Whilst contracts are won by whoever submits the lowest quote nothing changes. HSE have given up on prevention and spend time shutting stable doors

The construction industry are equivalent to the infantry in the army - canon fodder. If someone dies, just get someone else - there are plenty more guys available in this race to the bottom economy we have. Safety - no thanks - far too expensive. As others have said - the HSE have given up.

This is interesting: 'The company’s director, Lee Cotterill, who had no formal qualifications as a scaffolder, had overall control of the design, planning and construction of the edge protection and personally signed it off as being safe'. Something wrong here and I just cannot put my finger on it... but if Cotterill had overall control of the design etc. I'm sure someone (Himself?) thought he was competent to hold the position. Experience yes, but augmented by proven qualifications to hold such a position surely?. A person can go through a lifetime doing things wrong and getting away with it.. but sooner of later, someone picks up the tab. If you are not shown the correct way to do things how do you know if you're right? Monkey see, monkey do. How can you sign something off as being safe when you don't have a clue... No doubt I'm wrong in my view but is just my opinion.

R.I.P to that poor man, and bless his family. PC's no a days are management companies in my view, they have no clue about construction, and care less about it too. One PC we are working with at present is run by agency guys, sho do not even know the PC systems..... Its annoying. But the ethos at present seems to be build it fast and build it cheap, and unless that is changed then the construction industry wont.

Nothing drastic will happen. The most effective thing that could happen, won't happen: Throwing directors off the same roof with no fall restraint. http://www.constructione...pse-traps-20-passers-by/ http://www.constructione...on-over-tragic-m4-crash/ http://www.constructione...wall-collapse-kills-man/ http://www.constructione...el-erector-shatters-jaw/ http://www.constructione...ks-back-in-mansion-fall/ http://www.constructione...er-snaps-unsafe-roofers/

Despite all the regulations and duties on clients, designers, PC, etc these type of incidents are still all too common. Why? Organisations only get caught and prosecuted for non-compliance following a serious incident - save for the rare exception. The reality, however, is non-compliance is ubiquitous. Even when organisations and individuals are found guilty the sanctions are frugally pathetic. If the law is to be effective there must be realistic chance of getting caught and the penalty sufficient to act as a deterrent to others. Clearly that is not the case.

To coin a phrase from somewhere else... "its all about MONEY, not SAFETY". It will always be until safety it put first, which it will never be, people are expendable and cheap in the grand scheme of things. That is where the problem lies. Companies see this as being true, and with the levels of enforcement in place, it really is true. However, these expendable people are not expendable to their family, friends, themselves etc. How can they be? Why should they be? Until companies are prepared to pay the price for work to be done with the correct levels of H&S, and NOT done by the lowest bidder, in a drive to the bottom, how can this change? To me there is a totally different mindset in construction and manufacturing. Construction, in out, cheap as possible, to heck with quality or safety if they can get away with it. Quality only matters if it gets spotted, or causes a problem, and the volumes are really so low, often one off, it is rarely an issue to put right. Now in manufacturing, if you make a faulty product, you could end up making millions before you realise. If you have a H&S breach, then you are likely to be doing the same thing for months if not years, so you have to get it right. If, you can save money on a manufacturing process without compromising quality or safety, then you could potentially save, a LOT of money over many years. In construction individual tasks don't go on for years. It is IMHO a philosophical issue that will not change until mind sets change. The primary driver being again IMHO, what is perceived as value. The old saying, "pay peanuts, get monkeys" IMHO still applies today...

So as per the title "how can we stop this sort of thing" What exactly needs to happen ? 1) Harsher punishment for directors ? 2) Better ways of selecting on sub contractor safety competence than pre qualification currently allows? 3) Some further Government control (but what) ? 4) Better enforcement by HSE (more inspections) 5) Us, in some way reporting anything and everything we see around us better ? In the report I read that they had not told the HSE under CDM. However when I go about and see buildings etc being built, there is not say an online directory of what has been reported to HSE. So I could not check and report them if they had not. Would it take a programmer long to build such a list by address (I may be wrong as I don't do this but you do fill out an online form for F10 don't you -so the info is there). I can't help but think and easy reporting system to HSE is the way forward. Then them moving quickly to the reported issue to catch them before the accident occurs. Just MHO, we can't just continue to whinge about they way it currently is. Chris

http://www.constructione...jailed-for-manslaughter/ Can only concur with other posts observing standards are falling; and although I doubt harsher judgements will change this, I welcome it. My take is that perception of risk is at the lowest ebb ever with documentation and PQQs the main pre cursor for major contractors as opposed to establishing competence, experience and if the right foot fits the right shoe. We have also done procedures and policy to death without ever really addressing the human factors and behaviours with any sort of conviction and fall into the usual findings and controls. Accident happens = Toolbox talk / training. Violation on site = Toolbox talk / training. Unsafe behaviour = Toolbox talk / training. Its not just about cost and price, the big boys get it wrong too you know!...I think we have just bottomed out and its all a bit tired, and too many people in all disciplines of the industry, don't know what they don't know. Until firms of all shapes and sizes realise its down to a mix of competence and behaviours then we will continue to stagnate or worse, go backwards.