Four killed this week in workplace accidents

Four people have died this week alone in workplace accidents.

The deaths bring to 63 the number of people who have been killed in accidents in the workplace since October 2004.

Two men were killed in separate incidents by electricity on building sites and two more drowned to death on different farms.

The Health and Safety Authority (HAS) warns that employees could soon be facing stiff fines for not wearing proper safety equipment.

Inspectors from the HAS are carrying out investigations into all four incidents, while investigations are also ongoing into a number of workplace accidents during the week in which people were seriously injured.

The HAS's chief executive, Tom Beegan, says tough fines for those not wearing appropriate protection are necessary because workers are becoming complacent about their own safety.

He said that one person is killed in the workplace every week and that there is the added “untold story” of the numbers seriously injured in workplace accidents, which, he says, amount to thousands of people per year.