Builder's Arm Severed In Cement Mixer

NI Health and Safety Executive (HSENI) is to investigate a building site accident that left a man seriously injured yesterday.

The incident, in west Belfast's Ballymurphy area on Monday saw the victim lose an arm.

The man's limb was severed after it became trapped in a cement mixer at St Bernadette's Primary School on the Glenalina Road.

He has undergone surgery in the Ulster Hospital in Dundondald where he is described as being in a comfortable condition.

This will be bad news for the Non-Departmental Public Body - sponsored by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment - which last month reported that the number of injuries at work had again fallen since last year.

HSENI's latest Annual Report and Statement of Accounts showed reported injuries down by over a third since HSENI was established in 1999 - this compares to employment levels for the same period which have grown by over a quarter.

Wrting in September, Professor Peter McKie, HSENI's Chairman, said: "Encouragingly in the last year, even if the economic downturn is factored in, the number of work- related injuries have continued to decrease.

"Quite simply, even with more people in work we are seeing fewer being injured.

"I see the continuing downward trend as a clear endorsement of the innovative and challenging approach that has been adopted by HSENI since its establishment in 1999.

"This approach is based on three complementary strands: the provision of advice and assistance particularly to small businesses; the recognition of good practice amongst both the private and public sectors and the relentless pursuit of those who blatantly flout the law and put at risk the lives of their employees and too often the general public," he added.

(BMcC/GK)