Revealed: 75 people died at work in the past four years

Deaths have ranged from people falling from heights to workers being crushed, with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) warning: "Any workplace fatality is one death too many."

Across the UK, more than 1,000 staff and members of the public have died in workplaces between 2014/15 and 2017/18, figures from a HSE report show.

In Wolverhampton, the one person who died between 2014 and 2018 was a member of the public who was struck by an object.

Two men died during the same period in Dudley – a 60-year-old who was crushed by a vehicle and 27-year-old Matthew Harding, who was mowed down as he worked on a street as a telecoms engineer.

Mr Harding was working at the corner of Jack Holden Avenue in Woodcross, Coseley, with his colleague Jermaine Buchanan when they were struck by a Citroen Picasso, driven by a 17-year-old who had taken his mother's car.

Mr Harding, from Oldbury, had only got married the week before and his wife had to make the heartbreaking decision to turn his life support machine off.

The youth was locked up for four and a half years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

The 60-year-old worker was Tuffnells Parcels Express Limited employee Leighton Jardine, from Stafford, who was fatally injured while attempting to attach a trailer to his vehicle in 2016. Mr Jardine became trapped between trailer and vehicle as the trailer was parked on a slight slope.

Tuffnells, in Brierley Hill, was last year fined £1.5 million over the death, with the firm saying it has a made a range of health and safety improvements after the tragic accident.

In Sandwell, the HSE recorded three deaths in the past four years – all in Oldbury. All three deaths occurred in 2017 and included a 40-year-old man who suffered 'very serious burns', a 35-year-old who died after an incident with machinery and a 47-year-old who died from a fall.

The 40-year-old died following an explosion at Innovative Environmental Solutions on Union Road. Two other workers also sustained burns, but they were not fatal.

The firm said the trio were injured in an accident after completing a maintenance task.

The 35-year-old is believed to be Stuart Towns who died following an incident at aluminium recycling firm Alutrade in Tat Bank Road.

While the 47-year-old was Martin Eddie, who fell from a roof in April.

Walsall recorded the joint-most workplace deaths in the Black Country in the last four years with three.

The deaths included a 95-year-old man, a 34-year-old who died in an explosion and a 72-year-old woman who died from a fall.

The 34-year-old was Raymond Wyman, from Pensnett. Mr Wyman was working ad-hoc at KDC Edibles Ltd in Heath Road, Darlaston, when a tank containing methanol exploded. An inquest heard that Mr Wyman was using an oxy-propane cutting torch on top of the tank, which may have caused it to ignite.

The tank toppled and Mr Wyman fell 18ft. He was airlifted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham but died of his injuries.

The 72-year-old woman was named by the HSE as Valerie Bradburn. It is believed she died after tripping at Walsall Manor Hospital.

It is understood that 95-year-old Samuel Lockley also died at the Manor, although the details surrounding his death are unclear.

Across Stafford and Cannock Chase, three workplace deaths were recorded between 2014 and 2018.

These were a 90-year-old man who fell to his death in Stafford, a 67-year-old man who fell to his death in Stafford and a 26-year-old who fell to his death in Cannock.

The 67-year-old who fell to his death in Stafford was worker John Mills. Mr Mills was dismantling farm buildings in Hyde Lea when the roof he was working on gave way and he fell 14ft to his death.

Mr Mills, who had been based at the site for more than 40 years, was rushed to hospital but died from serious head injuries.

The Toft Partnership pleaded guilty to breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act and was fined £60,000 at Stafford Crown Court.

The 26-year-old Cannock man was Stephen Brennan, who died after falling from scaffolding in September 2015.

No details have been released on the 90-year-old Stafford man.

Across the West Midlands, 75 workplace fatalities were recorded between 2014-15 and 2017-18 – the sixth-most per population of Britain's 11 regions.

The number of fatalities in workplaces has reduced nationally since the 1980s, and the rate now sits at around a quarter of its average during that decade.

Across Britain, an average of 141 people have died annually in workplaces in recent years. At a rate of 0.51 deaths per 100,000 workers across the UK, the country is behind only Finland in the EU for workplace safety.

The most people were killed in the construction industry, in which an average of 39 workers die each year. Agriculture, which has 28 fatalities each year, and manufacturing, with 19, have the next-highest numbers of deaths.

But agriculture and waste management are the most dangerous industries, with an average of eight and seven workers per 100,000 respectively dying each year.

Across all jobs, people were most likely to be killed by falling from a height, or being struck by a vehicle.

In addition to workers, 100 members of the public died in work-connected accidents in 2017-18. Just over half of them were killed on railways, and a further 16 in the health and social work sector.

HSE spokeswoman Rhian McLaughlin: "Despite the fact that Britain’s health and safety record is the envy of much of the world, any workplace fatality is one death too many.

“Our latest statistics, published in the same week as the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster in July 2018, served as a reminder of why health and safety is so important and that we must not become complacent as we continue on our mission to prevent all forms of injury, death and ill health at work.”