Three Shropshire workers killed and 715 injured in workplace accidents in one year

The Health and Safety Executive has released a breakdown of the number of people affected by workplace injuries during the 2013-14 period, which reveals a slight rise on the same period the year before.

The three people killed in the workplace compared with one the year before, while the 715 injured was a slight increase from 713 the previous year.

Shortly before Christmas 2013, farmer Adrian Owen of Ash Parva near Whitchurch was killed after being hit on the head while carrying out routine TB testing on a bull.

That July, another farmer, 74-year-old William Dunn, died when three bales of hay fell on him.

Construction worker Stephen John Greenaway, from Coalport, also died after falling 30 feet from machinery at the dock he was working at in Wales in June 2013.

The statistics reveal that an estimated 8,700 people were made ill by their work in the county during the course of the year.

Nationally there were 133 deaths at work in 2013/14, more than 79,500 injuries were formally reported, and more than 1.1 million people are estimated to have been made ill.

Samantha Peace, HSE regional director for the West Midlands said: "The families of the workers in Shropshire who lost their lives last year have just spent the festive period without their loved ones, while thousands of other workers were made ill through their work or had their lives changed forever by a major injury.

"The figures offer encouragement that we are continuing to head in the right direction, but they also show that we can still go further and challenge the industries where there is room to do more."

When breaking the figures down between different parts of the area, all the fatalities occurred in Shropshire county, with none in Telford & Wrekin.

In Telford, 292 people were injured, compared with 423 in Shropshire.

Shropshire – which has the greater population of the two local authorities – also accounted for the bulk of workplace injuries, with 5,700 of the 8,700 work-related illnesses in total across the patch taking place in the broader county.

The county accounted for more than its fair share of workplace fatalities. Around one in 44 of the national total of workplace deaths were in Shropshire, despite the county's population accounting for only one in 135 of the total UK headcount.

The figures show the construction, manufacturing and waste and recycling industries are those in which workers face the greatest risk.