- Fatality rate has decreased by 48% since 2007
- 190 workers were fatally injured at work in 2017
- Fatalities are UP when compared to 2016 data
- Largest percentage of fatalities occurred in the transport, postal and warehousing industry
- Reports prior to 2017 included commuter fatalities, these have been removed from 2017 numbers
The work-related traumatic injury fatalities, Australia, 2017 report was recently released and provided the latest national statistics on workers and bystanders injured at work.
Spoiler alert, we still have some way to go…
2017 had an increase in fatalities
Is it good that the fatality rate is decreasing? absolutely! Should we be celebrating this? Not really, despite the focus being the 10 year reduction when compared to 2016, the number of fatalities has increased and the fact is, there are still workplace fatalities occurring.
The 48% reduction still averages out at 4.8% per year and there were STILL 190 workers & bystanders fatally injured in 2017, that is 190 above the acceptable total.
We still have a long way to go, especially in the transport sector, this has crept into pole position over ‘agriculture, foresting and fishing’ and not surprisingly so. There are still too many operators that are not adequately managing their workers fatigue, speed, loading practices and overall behavior.
Important to note that the Safe Work Australia report excludes certain types of fatality including self-inflicted injuries (This needs to start including mental health issues caused by or exacerbated by work related factors, but that’s a subject for another day…)
If you would like to read the the full report please click on the following link to access the PDF through the Safe Work Australia Website.