. In light of how many people still sustain personal injury as a result of these work-related accidents, it has been suggested that the risks involved with such work has not been considered adequately by workers and their employers.

The latest effort by the HSE is the introduction of an interactive webpage where visitors can view a picture of a typical situation of a worker climbing into a vehicle where he could easily fall and sustain workplace injuries. Visitors can click on highlighted parts of the webpage and learn more about the risks involved with falling from vehicles.

When considering law, work at height refers to work in any place where a person could fall a distance likely to cause personal injury if no precautions are taken'. This includes climbing in and out of a vehicle trailer or cab. While many might not regard work below average head height as work at height', the law requires all falls from height where someone could be injured, to be considered.

According to the HSE, the majority of work accidents occur when loading and unloading vehicles and falls don't necessarily have to be from a great height to create the kind of impact that causes serious harm and results in an employee seeking help from a personal injury solicitor.

Precautions to avoid work injuries include carefully planning loading and unloading so that working from height is avoided. Employers should also provide adequate anti-slip footwear under advice from specialist suppliers and make sure to involve employees when choosing footwear as they are the ones who will have to wear it. It should also be ensured that access to all parts of the vehicle, particularly the cab and the load area, is safe. This may mean that platforms and guard rails need to be considered.

Most importantly, employees are being encouraged to carry out regular training sessions to make sure that their staff are up to date with health and safety objectives in order to reduce the risk of work accidents.

For more information about the HSE's latest efforts to keep personal injury solicitors at bay visit, www.hse.gov.uk.