Checks On Building Site Safety In Newcastle And Middlesbrough Areas

Dangerous building site practices in the North East face a crackdown from health and safety inspectors.

The inspections, which will be unannounced, are to focus on refurbishment or roofing in the Newcastle and Middlesbrough areas, ensuring sites are managing work at height safely and are in good order.

The Health and Safety Executive will carry out the intensive inspections in a bid to raise awareness of construction site risks and prevent injuries and deaths. Three construction workers died and 566 were injured in the North East in 2008/09.

Robert Hirst, principal inspector with the HSE's North East construction division, said: "Each year too many construction workers are needlessly injured or killed while working on site.

"While some sectors of the industry have made real improvements in recent years, we are really concerned about standards in the refurbishment sector, particularly on small projects. HSE does not think a lax attitude to health and safety in one of the more dangerous industries is acceptable, especially when many of the incidents are completely avoidable by taking commonsense actions and precautions."

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David Urpeth from law firm Irwin Mitchell said: “I welcome the planned inspections by the health and safety executive and hope that these will lead to a reduction in the numbers of those tragically injured and killed following a work accident on a building site.

“The construction industry is the industrial sector where a worker is most likely to lose his life following an accident at work. As such, employers need to re-double their efforts to provide workers with a safe place and a safe system of work.”

If you have been injured in a construction accident, it may be possible to make a building site claim.