App may help avoid accidental deaths of lone workers

AGRICULTURAL and lone worker deaths could be reduced thanks to an app developed by a British company.

Over the past 12 months there have been 111 fatal injuries in the workplace, according to official statistics. Being trapped underneath something or falling from a height accounts for the bulk of cases.

Now, Norwich-based Safepoint says its technology can help avoid some deaths and cut risks faced by lone those workers. “Imagine you’re an agricultural worker in a field servicing machinery or you’re doing something in a ditch in the middle of nowhere ... and you don’t come back,” said Callum Coombes, Safepoint’s chief executive.

“How long is it until somebody actually realises that you’re gone and who’s actually going to help you?”

Safepoint’s technology is made up of a website, an app and an alarm button that workers can press when in danger. Those in remote locations can log the task they’re going to do with an estimated completion time. The app tracks their location and, if they do not arrive back in time, an alarm is triggered.