• Home
• Responsibility
• CR Report 2005
• Employees
• Health and safety
• Serious incidents and fatalities

Serious incidents and fatalities

We deeply regret that one employee died in a work-related driving incident in Egypt, and two members of the public were killed during 2005 in driving accidents involving GSK employees.

We are working to reduce traffic related accidents through our driver safety programme (see safety programmes).

We have seen a reduction in the number of work-related fatalities in the last few years. This is consistent with the targets for improving health and safety performance set out in the Plan for Excellence. Contractor fatalities have remained largely constant over the same period.

Five year trend in employee fatalities:

	Fatalities
2001	5
2002	3
2003	5
2004	2
2005	1

We also report serious incidents ie incidents that result in permanent disability or those that are reported to regulatory authorities. In 2005, accidents involving machinery resulted in three employees (at sites in South Africa, the US and Puerto Rico) suffering finger amputations. One contract temporary worker at a site in the US had to have his lower leg amputated as a result of a forklift incident. Twenty two employees had to be evacuated from a site in France following the accidental release of a hazardous chemical. Nine needed medical treatment, eight of whom were hospitalised for the night. One sales employee in the US was involved in a multi vehicle road accident that resulted in severe injury and hospitalisation. An employee in the UK suffered burns to 18% of his body as a result of burst pipework releasing boiling water and steam.

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

For more information on the measures we take to improve employee and contractor safety, see safety programmes and health programmes.

Back to top