During April 2011 to March 2012, 173 workers were killed at work, according to provisional figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
The rate of fatal injury also remained unchanged, at 0.6 injuries per 100,000 workers. If you’re office based at work and think an accident could never happen to you, don’t get too complacent. An office worker may be much less at risk from burns than a chef – but there are a range of common accidents and injuries that can occur across all occupational sectors – and trips/slips and falls invariably top the league.
It’s clear that even in this decade, getting killed or injured at work still does happen. We take a trip or a fall lightly. But what happens if that split second has a detrimental impact on your ability to work and look after your family?
1. Report the accident to your health and safety officer or your line manager if the company you work for doesn’t have one.
2. Make sure the accident is logged in the company’s accident log book – this is for your benefit more than theirs, as it will record a detailed and accurate account of your accident. Don’t sign anything that you don’t agree with.
3. Seek medical advice – if your accident is very bad, you may have to leave work immediately and go to the hospital, but in some cases, the effects of the accident won’t be immediate and you may start to see or feel the effects a few days later, at which point you should seek medical advice from your GP.
4. If the accident has an impact on your ability to work, you’ll need to speak to your company’s insurance company at some point and they don’t usually like making payouts, as you can imagine, so you’ll be wise to seek advice from an independent source, such as Medicalsolicitors.co.uk.
5. If you’re really. To confident about your chances of success, there are many organisations that can help you make a successful claim for an accident or injury at work, First4lawyers are accident at work claim specialists.
For more information on accidents at work, you can contacts Rospa or the Health and Safety Executive.
