Road Safety Week 2021: Lives saved on roads in lockdown should inspire more action
Reductions in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads – due to lockdown restrictions last year – are to be welcomed but should also inspire more action to make roads safer.
The call comes from road safety campaigners at Brake as Road Safety Week 2021 (co-ordinated by Brake and running 15-21 November) gets underway.
The road safety charity says a drop of a fifth in deaths and serious injuries on roads in 2020, revealed in government statistics and due to reduced traffic, was the first decline in years and heralds renewed efforts to make roads safe for us all.
Read more about Road Safety Week on the Fleet World website.
HSE helps pave the highway to hydrogen for UK maritime sector
Last month HSE was named as part of a winning consortium aiming to develop a national hydrogen highway network that will integrate land, sea and port.
The consortium, led by the Port of London Authority (PLA), has been successful in securing £1.3m of funding as part of the Smart Maritime Land Operations Call, a Maritime Research and Innovation UK (MarRI-UK) initiative supported by the Department for Transport (DfT).
HSE, through its Research and Consultancy services, will join the PLA and other partners including OS Energy, University of Strathclyde, University of Kent, ORE Catapult, University of Birmingham and Newcastle Marine Services, in a two year project comprising of six work packages covering aspects such as researching energy diversity, trialling hydrogen power generation for vessels based at the PLA’s Denton Wharf, establishing the business case for back hauling hydrogen into central London, optimising ship design and understanding health & safety requirements.
For more information about the project, visit the Solutions from HSE website.
HSE launches Working Minds campaign to encourage employers to promote good mental health in work
Work-related stress and poor mental health risk becoming a health and safety crisis for Great Britain’s workplaces, the regulator has warned.
While the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is yet to be fully understood, mental health issues are the number one reason given for sick days in the UK. Last year more than 17 million working days were lost as a result of stress, anxiety, or depression. A recent survey by the charity Mind suggests that two in five employees’ mental health had worsened during the pandemic.
In response the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is today, Tuesday 16 November, launching its new campaign, ‘Working Minds’, at its Health and Work Conference, which examines issues relating to health at work. The campaign aims to help businesses recognise the signs of work-related stress and make tackling issues routine.
Learn more about the Working Minds campaign on the HSE website.
Construction company fined after injured worker loses sight
A Bradford-based construction company has been fined after an employee was injured at work leading to significant sight loss in his right eye.
Pearl Services UK Ltd had been contracted to carry out refurbishment of a retail store in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard how. On the 23 February 2020 employees were erecting PVC hoarding within the store to separate the refurbishment work area from members of the public. An apprentice decorator who was helping joiners set up the hoarding, struck one of the PVC panels using a mallet causing it to splinter. A fragment penetrated their right eye, causing serious injury and loss of sight. The incident has resulted in a life-changing injury to the person who will not regain full sight in his right eye, despite a number of post-accident operations
Read more about the incident on the SHP website.
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