Lawford Kidd's Blog

A number of Scottish employers have come under the spotlight recently after their health and safety failings led to workers suffering serious and in some cases life changing injuries simply as a result of trying to do their job.

Janitor loses toe in chainsaw incident

In one such incident, Fife Council was fined £20,000 after a janitor lost a toe while working with a chainsaw.

The 39-year-old had been sent to a primary school in Dunfermline to remove a tree that had blown down in the school grounds. He and a colleague had removed most of the branches and were eventually left with just the trunk and a single limb attached at above-shoulder height. He climbed onto the trunk and started cutting through the limb, but it sheared away and landed on his foot, trapping it against the trunk.

Members of the public and young people in particular are being urged to take a zero tolerance approach to drink-driving this festive season to help prevent devastating Christmas tragedies.

A survey of young drivers, released by Brake and Direct Line, finds a shocking three in ten (29%) are willing to take the deadly gamble of driving after drinking alcohol. An even bigger proportion – 53%, up from 45% four years ago – risk driving drunk the day after a heavy night, suggesting widespread complacency about how long alcohol stays in your system.

In 2010, one in seven road deaths involved drink drivers. Around 250 road deaths and 1,230 road casualties occurred when someone was over the drink drive limit. Many more drink-drive crashes are caused by drivers who only have small amounts of alcohol in their blood. A further estimated 65 road deaths per year are caused by drivers who are under the drink-drive limit, but who have a significant amount of alcohol in their blood. Research shows that even very small amounts of alcohol significantly increase reaction times and therefore the risk of crashing.

As the festive party season approaches the road safety charity Brake has welcomed a police crackdown on drink and drug drivers. 

Ellen Booth, Brake senior campaigns officer, said:

“We fully support this vital crackdown on deadly and selfish drink and drug drivers. Every Christmas, and indeed every week of the year, many families are confronted by the death of a loved one, or a terrible injury, caused by drivers wilfully taking these appalling risks. We urge drivers to imagine the consequences for a second and realise it’s never worth chancing your life and other people’s.”