View report page

64
The number of accidents in offices shops, canteens and warehouses
reported to this Department during 1971 was 148. This compares with 155
reported in 1970. All the accidents reported were investigated.
Of the 148 accidents investigated the following action was taken:-
Prosecution 1
Formal warning 15
Informal advice 47
No action was found necessary in 85 cases, but information supplied
by the employers in each case was checked and, in a large number of cases,
found inaccurate. Had the information reported been accepted without enquiry,
an erroneous view of the type of accident would have been given in the
returns.
Examples of accidents reported are described as follows:—
An open drawer to a filing cabinet caused a female employee, hurrying
to answer the telephone, to fall, fracturing both elbows and bruising the
left leg. The filing cabinet was subsequently re-sited.
The floor of a boiler house had become flooded due to long-standing
neglect of repair to a water supply pipe. An employee walking across the
flooded floor slipped on the oily surface and sustained a fractured ankle.
An employee, wishing to reach a shelf at a high level stood on a cardboard
box which collapsed under his weight causing him to fall and sustain
a slipped disc. Asked why he did not use the steps provided, he said it was
easier to stand on the nearest object than to use the steps, which were well
constructed and easily portable.
An employee in a multiple food warehouse was standing on the top deck
of a defective and insecure step ladder, holding a case of goods taken from
a high shelf. He overbalanced, and the Manager, standing nearby, endeavoured
to catch the falling box to prevent it striking another assistant, and sustained
a fracture of the left wrist. Strong representation was made to the Head Office
of the company, who caused instructions to be circulated to all branches in
the country to ensure that all steps and ladders in their respective shops and
warehouses were in good condition.
In a food warehouse an accident occurred due to an overloaded trolley
being pushed by an employee who could not see where he was going. An Assistant
was struck and sustained a broken knee cap.
A yardman, age 60, employed in a milk distribution depot, was killed,
being crushed between a trailer and a crash barrier at the identical moment
when the stationary trailer, loaded with crates of empty milk bottles, was
struck by a tractor during the coupling operation. The trailer was apparently
forced backward by the impact and pinned the yardman against the barrier.
How the employee was in such a position is not known as there were no witnesses.
It is thought that he was in the act of transferring a number plate to