HSE criticised over presentation of accident statistics

Research undertaken to improve the quality and scope of training for operators of access platforms has highlighted a number of recurring causes of accidents as well as potential inadequacies in the way the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) records and presents accident details.

The research, carried out by members of the Powered Access Interest Group (PAIG) of the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) in conjunction with the HSE, attempted to identify repeat accident trends and specify training needs to reduce them.

It involved looking at the details of serious and fatal accidents investigations by the HSE.

"The research was felt necessary to improve our knowledge of how accidents were caused so that we could learn how better to prevent them," said Haydn Steele, the CPA's deputy manager for training, safety and technical issues.

The first difficulty came in obtaining a list of accident reports involving access platforms - as access does not have its own category it was not possible to know whether the 215 reports found on the HSE database was a comprehensive selection.

Three researchers then spent a day investigating 175 in detail, revealing 85 that related solely to access platforms. From these 85, it was possible to discern several recurring themes not highlighted by the HSE's statistics alone.

However, it was often impossible to identify the actual chain of events where this was not made explicit in the reports compiled by inspectors.

Where a cause had been pinpointed, several repeated trends were identified including: using access platforms to climb onto roofs; becoming unbalanced after driving over potholes; overloading. In addition, 35 accidents were put down, at least in part, to operator error.

Nick Starling, director of safety policy at the HSE, said the interrogation of the statistics available to the HSE should be improved.