Lost time incidents have dropped by 70 per cent in the British cement industry over the past five years, reports Construction News.

New figures released by the British Cement Association have revealed a continued downward trend in incidents on the sites of the sector’s big four – Castle Cement, Cemex, Tarmac and Lafarge.

In 2003, there were 101 incidents which caused working hours to be lost. That figure fell to 31 last year.

Cemex, however, was devastated by a death on one of its sites last November, when a worker was killed in a dumper truck accident.

BCA director of industry affairs David Pocklington said the body had rolled out a new safety strategy in 2003 – building on the Health and Safety Executive’s Revitalising Health and Safety plans – to reduce LTI’s by 30 per cent year-on-year. But since 2007 it has held a zero-incident policy.

Mr Pocklington said: "We would hope to deliver zero LTI’s by 2010."

He said the BCA was hoping to work refresh its charter following the body’s merger with the Quarry Products Association at the start of this month.

While both industries will keep a sector-specific strategy, Mr Pocklington believed a combined approach could help reduce injuries across both workforces.

Source: Construction News