Rise in industrial accidents in Balearics

INDUSTRIAL accidents in the Balearics rose by 6.7 percent in the first 10 months of this year. This breaks the run of three consecutive years when the accident rate has fallen. The number of accidents at work requiring time off has risen by 6.7 percent in the first 10 months in contrast with the first 10 months of last year with a total of 22'628 incidents, according to the latest official figures from the Ministry of Labour and Training. In October there was a total of 2'089 industrial accidents in the islands requiring time off, some 15.9 percent less than in the same month last year.
This number is the most since April (2'083), when the rise started, peaking in September with 3'232 accidents, some 38 percent more than for the same month in 2004. If this rise continues for the next two months then the number of industrial accidents in the Balearics requiring time off will exceed the number recorded in the whole of 2004 (24'075 incidents). This finishes the islands' run of three consecutive years when the accident rate fell after a record number of accidents in 2001 (30'643). In 2004 a reduction of six percent was achieved in the number of industrial accidents in comparison with the year before, with 24'076 incidents. The same thing happened in 2003 (12.8 percent less than 2002) and in 2002 (6.3 percent less than 2001). In the whole of Spain the number of fatal industrial accidents fell by 12.2 percent during the month of October in comparison with the same month in 2004 (90 and 79 respectively). The number of serious accidents fell by 18.3 percent, 729 in comparison with 893 in October of 2004. The total number of accidents recorded so far this year is 755'229, some four percent more than in the same period of 2004. Of these, 746'143 were minor (4.1 percent more), 7'237 were serious (6.3 percent less) and 849 were fatal (an increase of 7.6 percent).