Birmingham City Centre could be seeing drastic changes to its streetscapes as a result of plans to remove traffic lights, kerbs, railings, speed limits and warning signs in order to cut accident rates.  The idea for the so-called “naked streets” comes from Holland and is being considered by Birmingham City Council for a number of locations in the City Centre.The concept of sharing street space between cars, lorries, cyclists and… read more

With the UK currently going through one of the most severe economic downturns in recent times, there is understandably even greater pressure on company bosses to run their business as profitably as possible.  However the pressures on businesses should not be an excuse to cut corners when it comes to the health and safety of their workforce.   Health and safety minister Lord Mckenzie has warned employers that the consequences of… read more

An article published on Friday in the New Scotsman caught my eye online over the weekend with its headline “Council tripped up by £40k bill for school’s staff injury claims.”  The piece mentioned that tens of thousands of pounds had been paid out in compensation to teachers and school staff in the Midlothian area of Scotland.  However the descriptions given in this first paragraph of some of the accidents, including… read more

An engineering firm from Gloucester has become the first company to be prosecuted under the new corporate manslaughter laws which are designed to hold companies criminally liable for failing to take care for a person’s safety.  The firm, Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings, is accused of gross negligence which led to the death of a geologist working on a building site near the town of Stroud in September 2008.Alexander Wright had been… read more

A case reported recently in the Law Society Gazette could have implications for short term and casual workers injured whilst at work.  An unqualified worker building an extension to a house fell from a raised scaffold and suffered brain injuries that left him with permanent disabilities.  In today’s blog entry I will examine the issue in the case.The accident happened during the construction of an extension to a house; the… read more

Tomorrow marks two years since the first United Nations Global Road Safety week held on 23-27 April 2007.  The road safety week was called for by the United Nations to reflect the startling statistic that nearly 1.2 million people around the world are killed in accidents on the road each year and a further 35 million are injured.  In fact, predictions by road safety experts point to a further 17… read more

The government has announced new plans to reduce speed limits in areas with high accident rates in a bid to cut road deaths.  The plans will see a cut in speed limits from 30mph to 20mph in some urban areas and from 60mph to 50mph on rural roads.  Cuts in the speed limits are part of the government’s road safety strategy for England and Wales and are designed… read more