Inspection blitz launched after 24th workplace fatality

A CONSTRUCTION worker who fell from a scaffold yesterday became the 24th workplace fatality this year, on the same day safety inspectors announced a blitz on building sites.

Smaller house building projects will be the focus of the crackdown by the Health and Safety Authority, which has vowed to carry out more than 1,000 inspections in seven days.

While the construction industry claims a huge amount of progress has been made in worker safety, the HSA yesterday described as “appalling” the number of building site deaths.