HSE says most UK offshore safety trends improved in 2011/12
30 August 2012
The Health & Safety Executive’s 2011/2012 Offshore Safety Statistics Bulletin records 36 major injuries during the period, a reduction of six compared to 2010/11 and compares to an average of 41 major injuries over each of the previous five years. There were an estimated 29,058 offshore workers in 2011/12, an increase of 5% on the 2010/11 estimate of 27,600 workers.
The combined fatal and major injury rate in the UK offshore sector fell to 130.77 per 100,000 workers in 2011/12 compared to 151.84 in 2010/11
The combined fatal and major injury rate fell to 130.77 per 100,000 workers in 2011/12 compared to 151.84 in 2010/11, the second lowest rate over the last 10 years (the lowest in 2008 being 106.2). The five-year average prior to 11/12 is 149.6.
Two fatalities occurred in 2011/12, the first fatalities on offshore installations since 2006/07. The first was a fall from height and the second a fatality during a diving operation. The main causes of major injuries were related to slips/trips/falls (17), being trapped or struck by moving objects (7), or injuries associated with lifts/pulls/pushes/handling of loads (7), accounting for 86% of the total.
A total of 425 dangerous occurrences (including well incidents) were reported. Main types of dangerous occurrences were failure of equipment offshore (30.6%), hydrocarbon releases (29.9%), well-related incidents (10.1%) and fire events offshore (6.8%).