Speedy donates prize for Carillion safety competition

07/02/2006

Tool and equipment hire company, Speedy Hire, has donated a prize of a day at the races for a Carillion Health and Safety competition called ‘Focus on Falls’. The competition was part of a week-long safety campaign aimed at raising awareness of the Working at Heights Regulations which were introduced last year.

All of Carillion Building’s 60+ construction sites took part and the competition was won by the Falcon Wharf team based in Battersea. Falcon Wharf is an 18-storey mixed use development for client George Wimpey Central London, scheduled for completion in May 2006. Speedy Hire generously donated the prize to allow 22 members of the project team to enjoy the hospitality box at Lingfield Park in February.

Falcon Wharf project director Bob Jenkins explains: “The Focus on Falls competition was aimed at raising awareness of the safety issues of working at height and the on-site risks of falling objects and people. To win the competition we had to complete a quiz, describe five changes we made to our projects to focus on falls and complete a tie-breaker about the importance of safety when working at heights.”

Speedy Hire, one of Carillion’s key suppliers, gave its support by providing information packs containing a guide to the new regulations, posters, leaflets, stickers and suggested activities for the week as part of their ongoing Safety from the Ground up educational campaign.

Carillion Building’s managing director, David Liming said: “Falls from height are the biggest cause of fatal and serious injuries in construction, accounting for around 50% of deaths. The objective of this campaign was to help site staff make sense of the new regulations and think about ways they could increase on-site safety in this area. Focus on Falls was part of Carillion’s ongoing ‘Target Zero’ campaign, which is all about reducing accidents and incidents to zero by the year 2010.”

Note to Editors

Carillion Building is a UK market leader in commercial building, focused primarily on the high rise residential, education, retail and office sectors, and delivering through all types of procurement from fee-based consultancy agreements through to traditional contracting forms and PFI / PPP. Carillion Building is part of integrated property solutions provider Carillion Business Services (CBS).

Speedy Hire is a leading provider of tool and equipment hire services to UK contractors and builders, industry, utilities and the public sector, operating from more than 300 depots throughout the UK. 62% of the group’s turnover is generated from tool hire and 38% from equipment hire, with complementary businesses specialising in portable accommodation, lifting equipment, surveying and measurement instruments and compressed air and power generating equipment.

Speedy Hire is committed to industry leading partnerships with customers and suppliers and continues to drive innovation, and integration, in the tool hire sector.

Safety from the Ground Up is a communications campaign created by Speedy Hire to increase awareness of the risks and promoting safer practices when working at height; the campaign has recently won the Construction Marketing award for campaign of the year.

For further information

Carillion corporate communications 01902 316620