August 18, 2004—The UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued a reminder to contractors that it is their responsibly to keep the public off sites and to store materials and plant safely, following an incident to a small child on June 22 at a construction site in North Yorkshire. In the last 5 years 472 children have been killed or injured on construction sites in Great Britain.
The HSE has issued guidance to assist contractors in identifying the main safety risks to the public, and to provide advice on how to eliminate the hazards and control the risks. Copies of “Protecting the public—your next move,” HSG 151, ISBN 0 7176 1148 5, price 7.95, are available from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2WA, and from bookstores.
