According to reports from the BBC (Source), work on the huge Crossrail project site has been suspended following the death of a contractor who was hit by a piece of falling concrete at the end of last week. The victim was said to be a 43 year old contractor who was spraying concrete in the early hours of Friday morning when he was fatally injured.
The Health and Safety Executive has been informed, and a full investigation is due to be underway.
“Safety is our number one priority”
A spokesman for the company has stated that their thoughts are with the family of the victim, and that health and safety is a number one priority for Crossrail who are said to have a below industry average record when it comes to workplace incidents.
This is said to be the first fatality in the huge project that is set to run until 2018, with the incident said to have been “sad and surprising.” The report suggests that the nature of the work may be fraught with further danger as construction workers are said to be “digging in to the unknown” with the ongoing work in the tunnels labelled as “extremely complex.”
How does this happen?
Health and safety and compensation claiming is often in the news – mainly when the press are writing another one of their clichéd reports about a compensation culture; something that was proven long ago to be nothing more than a media-fuelled myth. But if there is one thing that can be said, health and safety in the UK is said to be one of the most stringent and heavily regulated; and this incident is perhaps proof as to why we need this to be the case.
There are equally a number of reports from foreign territories were workers are constantly being injured and killed because they don’t have the same standard that we have in the UK. Some say that health and safety has gone a little mad over here, but we have these rules and regulations in place to stop this kind of thing from happening.
This case is surprising
The report says it as well, and I personally am rather surprised that it has happened. The report cites that the project is said to be complex, but in today’s society where there is so much we can, and will, do to prevent workers from being injured in the workplace, this simply shouldn’t happen.
Let’s hope that the fact that the constructions is said to be complex isn’t going to end up being an excuse that paves the way for more workers to be seriously injured in the line of duty. Let’s hope the investigation gets to the bottom of how this has allowed to happen and let’s hope steps are taken to make sure it never happens again.
