Just two days after the horrible death of a construction worker in Liverpool, another Merseyside worker was killed on the job, in equally unpleasant circumstances.
The forty-year-old man became a human fireball in the garden of a former nursing home in Wirral. He later died in Arrowe Park Hospital, Upton.
In February 2006, Loango Estates were awarded planning permission for the building, and neighbours believed it was being turned into flats.
Kimberley Wilson, who lives near what used to be the Ballynanty nursing home in Seabank Road, Wallasey, said she saw the man in flames in the garden when she went to make tea. At first she thought he was a pile of leaves or rubbish on fire.
She said: "It was hard to see what it was at first. We couldn't tell it was a person until we realised it was moving, as if he was rolling around trying to put himself out."
Miss Wilson ran to help, while her mother Julie called 999. By the time she arrived in the garden the flames were almost out.
A joint investigation into the blaze was launched by the Health and Safety Executive, the fire service and Merseyside police. Yet again, the Health and Safety Executive arrive at the scene of a death on Merseyside. Yet again, they have failed to identify a problem before it claimed a life.
In February 2006, Loango Estates were awarded planning permission for the building, and neighbours believed it was being turned into flats.
Kimberley Wilson, who lives near what used to be the Ballynanty nursing home in Seabank Road, Wallasey, said she saw the man in flames in the garden when she went to make tea. At first she thought he was a pile of leaves or rubbish on fire.
She said: "It was hard to see what it was at first. We couldn't tell it was a person until we realised it was moving, as if he was rolling around trying to put himself out."
Miss Wilson ran to help, while her mother Julie called 999. By the time she arrived in the garden the flames were almost out.
A joint investigation into the blaze was launched by the Health and Safety Executive, the fire service and Merseyside police. Yet again, the Health and Safety Executive arrive at the scene of a death on Merseyside. Yet again, they have failed to identify a problem before it claimed a life.
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Easy to be wise after the event
19.01.2007 11:13
Health and Safety can only be achieved through education of workers and management and the encouragement of a safety culture in workplaces. Inspection can be helpful - I have invited the HSE and fire service onto sites I have managed for their advice. I have a project ongoing at the moment where we have inherited electrical switchgear which we do not have the skills in house to manage correctly and are looking to contract in the expertise required. But enforcement will usually be too late and an enforcement only approach is bound to fail.
Your comments in your blog about spending more time on the internet than in the real world suggest you don't have that much experience of the workplace and even less of the construction industry.
Ignorant speculation about the causes of fatal accidents can cause great distress to the bereaved.
Mike
I think you've got the wrong end of the stick
19.01.2007 18:10
biscuit construction), but the site of the first construction death this
week happens to be just down the road from my office, and I was emotionally
affected by this death. For some reason, I don't like it when people are
killed on building sites, even though I've never worked on one! And leaving
it to the 'experts' doesn't seem to be doing any good.
I'm certainly not blaming any individuals from the Health and Safety
Executive for either of these deaths. It must be terrible for them to be
going round the country looking at places where people died at work,
knowing that there just aren't enough of them to go round and check
conditions whilst the workers are still alive.
The government doesn't fund a decent Health and Safety Executive because it
would rather spend money on war, policing and turning the National Health
Service over to business interests. If enough people made a fuss about the
shortcomings of the HSE, maybe they would do something.
However, the underlying problem is the capitalist system itself, which puts
profit before safety or any other concern. If we get rid of the capitalist
system and organise production based on the needs of the working class,
there will be no need for an HSE.
Neon Black
Homepage:
http://dreaming-neon-black.blogspot.com
Education is more effective than enforcement
20.01.2007 12:55
The HSE has limited resources and the more it spends on enforcement, the less it can spend on education. Enforcement will always be too late, and can only protect those at work. Education can reach far more people and protects everyone. After hearing those radio ads you might thing twice about climbing on an unstable chair to change a lightbulb at home and use a step ladder instead.
Even in the socialist utopia of which you dream there will still be a need for construction and there will still be construction accidents. People will place 'getting on with the job' above what they percieve to be small risks (eg falls from low heights). Others may be unaware of risks and tasks which require particular expertise or may attempt tasks beyond their competence (eg if I took on the maintenance of an 11kV transformer and switchgear). And a minority of accidents are genuinely unforseeable - but there may still be things to learn from the following investigation.
The majority of safety enforcement is currently carried out by site and project managers. Would your revolution sweep them away, and what do you think would happen then?
Mike
Construction Deaths Can Never Be Completely Eradicated
20.01.2007 19:15
Since the HSE currently has very limited resources (purposely set low by the government), they may well focus it on education rather than enforcement. The problem is never individuals, but the system itself.
You state that 'Industry is not in conflict with the HSE as all well managed companies will realise that maintaininig a high standard of health and safety is good for business'. However, the establishing of regulatory were only won by workers after long struggles against industry. True, no company wants a serious injury or death on their sites, but since they want to maximise profits, this can lead to cutting of corners. Firms who break the law risk being caught, and are sometimes fined, but at the moment this is about as risky as working at a low height.
Families Against Corporate Killers do a some good work on this subject, and their website can be found here:
Neon Black
Homepage:
http://dreaming-neon-black.blogspot.com