Over the last five years, an average of nearly 70 people have died and 4,000 have suffered a major injury annually as a result of a fall from height in the workplace. Falls from height are the most common cause of fatal injury and traditionally have been the second most common cause of major injury for workers.
The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has included falls from height as one of its Programmes, chosen to help meet its targets for the reduction of injury rates in the workplace.

On average, over 200 people are injured in stair falls each year. The measures that might be taken to prevent these falls are simple and straightforward, but accidents regularly occur. This work will allow the Falls from Height Programme to assess whether it is delivering the correct messages in the correct form, or whether a new approach is needed to tackle the problem.

The aims and objectives of the project are:

(i) To analyse the problems surrounding falls on stairs, particularly whether they are due to human factors or design issues.

(ii) To carry out a series of discreet projects to raise awareness of the problems and how the stair falls can be avoided.

(iii) To develop a set of simple key messages related to stair falls that can be communicated to industry.