Two of the fatalities were in the UK and two thirds of the total in the US, which is the largest market for aerial work platforms.

Falls from platforms accounted for the highest number of deaths at nine, closely followed by electrocution recording eight deaths and overturns causing six deaths.

Four workers will killed in entrapment incidents and another four from mechanical/technical related faults.

Almost half of the number of reported fatalities involved boom machines, 11 deaths involved vehicle mounts  and four scissor lifts.

The data presented is based on accidents reported directly to IPAF and through information collated from various news media.

“The first year of the accident reporting project is producing significant results and is allowing us to both improve our training programmes and focus our safety campaigns to make this safe industry even safer,” said IPAF CEO Tim Whiteman.

“There are over 1.5 million MEWPs/AWPs in use around the world, and while every death is a tragedy, powered access is still a very safe way to work at height.”

IPAF launched its accident reporting project in January 2012 with the aim of building up a comprehensive record of known accidents to assess possible actions to further improve and promote the safe use of powered access worldwide.All manufacturers, rental companies, contractors and users are encouraged to report any known fatal and serious accidents involving MEWPs and MCWPs worldwide at www.ipaf.org/accident