The Health & Safety Authority (HSA) has released figures showing that 55 people tragically lost their lives in work related accidents in 2015.  Incidents involving vehicles are the main cause of work place fatal accidents (21 in total).  Fifteen employees lost their lives as a result from a fall from heights, the second most common cause of death.  Fatalities in agriculture were down by 40% with fifteen deaths in 2015 compared to 30 in 2014.  Fatalities in the construction sector increased from 8 in 2014 to 11 in 2015 and the fishing sector also saw an increase in fatalities from 1 in 2014 to 5 in 2015.  Two thirds of work related deaths (37 of 55) occurred in businesses with fewer than ten employees, mainly in agriculture, construction and fishing.  There were four child fatalities in 2015 all of which were incurred in agriculture with the counties with the highest number of fatalities being Cork followed by Donegal.

Health & Safety Expert Ronan Hynes commented on the HSA report that: “All work related fatalities are tragic and we welcome the HSA’s continuing commitment to improving the high levels of safety and health awareness in Irish workplaces, however, a lot more still needs to be done to ensure that workplace behaviours are changed and  fewer accidents occur across all sectors.  This will be even more vital where we are experiencing a period of strong economic growth with businesses now expanding and new jobs being created.  In particular, I welcome the HSA’s focus on small and medium sized enterprises as these will be the back bone of the Irish economy into the future”.  

If you have any queries in relation to health and safety and workplace accidents, please contact Ronan Hynes, Partner on 061-414355 or [email protected]