The most infamous and well known statistic about factory accidents is whilst factory workers represent just 10% of the UK workforce they suffer 16% of the UK recorded work injuries and a terrible 25% of all workplace fatalities. That is not an enviable record and is of course just a number crunching veneer over tens of thousands of personal tragedies, ruined lives and instances of pain and suffering.
Unbelievably, there have never been as few fatal and non-fatal factory accidents as there were in the year 2011-12. Fatal injuries for that period were just a quarter, at thirty one, of what they had been in 1991 and the trend for non-fatal injuries is also generally downwards. That should be cause for celebration if it weren’t for the fact that there are so many factory accidents still occurring.
How do they happen? Well, if you are unlucky enough to be one of those 1.1 workers in every 100,000 who dies as a result of a factory accident and are reading this from the great hereafter, the chances are you’ll have been either struck by a moving or falling object or been caught in moving machinery. You would also have been much more likely to be killed if you made fabricated metal products or worked in basic metal manufacturing.
If you were one of the 132.5 in every 100,000 who suffered a non-fatal major injury such as fracturing a major bone or losing a limb, your accident would have mostly likely to have been caused by a slip, trip or fall on the level, whilst 14% of you would have been struck by a moving or falling object, 13% caught in moving machinery, 13% by manual handling and 11% by falls from height. You would also have pulled the short straw if you were employed in wood/wood product manufacture or, once again, in the production of fabricated metal products.
Non-fatal injuries necessitating three or more days off work occurred at the shocking ratio of 543.5 per 100,000 employees and were caused by the usual suspects, with this time, manual handling causing the most injuries
Which factories during 2011-12 would you have been safest in? Well, the goddess of fortune would have been smiling on you indeed had you been recruited into the computer, electronic and optical, pharmaceutical, clothing, leather products, tobacco or the coke and petal refining sectors, none of which had injury rates higher than 30 in every 100,000 workers. That’s still not particularly good but it’s a whole lot better than your chances of returning home each evening unscathed from work in a fabricated metal products factory.
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