18-Metre Fall at Rodleben Biopharma Park Adds to a Week of Scaffolding and Height Accidents
Published on 09/25/2026 at 00:51 | Editorial boerse-global.de
A 56-year-old fitter working on a sprinkler system fell roughly 18 metres inside a hall at the Biopharmapark Rodleben in Dessau-Roßlau on Wednesday morning, sustaining the most severe category of injuries, according to initial reports. The man, understood to be from the Czech Republic, was given emergency treatment at the scene before a rescue helicopter flew him to hospital. The accident happened at around 11:30.
Exactly what caused the plunge from such a height is still unclear. Criminal police and the responsible trade supervisory authority have both opened investigations into the cause.
The Dessau-Roßlau case is the most dramatic in a cluster of recent fall incidents that stretches from the shores of Lake Constance to a Roman amphitheatre.
A week of falls, from Lake Constance to the Colosseum
On Tuesday, a 59-year-old worker was seriously hurt in Uhldingen-Mühlhofen in the Bodenseekreis district. He had tried to climb onto scaffolding inside a company building on Gewerbestraße at about 15:15, slipped, and fell approximately 1.5 metres. A rescue helicopter was deployed there as well, and the Meersburg police post is investigating the sequence of events.
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At midday on Wednesday, a 35-year-old construction worker fell several metres through a future stairwell opening at a building site on Kirchweg in Hiltenfingen, suffering minor injuries. Police currently see no indication of third-party fault in that case.
Around the same time, a 36-year-old woman was hurt while doing painting work on a house in Bühl-Altschweier. She fell about 4 metres from scaffolding and was airlifted to a clinic in Karlsruhe.
The week's incidents also claimed a life abroad. In the night to Wednesday, 22-year-old industrial climber Andrea Moretti died during installation work on a new lighting system at the Colosseum in Rome, falling from a height of roughly 10 metres. Initial reconstructions by the Carabinieri suggested that Moretti was wearing a safety harness but had not clipped it in. Italy's culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, responded by ordering a halt to work and the temporary closure of the archaeological park.
What the accident statistics show
Figures published by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) for 2025 put the scale of workplace risk in perspective. Last year saw 689,922 reportable workplace accidents among dependent employees and the self-employed, a decline of 3.1% compared with 2024. That works out at 19.9 reportable accidents per 1,000 full-time equivalents.
Even as the overall count fell, 299 insured people died in workplace accidents in 2025. The DGUV identified the most frequent causes as loss of control over tools or objects (171,638 cases) and tripping, slipping and falling (163,430 cases). Falls from height stand out as especially dangerous: they accounted for 53 of the fatal workplace accidents in the 2025 reporting period.
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A separate panel run by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), covering around 40,000 participants, offers another angle. According to the RKI, 2.4% of employed people reported a workplace accident within a 12-month window — extrapolated to roughly 885,000 people a year. The demographic split is pronounced: 1.5% of employed women were affected, against 3.2% of men.
Younger men and people with lower levels of education showed a higher accident frequency. The RKI notes that official statistics often capture accidents only once they lead to more than three days of incapacity for work, or to death.
