"Quarrying holds the highest injury rate of any industry"
(HSE, 2006)

Quarries are a hazardous environment to work within. Towards the end of the 1990s the industry had injury rates that were significantly greater than a number of industries perceived as being ‘high hazard’. For example, the quarry injury rate was noted at "three times that of the construction industry" *(Foster, 2000)

Since then, the hard target led by The Health and Safety Executive has resulted in a reduction of 52% of reported accidents between 2000 and 2005.

However, recent accident statistics show that there still remains a long way to go:

Between 2004 and 2005 there has been an fatality rate of 2.3 and an accident rate of 729 (HSE, 2006). The graph on the left shows the trend of injury rates over five years.

More specifically. . .

QUARRY SITES' MOST COMMON INJURIES RELATE BACK TO WORKER BEHAVIOUR!!


Quarries main causes have consistently been the following:

It is clear that these top causes of injuries at quarry sites are related to people's behaviours.

I.e. Not cleaning areas, not removing trip hazards, carrying a load correctly, not manouvering vehicles with care, not following correct procedures for access and egress..etc.

Even issues such as flooring that people may be associated with condition rather than behaviour can be traced back to people ignoring the issue.

Behavioural Safety aims to tackle this behavioural issues and make quarry sites safer places to work in.