Safety first and foremost

Timber roof trusses are typically large, heavy and require installing at height. It's safe to say that if guidelines are not adhered to, working with roof trusses can pose serious risks to employees.

According to the Health and Safety Executive, in 2012/2013 the construction industry accounted for 27% of fatal injuries to employees in Britain - the highest rate in any sector - and almost one in five of these deaths involved roof work. Falls from height are the biggest issue, causing more deaths and serious injuries than anything else. Again, roof work figures highly, as roofers account for 24% of these falls - the biggest category of worker by far.

Interestingly, across the industry as a whole, there has been a significant reduction in the number of fatal injuries over the past decade, with fatalities almost half what they were 20 years ago. This suggests that stronger safety regulation has had a positive impact. However, the percentage of fatal injuries resulting from falls from height has not decreased, with an alarming spike last summer. In total, 235 accidents were reported in the second quarter of 2013, with figures from the Building Safety Group revealing that around 12% of the incidents were falls from height; an increase of 60% on the same period last year.

These statistics are very worrying - even more so when we consider the construction industry's low output over the last few years. Given the reduced number of projects and far fewer people working in the industry, there should have been a decrease in accidents, certainly not an increase. With the recent uplift in demand, this is something that must be addressed as a matter of urgency. If these accidents are happening on sites when the industry is quiet, it is terrifying to think what could happen now that there is more demand and an added requirement to work quickly.

Health and safety regulation is of course essential, and is something that will already be in place at all reputable sites and businesses across the country. However, regulation is only effective if it is understood, implemented and enforced. Many of these accidents could have been avoided if simple precautions were taken and if strict health and safety policies were adhered to. As demand continues to increase we all need to be ensuring that suitable safety equipment is used, and that those doing the work are given adequate information and instruction with robust training, full supervision and ongoing assessment.

Safety solutions
The answer to this issue of safety is to develop solutions to reduce the risk, and to make sure that they are easy, sensible and practical. This could be with more off-site construction, or safety scaffolding systems.

In recent months we have been assessing how we can develop more of these solutions at Donaldson Timber Engineering. One of the concerns for us was the growing demand for tall (higher than 2.5m) fink style trusses, which require stretching when fixing ridge bracing. Overstretching while working at height is incredibly dangerous, so we looked at ways to make the procedure safer.

This hazard has been recognised and many builders now request trusses with factory-fitted plated timber crossbars between the central webs. The crossbars act as a platform to allow carpenters to reach the truss apex and nail the stability bracing safely. This concept is excellent from a construction perspective, but in manufacturing terms it increases the cost of materials and labour by in excess of £5 per truss. Plus the crossbars cannot be removed, thereby restricting access to, and use of, the loft space in the finished building - all of which can put some builders off using them.

However, we believe that the fixing of ridge bracing when there is no platform is unacceptable, and so we have worked hard to come up with a new, more appealing approach.

In order to make this system more practical we have developed a simple scaffold system, in conjunction with TRAD Safety Systems, which facilitates the safe on-site fixing of ridge stability bracing on these trusses. Instead of pre-fitting permanent crossbars, we created an adjustable, reusable metal crossbar. This bar can be used to suit any project and once the work is finished it can be removed and used again. This concept has the same health and safety benefits as the factory-fitted crossbar, but it is cheaper and incredibly straightforward, which we believe will encourage use and lead to significant safety improvements.

With such shocking statistics, we need to work together to do all we can to prevent accidents in our industry. Making a difference in this area doesn't need to be complicated. Let's make sure that the uplift in work remains a positive, and not one that results in a much greater loss.

• Jonathan Fellingham is managing director of Donaldson Timber Engineering.