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Work Related Fatalities Reduce

Work related fatalities in Australia have reduced to the lowest number in eight years. According to a recent results published by Safe Work Australia into work-related traumatic injury fatalities 374 workers died in Australia from a workplace traumatic injury in 2010-2011. 

A total of 220 of these 374 workers (59 percent) died from injuries incurred at work, 110 workers (29 percent) died from an incident while travelling to or from work, and 44 (12 percent) died as a bystander to someone else’s work activity. Of particular alarm to us was that two-thirds of the work-related fatalities in 2010-11 involved vehicles, and more than 25 percent of the employees who died were working in or around a truck

By contrast, information supplied by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the preliminary count of fatal work injuries in the United States in 2011 was 4,609, down slightly from the final total of 4,690 deaths during 2010. Transportation related fatalities totalled 1,898 or 41% of the total reported work related fatailities.

“There has been significant reduction in the number of worker deaths since Safe Work Australia first began collecting these data in 2003-04. However, more can still be done to improve work health and safety,” Safe Work Australia Chair Tom Phillips said. “While the worker fatality rate of 1.93 deaths per 100 000 workers is at the lowest it has been in many years, a single death is still one too many.”

Key findings in the report included these:

  • Australian workers ages 65 years and over had the highest fatality rate: 10.54 deaths per 100,000 workers, which was nearly six times the rate of for all workers.
  • The lowest rate was for workers younger than 25: 0.88 deaths per 100,000 workers in this age group.
  • Agriculture, forestry, and fishing had the highest number of fatalities with 60 deaths in 2010–11, followed by the transport, postal and warehousing industry with 42 deaths and the construction industry with 39.

 

About the Author

Safety Concepts is an online resource providing up to date insights and covering issues in the field of Workplace Safety.

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