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Deleted member 174758
As a sometime foreman I'm interested in where you got those figures from and I'd like to see what age groups/training-experience profiles accident victims had. Could you post a link or the title of an HSE report which contains this information in order that I might highlight aspect to my management?
What I can point out is that nobody under the age of 18 may legally operate powered tools or machinery on a construction site in the UK. I'd also question your assertion that older workers are less likely to have received proper training. It's generally the older more experienced guys who tend to have a more complete toolkit than the youngsters and who are also the ones that provide on the job training in power tool use amongst other things (ever heard of the master/mentor-apprentice relationship?) - you simply can't and don't learn everything you need to do the job at college. I can only speak from the point of view of a trained carpenter and joiner (however I'm reasonably confident that other trades are similar), but any City and Guilds trained chippie will have received basic training in the power tools of his trade. Advice on correct use is included in texts by authors such as Porter & Rose, etc. Even NVQ site assessed carpenters have to be able to demonstrate competence with a least a circular saw and a chop saw. Granted some of the tools are new since I served my time (e.g biscuit jointers) but the vast majority of "standard" power tools in use today have been around since the 1930s or earlier (e.g circular saws routers planers, belt and orbital sanders, electric drills etc) and these started to appear in training texts during the 1950s (I have a couple of sets of manuals from that period which contain such information)
You seem to be concerned about what you call "slick techniques" and people who put down health and safety. But anyone working on a major site needs to undertake a basic H&S test (the CSCS test) as well as training and certifying (and repeating the exercise every 2 to 5 years) for every specialised skill (e.g operating a cherry picker, harness work, abrasive wheels, etc). BTW if that was a reference to jump or plunge cuts in my defence I have to say that I did state that it is not a technique for the inexperienced (or gung ho)
H&S is a highly contentious issue within the construction industry, I'd say in part brought about by the actions of a few overly zealous HSQE officers, but what is obvious to industry insiders is that accident levels across the board on large contractor sites over the last 20 years have diminishing year on year - it's the small sites and one or two man bands where the HSE is becoming more concerned about accident levels (based on a discussion with an HSE inspector earlier this year). This might be down to the lack of an environment where RAMS (risk assessments and method statements) are integral to every task
