65 deaths at work this year but safety is improving

There have been 65 work-related deaths in the Republic so far this year, three more than in 2002, the HSA, the Health and Safety Authority, announced yesterday.

However, the figures, when adjusted for the numbers at work, indicate that workplaces are actually becoming safer places in all industries except farming.

The chief executive of the Health and Safety Authority, Mr Tom Beegan, said a rapid economic expansion was usually associated with greater challenges to health and safety at work. However, he said the Republic had bucked the trend "and even achieved an improvement during this changing time".

According to the HSA, there has been a 17 per cent drop in workplace injuries and illnesses since 1999 despite an extra 180,000 people at work.

The most common types of fatal workplace accident in 2003 were: falls, 14 (22 per cent); transportation incidents, 10 (16 per cent); contact with moving machine parts, eight (13 per cent); being struck by something collapsing or overturning, eight (13 per cent).

The most common types of reported non-fatal accidents were: handling/lifting injuries, 30 per cent; slips, trips or falls on level, 22 per cent; malicious injury (mostly involving security personnel), 5 per cent.

The report indicates some progress in the construction industry.

The HSA says agriculture is the only sector where the number of workers is rapidly declining yet the accident rate is increasing. A spokeswoman told The Irish Times: "Farms are the one workplace left where there are regular deaths of children."

Power shafts on tractors and other machinery, drownings in slurry tanks and falls were the most common cause of farm deaths and accidents.

The HSA says such figures are especially worrying as "huge resources" had been employed in communicating the health and safety message.

All farms are now required by law to have a written safety statement, but the farm advisory service, Teagasc, has recently estimated that as many as 90 per cent of farms have not yet put a safety statement in place.