HSA warns on construction safety in first TV advert in eight years

The cranes on the skyline are back, and so too are fears that lives will be lost.

A new television advertising campaign seeking to prevent death and serious injuries among construction workers goes on air from today, and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) hopes that it will raise awareness of safety as the industry begins to recover from recession.

Created by the agency Irish International BBDO and directed by acclaimed London-based photographer Nadav Kander, the advertisement presents a series of construction tools, including a drill and a hammer, under the title "building is hard".

This is followed by a number of surgical tools, culminating with a scalpel and the message “rebuilding is harder”. Workers are then advised to “take care”.

It is the HSA’s first proper television advert since 2007. The public body has invested €300,000 in this first phase of the campaign, which will see the 30-second advertisement run for two weeks on television. A second phase is scheduled for the first quarter of 2016.

"We anticipate, based on current fatality rates, that there will be a huge increase in the number of deaths in the construction sector over the next few years, and we are trying to pre-empt that," said HSA head of communications Gavin Lonergan.

In the five years from 2010 to the end of 2014, 39 people were killed while working in construction.

The rate of fatalities per 100,000 workers was actually higher in this period – when fewer people were employed in the sector – than it was at the peak of the boom.

A fatality rate of 7.4 per cent in 2004 had dropped to 4.1 per cent by 2010, but it then climbed to 9.4 per cent in 2013.

“Cost-cutting in the industry might have been an issue, or the higher rate may be related to more experienced workers being made redundant, or new companies coming into the sector,” Mr Lonergan said.

The advert is soundtracked by Sixteen Tons, a song about a coal miner that was first recorded in the 1940s. A hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, the lyrics include a reference to men being made out of "muscle and blood and skin and bones".

The HSA’s advert uses a distinctive, swaggering version by Johnny Sandon.

"It has quite a masculine vibe to it," said Irish International BBDO copywriter Dillon Elliott, who was part of the creative team behind the advert.

The idea of panning from construction tools to surgical ones is to tackle complacency and encourage the industry to “reappraise” the risks involved, Mr Elliott said. “We’re signposting this so people are aware of the vulnerabilities of construction workers ahead of the next potential boom.”