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Home | Services | Services for you | Personal Injury | Accidents / injury at work | Accidents at work factsheets | Accidents involving dangerous or defective work equipment and machinery
Accidents involving dangerous or defective work equipment and machinery
22 October 2008
Thousands of people are injured or develop medical conditions as a result of defective, dangerous or badly maintained work equipment and machinery.
In accordance with the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1988 employers are obliged to provide equipment which is:
- suitable for the intended use
- safe for use, maintained in a safe condition and inspected to ensure this remains the case
- used only by people who have received adequate information, instruction and training
- is accompanied by suitable safety measures such as markings and warnings.
Most equipment used by an employee at work is covered, including hammers, ladders, power presses, circular saws, lorries, forklifts and even computers and photocopiers.
Your employer should not only ensure that the equipment you are provided with meets the requirements of the Regulations with regard to suitability, maintenance and inspection, but they should also ensure that risks to your safety are eliminated wherever possible, or controlled by effective measures such as suitable guards, protection devices, stop buttons and personal protective equipment and training.
Another area where accidents are common is in the use of lifting equipment.
Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1988 any lifting equipment used at work for lifting or lowering loads, such as cranes, should be:
- strong and stable enough for the intended use and marked specifically to indicate safe working loads
- positioned and installed to minimise any risks
- used safely with regard to the planning, organisation and performance of the work by competent people
- subject to thorough examination and ongoing inspection by competent people
However, it is not just accidents using equipment that most people consider to be dangerous, such as fork-lift trucks and cranes, which cause injury. There are also Regulations to protect those people who work in offices and who use computers.
Under the Health & Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1993, employers must:
- analyse work stations to assess and reduce risks
- ensure work stations meet specified minimum requirements
- plan work activities so that they include breaks or changes of activity
- provide eyesight tests on request and special glasses if needed
- provide information and training
HSE research found that the most common conditions associated with display screen equipment include:
- neck, back and shoulder pain
- visual fatigue such as headaches and eye discomfort
- mental stress
Should you be injured or develop a condition because of defective and/or dangerous work equipment of any type, even if you think you were to blame or one of your colleagues was to blame, you may still have a claim for compensation.
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