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Serious incidents and fatalities

We deeply regret two work-related employee fatalities and one work-related third party fatality during 2004.

In Egypt, a GSK sales representative fell into an elevator shaft while on a business trip. In the United States, a GSK sales representative died in a traffic accident. The third party fatality was in Brazil, where a visitor travelling in a GSK car died in a traffic accident. We are working to reduce traffic accidents through our driver safety programme. See safety programmes.

Our health and safety data covers driving accidents that occur on business travel. We only report data on commuting accidents if the vehicle is owned and operated by GSK. However, we took very seriously a commuting accident in Nigeria, where a truck collided with a bus (not owned or operated by GSK) carrying GSK employees to work, leading to six employee fatalities.

We also report serious incidents ie incidents that result in permanent disability (including amputations) or those that are reported to the regulatory authorities. In 2004, accidents with machinery resulted in four employees (at sites in Japan, Pakistan, India and the US) needing to have part of a finger amputated. In addition, one employee (at a site in India) had to have a hand amputated and one employee (in the US) needed surgery but suffered no permanent disability. A Canadian employee suffered severe hand injuries following a serious car crash.

We investigate the circumstances of all fatalities and other serious incidents and assess what can be learned to avoid similar injuries again. We also issue global alerts (posted on our intranet site) to communicate information that could help prevent similar incidents at other sites.

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