Anyone who has been involved in an accident at work will be aware of the implications they can have on everyday life. Not only do they carry the risk of preventing you from returning to work in the area where your skills lie, they can also make other possible employers turn you away when you try to get back into work.

Some job roles put employees in circumstances where accidents unfortunately are always going to be a risk. For example, manual labour, such as working on a building site; were strict health and safety regulations are in place that employers and employees must abide by to keep the chance of them becoming involved in an accident to a minimum. However, there is always going to be that risk of them becoming injured at work.

There was a story in the news about a man in Ireland who lost his arm whilst working with a cement mixer at a school in Belfast. The man, who is understood to have been in his early twenties, was working at St Bernadette’s Primary School in Ballymurphy, Belfast. His hand got caught in the cement mixer causing his arm to be ripped off at the shoulder.
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Road traffic accidents are a common occurrence on the roads in the U.K. We have all probably witnessed some kind of RTA in our lifetime, whether we became stuck in traffic due to that accident or were an eye witness to it.

There was recently a story in the news when a man was found guilty of causing a road traffic accident, which took the life of a 20-year-old woman. The driver was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The driver, Mr Brian Redfern, was driving on the A908 in Clackmannanshire, Scotland, when the accident took place. He was racing another vehicle at the time of the accident; this was driven by 21-year-old Craig Lawson. Both vehicles were travelling at a high speed which caused Redfern to hit the on-coming vehicle driven by 20-year-old Rachael Ward.
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When we send our children to school we do so in the hope that they will grow to have a highly successful career. School prepares our children for everything they need to know in the future and gives them the options to choose any career they want.

When our children are at school we expect that they will receive the care and attention they need. Teachers will do everything they can to ensure their safety when at school, and help them achieve to the best of their ability.

If your child does become injured in an incident at school, there is usually a school nurse on site who will assess their injuries, then carry out the necessary arrangements to get them the medical attention they need. If our children feel unwell at school they are usually sent to visit the school nurse before their parents are called and they are sent home.
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A lot of people think that only those with jobs on construction sites, or similar industries, are at risk from a manual handling injury; the truth is that everyone is at risk from such an injury!

Regardless of what job you have, or where you work, it is likely that you will be asked to lift an object during your working life.
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If you have been injured in a supermarket accident in the past three years that wasn’t your fault, then you may be entitled to make an injury compensation claim. The supermarket can be found liable for the accident if they are found to have shown negligence that contributed towards your injuries.

Whichever supermarket your accident occurred in, you have a right to make an injury compensation claim. All supermarkets have a duty of care to ensure shoppers are safe whilst visiting their premises. Whether the supermarket you shop at is Asda, Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsburys, Marks & Spencer, or a local independent supermarket, they are all responsible for ensuring their customers are safe whilst visiting their store.

Most supermarkets, especially the larger ones, have a system in place to ensure regular safety checks are carried out. These records usually include cleaning check sheets, which should regularly be signed off by the staff responsible for ensuring the checks have been done.
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A lot of us visit our local leisure centre on a regular basis; it may be that we attend fitness classes there or that they have a swimming pool that we use. Whatever the reason, a duty of care by the staff on site is expected for us. It is their responsibility to ensure that all hazards are kept to a minimum and to ensure our safety.

Any leisure centre we visit has a duty of care to follow a number of health and safety regulations. Staff on site should carry out regular building and equipment checks, along with domestic checks that ensure spillages are cleaned up immediately.

Checks in leisure centres may consist of changing room checks; these should take place regularly to ensure that nobody can slip in the showers in the changing room area. If visiting a swimming pool, staff must make visitors aware that running around the pool in unacceptable as it is slippery and may cause somebody to slip or fall.
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The other day I pulled into a car park where the ground was covered in leaves – it had been raining the previous day which made the ground extra slippery. Luckily, I spotted the leaves in time and managed to stop without skidding. I couldn’t help but think what would have happened if I didn’t see the leaves and then I skidded on them causing me to crash into another vehicle.

A slightly drastic thought I know; but things like this do happen, especially to those that least expect it to. Would it be the venue that owns the car park who was liable for any damage caused? Or would it be the drivers fault for failing to spot the hazard?

When we visit a venue they are expected to show us a duty of care upon our visit, which means keeping all hazards to a minimum when we are on their site. If they own the car park then they are expected to be responsible for making sure it is hazard free. Read More

For a lot of us, gardening is our favourite way to spend our Sunday afternoon – it’s a relaxing and enjoyable hobby. Some of us are extremely proud of our gardens and do everything to keep them in a good condition, even in the most miserable weather. Season’s such as winter make looking after our garden that little bit harder; when leaves fall off the trees in the Autumn, extra work is required to keep the garden tidy.

Although gardening is an enjoyable hobby, those doing so perhaps have a need to carry out their own risk assessments to make sure that they aren’t putting themselves at the risk of being injured. According to data from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), about 300,000 people are hurt in their gardens each year.
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Whatever our age, whether we are 18, or in our mid-thirties, we all love a good night out. There’s nothing better than spending a good few hours getting ready with friends, having a few glasses of wine, then hitting the town for a night of dancing. A night out down town is a way a lot of us celebrate the end of a bad week at work or welcome in the weekend.

Nightclubs usually have big events on at the weekend, which is when they expect the club to be at its busiest. They usually promote events by welcoming famous DJ’s; some clubs even have chocolate fountains or cupcakes to tempt party-goers to go to their venue.

Due to the amount of party-goers out at the weekend nightclubs need to take on extra staff to ensure there are no safety hazards in the clubs. Spillages happen frequently in nightclubs so staff have to constantly keep a look out. They also have glass collectors collecting empty bottles that have been put on the floor. Some nightclubs have a no drinks on the dance floor policy; this is to prevent anyone slipping on a spillage on the dance floor and can protect the nightclub from liability.
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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have created a number of guidelines and regulations to prevent workers becoming injured in horrific accidents at work. One of their guidelines state that a risk assessment should be carried out before an employee carries out work, and that everything should be done to make that risk as low as possible.

The Daily Mail reports of a man who has suffered horrific burns to his face after he was engulfed in a fireball at work.

David Lightfoot had been asked to do some welding work on a silo at a chemical plant. The silo contained 380-tons of highly inflammable Terephthalic acid, a raw material used in the plastics industry. The Daily Mail reported that as soon as Mr. Lightfoot began to weld, a fireball engulfed his head.
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