After all, anything that could prevent (potentially life-changing) accidents on site should be applauded and shared as best practice. So we thought we would take the top three areas where the SiteStak system improves safety and list them below for you.
How to reduce the risk of being struck by a moving vehicle on construction sites
This category of accidents will be familiar to all within the groundworks and civil engineering industries. With the abundance of large, heavy machines working close to workers, it is hardly surprising that accidents occur. Common types of plant and equipment include excavators, dumpers, rollers, telehandlers and road sweepers.
The risk of "struck by a moving vehicle" accidents is reduced with SiteStak as it reduces the number of plant movements required moving drainage around a site. SiteStak also massively reduces the requirement for pedestrian movement on site. Without a SiteStak, walking to the compound to collect bags of drainage bends and carry them back to the point of work is widespread.
One of our customers talks about this challenge in this video.
How to reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls on construction sites
The risk of "Slip, trip or fall at the same level" is also reduced with SiteStak. The SiteStak system keeps drainage materials stored in an organised and contained way removing the trip hazard presented by loose materials. The commonly used expression "A tidy site is a safe site" comes to mind.
This brings us to the broader benefit that systems like SiteStak bring to the safety culture on site. A Construction Director told us earlier this week that SiteStak has a much wider positive impact than you might first realise because it instils a culture of tidiness and safety on site right from the start of the project. As the groundworkers are the first trade on site, leaving the area tidy sets a precedent to the following trades, influencing how the job will run!
How to reduce the risk of hand injuries for groundworkers
SiteStak reduces the risk of injury when cutting pipe, particularly with our new saw guide and clamp. It also ensures workers maintain proper posture while working (health benefit). The clamp holds the pipe firmly to prevent it from slipping while cutting and the saw guide ensures a straight cut and prevents the saw blade from slipping and cutting the worker. This is much safer than many of the other ways that are currently used to cut pipes, for example, petrol disc cutters.
We hope that this has helped raise awareness of the safety benefits available from a well-organised system. If you would like to find out how SiteStak could make your site safer, too, please get in touch with us.
Revealed: The Human & Financial Cost of Injury & Ill health in UK Construction
Given the importance of health and safety on construction sites, we analysed the latest data from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on injuries and fatalities in the UK.
Our findings reveal the shocking cost of injury and ill health to UK construction:
• The estimated cost from ill health and injury in UK construction is between £963 and £1,476 million per year. The central estimate is £1,291 million.
• The central estimate cost of injuries in UK construction alone is £659 million – higher than in other heavy goods and services industries including agriculture (£199 million), transport and storage (£322 million) and even manufacturing (£658 million).
However, our analysis also reveals that non-fatal injuries are on a slow decline overall:
• While injuries on construction sites remain too high, there was a 7.85% year-on-year decrease in 2019/20 in non-fatal injuries to construction workers in Great Britain. Over the last decade, there has been a 45.56% decrease in non-fatal injuries in UK construction.
That said, our study found that male construction workers are more likely to suffer injury:
• The results show that male construction workers are seven times more likely than female construction workers to have a non-fatal accident or injury at work. In 2019/20 there were 395 non-fatal accidents per 100,000 male construction workers compared to 52 non-fatal accidents per 100,000 female construction workers.
Sadly, the number of fatal accidents has actually risen:
• Fatalities to construction workers in Great Britain have increased slightly over the last two years from 1.36 people per 100,000 in 2018/19 to 1.84 people per 100,000 in 2020/21. Over the last decade, there has been a modest decrease in fatal injuries of just 2.44%.
The data also shows that older workers in UK construction are more likely to face fatality:
• In 2019/20 there were 3.78 deaths per 100,000 construction workers aged 60-64 compared to just 1.13 deaths per 100,000 workers aged 25 to 34.
These are the leading causes of fatal accidents in UK construction:
In 2020/21 most fatal accidents in UK construction were men and the leading causes of death were from:
46.51%
16.28%
9.3%
9.3%
6.98%
4.65%
4.65%
2.32%
Written by
Mark Chambers
Marketing Manager
As Marketing Manager, Mark plays an active role in running strategic projects to increase our brand profile.
