Oresai
11-15-2008, 05:21 AM
(hope this is in the right section!)
I love the comment from one Shetlander about how the biting must be happening within the local council...:D
On a serious note though, here in Orkney at least, both main occupations, fishing and farming, are classed as among the most dangerous jobs in the UK. Certainly barely a year goes by without at least one fishing boat being lost at sea, leaving behind grieving widows and children. And even today many children and adults are injured on farms, most often by machinery but also by being harmed by livestock....I remember a couple of incidents, one where the nearby farmers prize bull got loose, one great big mean brute, and proceeded to kick the hell out of the large, brawny men trying to recapture him, putting one in hospital with concussion...and another when, in a brief glitch of enterprise, a local man thought to breed ostriches (in Orkney, you have to know our weather to appreciate the daftness of that notion...) only to find his flock of a dozen of the big birds having got loose and were happily dashing down what passes for our main road ( a single track affair) to Kettletoft village. So did this fearless entrepeneur run after them? Oh no...he sent the wife....:rolleyes:
He had already been kicked in..um..a rather delicate place, you see, by one of the birds, who can aim a kick with absolute and deadly accuracy and can actually kill a grown man with one kick...so he was too chicken to bring them back...his wife, however, managed the job fine, and divorced him soon after. :D
Yup, the countryside is a dangerous place..rampaging bulls and ostriches aside, the sea here claims her portion and working the land for food is seldom the pastoral vision of calm that city folks imagine. ;)
Falls and bites make accident-prone islands a dangerous place to stay
GalleryPublished Date: 15 November 2008
By DEAN HERBERT
ISLANDERS have turned their remote home into one of the most dangerous places in Scotland – by racking up 2,000 accidents every year.
Figures show that residents on the remote Shetland islands are dodging the dangers of being stabbed, bitten and attacked by animals up to five times a day.
Documents released by Shetland Council of recorded Health and Safety issues revealed that there have already been 1,899 incidents in council premises this year – despite the population of the islands being only 22,000.
The logs list that islanders face dangers ranging from being beaten up at work and hit by falling objects to suffering from sleep problems and being bitten by dogs.
The documents even reveal that there have been ten incidents in the category of "bitten by a person" recorded since 2006 – while there were 35 accidents logged on a children's playground.
The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that there were 2,091 separate incidents in 2007, including an astonishing 672 separate falls.
And the most recent figures show that there were 157 incidents in September alone, including 38 assaults, six medication errors and eight people hit by "falling/moving objects".
Residents say they are bewildered by the statistics, insisting that they are not under constant threat of calamity.
One householder, from Scalloway on Mainland Shetland said: "I can't believe there are so many accidents. To hear that these vast lists of health and safety incidents are being compiled by the council is a bit of a shock.
"As for people biting each other, I can only imagine this is going on within the council, as I certainly haven't heard of the general public going round doing this.
"Hopefully they have just been a bit over-zealous in their recording of these things, or people may start to think twice about coming here."
The documents contained categories of every single health and safety incident recorded by Shetland Council within its buildings and facilities since mid 2006.
A spokeswoman for Shetland Islands Council said that the figures were produced because the authority's systems painstakingly record every incident. "The high numbers are probably down to our meticulous recording of incidents.
"At present, every single incident is recorded. But you may see these numbers drop in the future when each department has to record these incidents themselves," she said.
Shetland's high accident rates are even more staggering when compared with other authorities' statistics.
Orkney, which has a slightly smaller population of just under 20,000, recorded only 120 in 2006-7 and 118 so far this year.
Angus Council, which caters for a 65,000 population, recorded only 443 accidents for 2007 and 295 so far for this year, with the most common injuries being bruising and grazing.
And in the more densely populated East Ayrshire, council officials recorded only 733 incidents in 2007 and 661 this year.
Source, the Scotsman online.
I love the comment from one Shetlander about how the biting must be happening within the local council...:D
On a serious note though, here in Orkney at least, both main occupations, fishing and farming, are classed as among the most dangerous jobs in the UK. Certainly barely a year goes by without at least one fishing boat being lost at sea, leaving behind grieving widows and children. And even today many children and adults are injured on farms, most often by machinery but also by being harmed by livestock....I remember a couple of incidents, one where the nearby farmers prize bull got loose, one great big mean brute, and proceeded to kick the hell out of the large, brawny men trying to recapture him, putting one in hospital with concussion...and another when, in a brief glitch of enterprise, a local man thought to breed ostriches (in Orkney, you have to know our weather to appreciate the daftness of that notion...) only to find his flock of a dozen of the big birds having got loose and were happily dashing down what passes for our main road ( a single track affair) to Kettletoft village. So did this fearless entrepeneur run after them? Oh no...he sent the wife....:rolleyes:
He had already been kicked in..um..a rather delicate place, you see, by one of the birds, who can aim a kick with absolute and deadly accuracy and can actually kill a grown man with one kick...so he was too chicken to bring them back...his wife, however, managed the job fine, and divorced him soon after. :D
Yup, the countryside is a dangerous place..rampaging bulls and ostriches aside, the sea here claims her portion and working the land for food is seldom the pastoral vision of calm that city folks imagine. ;)
Falls and bites make accident-prone islands a dangerous place to stay
GalleryPublished Date: 15 November 2008
By DEAN HERBERT
ISLANDERS have turned their remote home into one of the most dangerous places in Scotland – by racking up 2,000 accidents every year.
Figures show that residents on the remote Shetland islands are dodging the dangers of being stabbed, bitten and attacked by animals up to five times a day.
Documents released by Shetland Council of recorded Health and Safety issues revealed that there have already been 1,899 incidents in council premises this year – despite the population of the islands being only 22,000.
The logs list that islanders face dangers ranging from being beaten up at work and hit by falling objects to suffering from sleep problems and being bitten by dogs.
The documents even reveal that there have been ten incidents in the category of "bitten by a person" recorded since 2006 – while there were 35 accidents logged on a children's playground.
The figures, released under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed that there were 2,091 separate incidents in 2007, including an astonishing 672 separate falls.
And the most recent figures show that there were 157 incidents in September alone, including 38 assaults, six medication errors and eight people hit by "falling/moving objects".
Residents say they are bewildered by the statistics, insisting that they are not under constant threat of calamity.
One householder, from Scalloway on Mainland Shetland said: "I can't believe there are so many accidents. To hear that these vast lists of health and safety incidents are being compiled by the council is a bit of a shock.
"As for people biting each other, I can only imagine this is going on within the council, as I certainly haven't heard of the general public going round doing this.
"Hopefully they have just been a bit over-zealous in their recording of these things, or people may start to think twice about coming here."
The documents contained categories of every single health and safety incident recorded by Shetland Council within its buildings and facilities since mid 2006.
A spokeswoman for Shetland Islands Council said that the figures were produced because the authority's systems painstakingly record every incident. "The high numbers are probably down to our meticulous recording of incidents.
"At present, every single incident is recorded. But you may see these numbers drop in the future when each department has to record these incidents themselves," she said.
Shetland's high accident rates are even more staggering when compared with other authorities' statistics.
Orkney, which has a slightly smaller population of just under 20,000, recorded only 120 in 2006-7 and 118 so far this year.
Angus Council, which caters for a 65,000 population, recorded only 443 accidents for 2007 and 295 so far for this year, with the most common injuries being bruising and grazing.
And in the more densely populated East Ayrshire, council officials recorded only 733 incidents in 2007 and 661 this year.
Source, the Scotsman online.