Fall fatalities can decrease

Construction workers who work at height can reduce the risk to their lives significantly if they follow a number of simple guidelines.

This was the message from Robert Vaughan, who heads up the Health & Safety Executive's Falls Programme, speaking at Contract Journal's 'Realising the Risks' conference last week.

Falls from height continue to kill more people in the industry than any other incident, accounting for nearly half of the 70 fatalities in the 12 months to 31 March 2005 (CJ 6 April).

Low falls account for about two-thirds of major injuries, which on average cost 36,000 to the employer in lost revenue, time and medical/replacement costs.

However, loss of life and wasting of money can easily be avoided, Vaughan told the conference.
"All work at height can be properly planned and organised, including planning for an emergency or rescue should the need occur," he said.

"It should be appropriately supervised, depending on the task and the competence of the people involved.
"And sensible precautions must be taken to protect against bad weather. Where weather conditions are so extreme that they endanger health and safety, work should be stopped until conditions improve," he said.

"It is vital that those involved in work at height, including the planning, organising and purchasing of equipment, and those actually doing the work, should be competent to do so, or if being trained they should be supervised by a competent person."

Proper planning and risk assessment is also key to safe working at height.

"The Management Regula-tions require you to assess risks from work at height in the work-place and to put in place preventative measures," Vaughan said.

"The Work at Height Regulations (WHR) also require you to use the risk assessment you have carried out in the Management Regulations and follow the WHR to determine what precautions to take.

"For many, this might be as simple as following good practice for that activity. But for some work, more detailed consideration of what should be done might be needed.

"Once you have implemented the findings of your risk assessment you should monitor the arrangements and revise the assessment should the conditions change substantially."