At the beginning of the week, construction workers across Ireland set down their tools for one minute to take a moment to think about the importance of construction safety both on and off site. This marked the beginning of Construction Safety Week 2017, an initiative of the Construction Safety Partnership Advisory Committee (CSPAC).

Construction Safety

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about site safety. This is being done with particular attention on smaller contractors who are operating in the industry. Several events have taken place across the country with each day focusing on different aspects of safety such as working at heights, with machinery and occupational health.

This year in order to get the campaign running, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) released the latest statistics on all onsite and offsite related accidents. This was to raise awareness on the potential risks associated with working in construction and to emphasise importance of safety training across the board.

Currently in Ireland, there is already a major emphasis on the importance of safety training and effective safety management. However despite this, efforts of promoting and celebrating safety in the industry have not depleted. This can be shown in recent statistics which highlight a decrease of 43% of fatal accidents in the construction industry since 2004. The idea of this is to focus on prevention by providing sufficient training to all workers both new and old.

It is clear from the statistics that more emphasis in training needs to be placed on small contractors and self-employed workers as these have recorded the most number of accidents. However it is believed that some reasons for this may include these workers being less safety conscious, having less supervision and they may be more willing to take risks on heights, in machinery etc.

The reported statistics show that the leading causes of fatal accidents are from falls and loss of control of equipment. The most common cause of non-fatal accidents are slips/falls and lifting/carrying. Precautions need to be implemented in order to prevent further accidents such as these. In the case of preventing accidents whilst working at heights, the work must be organised and carried out safely with suitable equipment in place to prevent falls such as guard rails. Workers should also be advised on all the potential risks on site and how best to handle them.

In order to raise awareness and assist in the reduction of accidents on construction sites across Ireland all companies should be encouraged to commit to safety and health in the workplace. This can be achieved by committing to monitoring and updating safety standards onsite and offsite to ensure maximum protection and safety of their employees.

Sherlock Recruitment, as one of the leading construction recruitment agencies, recognises the importance of promoting adequate safety in the construction industry and keeping standards high among all employers in the industry. This is why we work directly with companies nationwide who want to provide the correct safety training to their employees at a discounted rate. For more information, call 01 456 8438 or email admin@sherlockrecruitment.com.