SPEAKERS at services to remember those who have died in accidents at work reminded us that health and safety saves lives as the world prays for those trapped in a collapsed building in Bangladesh.
Yesterday, three Workers' Memorial Day services took place in Immingham, Grimsby and Cleethorpes to remember the men and women of North East Lincolnshire who have died while at work.
The services have been running locally since 1992, but their message was particularly poignant this year after a building containing five clothing factories collapsed, killing more than 300 people in Bangladesh.
Cracks had appeared in the building in the run-up to the accident, but employees who worked there – some of the lowest paid in the world – were told to get back to work. A number of factory owners have now been arrested.
Nobby Styles, organiser of the three local services, said: "It is a reminder to all of us that health and safety is not just red tape – cuts can kill.
"The standards we have in place make our country one of the safest places to work in Europe – let Bangladesh be the contrast."
The Immingham service was held at the War Memorial on Pelham Road at 11am and attended by the families of Warren Peacock, Tim Elton, Ann Mawer and Sue Barker – all of whom died as a result of work-based accidents.
In Grimsby, at the Nuns Corner War Memorial, the families of Paul Doyley, Mike Brown, Alison Holmes, Robert Greenacre and Stephen Vaughen-Cox paid their respects.
James Doyley, 77, of Great Coates, is the father of Paul Doyley, who died as the result of an accident at Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, Stallingborough, in March 2010.
James said: "He's in our thoughts all the time, but especially on days like to day and Saturday, which would have been his 52nd birthday.
"We come here every year to remember him and will do for many years to come."
At Cleethorpes' War Memorial, family members paid tribute to Alan Murphy, Derek Walker, Tracy Chapman-Woods, Kenneth Arrowsmith, Mark Bird, Bert Ling, Eric William Bradley, John Craig Altoft and Michael Buston.
Mayor of North East Lincolnshire, Councillor Mike Buston (Lab, Immingham) said: "It is important to remember these people wherever you are in the world, but in this area, it is particularly relevant because of the local industries.
"People face dangers at work every day and it highlights the issue of what happened to the people we are paying tribute to. Not just for the workers, but their families and friends."
ON THE WEB: See video of the services and wreath- laying at www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk
