TWO people died as a result of workplace accidents in Colchester last year.

Latest figures released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for 2007/8 show 440 people were injured in accidents in the town.

On December 6, 2007, self-employed builder Paul Hamlyn, 44, from Great Bromley, was electrocuted while working on a house in Forge Street, Dedham.

In May 2007, 23-year-old Alex Phythian, from Faversham, in Kent, died while working for Colchester-based company JL Knight Roadworks.

Mr Phythian was driving a nine-ton dumper truck when it overturned, trapping him under the rollover protection frame.

An investigation by the HSE showed the company had “fully discharged its health and safety duties”, a spokesman said.

In Tendring, ther were no fatal accidents but 250 people were injured.

In the east of England, there were 13,821 people killed or injured in work-related incidents – an average of about 266 incidents every week.

The HSE has called on employers in the region to make their workplaces safer in 2009.

Simon Longbottom, the HSE operations manager for the East, said: “Every fortnight somebody died at work in the East of England last year – some 266 people were injured every week.

“Behind these statistics are cases of real suffering and, for some, hardship through loss of income.

“We are asking that businesses in the East of England take practical action to manage the risks people face in their day-to-day work.

“The tragedy is that we continue to see injury and ill-health caused by the same old risks and we need businesses and self-employed people to work with us to help reduce injuries and make the east a safer place to work.”