In Health & Safety, we have a duty of care not just to ourselves but also other who may be affected by what we do at work, this includes members of the public as well as members of the emergency services who do a very difficult job in keeping us safe.
Recently, two health and safety incidents were reported on in the news; highlighting the risks that workers face every day. Currently, investigations are ongoing into their respective causes, however, we thought these incidents should be shared – to portray how quickly a normal operation can go awry, and in these cases, ending in death.
The first incident was a member of the fire and rescue service, who died following an incident that occurred whilst tackling a fire in Edinburgh.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Firefighter, Barry Martin, is the first Scottish firefighter to have died in the line of duty since the 2009 death of Ewan Williamson.
Mr. Martin died of injuries sustained whilst in the line of duty, tackling a blaze at the former Jenner’s department store. He was one of five firefighters taken into hospital.
The second incident involved a worker being crushed by a pop up urinal, whilst he was undertaking maintenance works below.
Kevin Holding died from crush related injuries after being trapped underneath a telescopic urinal (which rises from below the ground) he was performing maintenance on.
The post-mortem examination noted the cause of death as compression asphyxia. The Health and Safety Executive has an ongoing investigation, to ascertain why Mr Holding was crushed.
Last year, 80 members of the public were killed as a result of a work-related accident, 123 workers were fatally injured at work. Although fatal injuries in the workplace are rare events, these two high-profile incidents serve as a reminder that tragedy can occur at any moment. We here at Base Solutions continually urge people to consider the risks involved in their work; risks change continually and should be monitored.