Safe Work Australia
WORK-RELATED
TRAUMATIC INJURY
FATALITIES, AUSTRALIA
2012
October 2013
i
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Traumatic Injury Fatalities, Australia 2012.
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Disclaimer
The information provided in this document can only assist you in the
most general way. This document does not replace any statutory
requirements under any relevant state and territory legislation. Safe
Work Australia is not liable for any loss resulting from any action taken
or reliance made by you on the information or material contained on this
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in this report should not be taken to represent the views of Safe Work
Australia unless otherwise expressly stated.
ii
Foreword
The aim of this report is to determine the number of people who die
each year from injuries that arose through work-related activity. This
includes fatalities resulting from an injury sustained in the course of a
work activity (worker fatality) and as a result of someone else’s work
activity (bystander fatality). Previous reports have included fatalities that
occurred while the worker was commuting to or from work (commuter
fatality). However, these fatalities have always been difficult to
distinguish from other road fatalities and this project relied heavily on
workers’ compensation data. As fewer jurisdictions are now providing
compensation coverage for commuting, the integrity of the commuter
fatality collection has diminished and has therefore been ceased.
Injury is defined as a condition coded to ‘External Causes of morbidity
and mortality’ and ‘Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of
external causes’ in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases
and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian Modification
(ICD-10-AM).
The scope of this collection includes all persons:



who were fatally injured, and
whose injuries resulted from work activity or exposures, and
whose injuries occurred in an incident that took place in
Australian territories or territorial waters.
The report includes all persons killed:

while working including unpaid volunteers and family workers,
persons undertaking work experience and defence force
personnel killed within Australian territories or territorial
waters or travelling for work (worker fatalities), or
 as a result of someone else’s work activity (bystander
fatalities).
The collection specifically excludes those who died:

of iatrogenic injuries — those where the worker died due to
medical intervention
 due to natural causes such as heart attacks and strokes,
except where a work-related injury was the direct cause of the
heart attack or stroke
 as a result of diseases, such as cancers
 due to injuries sustained while working overseas (defence
personnel and civilians), or
 by self-inflicted injuries (suicide).
People who died of injuries caused by someone else’s work activity
while themselves at work are classified as a worker rather than as a
bystander.
In order to make comparisons with other fatality counts, such as the
national road toll, it has been decided to publish results from the
Traumatic Injury Fatalities database on a calendar year basis. This
report presents data for the 2003 to 2012 calendar years. This means
iii
that information on work-related fatalities that occurred from 1 January
2003 to 30 June 2003, which were previously not compiled in this series
of reports, have now been added to the database.
Changes from previous publications may also be evident due to the
availability of additional information from finalised coroners’ reports and
additional workers’ compensation claims.
iv
Contents
Foreword
iii
Summary of findings
vii
Worker fatalities
1
Characteristics by sex
1
Characteristics by age group
2
Involvement of vehicles
3
Mechanism of incident
4
Fatalities due to a vehicle incident
7
Fatalities due to being hit by moving objects
8
Fatalities due to falls from height
9
Fatalities due to being hit by falling objects
9
Characteristics by Industry
10
Characteristics by Occupation
14
State/territory of death
17
Working on farms
21
Bystander fatalities
23
Characteristics by age group
23
Mechanism of incident
24
Explanatory Notes
25
Glossary
31
v
vi
Summary of findings
Worker fatalities
Injuries at work resulted in the deaths of 223 workers in 2012. This is
similar to the previous two years and represents a significant fall from
the 311 deaths recorded in 2007. Over the past 10 years 2596 workers
have been killed while working.
The 223 fatalities in 2012 equates to a fatality rate of 1.93 deaths per
100 000 workers. This is the lowest fatality rate since the series began
10 years ago. The highest fatality rate was recorded in 2004 (2.95).
Notable characteristics of worker fatalities include:
Sex
 Male workers have a fatality rate 10 times the rate of female workers.
In 2012, 213 of the 223 fatalities (96%) involved male workers.
Vehicle involvement
 Across the 10 years of the series, two-thirds of fatalities involved
vehicles with half of the vehicle-related incidents occurring on public
roads. The 2012 data followed this same pattern with 141 of the 223
fatalities (63%) involving a vehicle.
 Trucks were the vehicle most often involved in fatalities. In 2012, 40
truck drivers were killed on public roads and 26 workers in cars.
Age
 While workers aged 65 years and over recorded their lowest fatality
rate since the series began, their rate of 6.85 deaths per 100 000
workers is still three times the rate for all workers.
 Workers aged 25–34 years recorded the lowest fatality rate in 2012,
with 1.15 deaths per 100 000 workers.
How the fatality occurred
 On average four out of every 10 workers are killed in a vehicle
collision. In 2012, 87 workers (39%) died this way, up from 77 in the
previous year but still lower than most other years in the series.
 In 2012, 29 workers (13%) were killed when hit by a moving object.
Vehicles were involved in 22 of these incidents. This is similar to
most other years in the series.
 In 2012, 29 workers (13%) were killed when they fell from a height.
This is the highest number since 2007 (30). Eight of these workers
fell from the roof of a building, the highest number since 2003 (9).
 In 2012, 26 workers (12%) were killed when hit by a falling object.
This is the second highest number in the series behind 2010 when
there were 31 deaths. Of these workers, 5 were hit by falling trees
and 4 by metal objects.
Industry
 Over the past 10 years, 62% of fatalities occurred within three
industries: Transport, postal & warehousing; Agriculture, forestry &
fishing; and Construction.
vii
 The Transport, postal & warehousing industry accounted for the
highest number of fatalities (65 – 29%) in 2012. This is the highest
number since 2007 (70). Within this industry, the Road freight
transport sector recorded 29.09 deaths per 100 000 workers, 15
times the all industries rate.
 The Agriculture, forestry & fishing recorded 53 fatalities in 2012, one
of the lowest numbers in the series. However this still equates to
12.74 deaths per 100 000 workers, nearly seven times the all
industries rate.
 The Construction industry recorded 30 fatalities in 2012, the lowest
number in the 10 years and a substantial fall from the 42 recorded in
the previous year.
Occupation
 In the past 10 years 523 truck drivers have been killed while working,
equating to 20% of all fatalities. In 2012, 47 truck drivers were killed,
up from 37 recorded in the previous year but considerably lower than
the series high of 73 in 2007.
 The 25 farm managers killed in 2012 was the lowest in the series and
a considerable improvement on the 34 killed the previous year. There
were also 17 farm labourers killed in 2012, which was similar to other
years in the series.
State and territory of death
 New South Wales was the location of 83 of the fatalities (37%) in
2012. This is considerably higher than the 57 recorded in the
previous year.
 Victoria recorded the most notable fall in the number of fatalities in
2012. The 33 fatalities in 2012 was the lowest in the series and a
substantial fall on the 45 fatalities recorded the previous year.
 While the Northern Territory records relatively few fatalities, the lower
employment base means that it has recorded the highest fatality rate
in most years of the series. Although the rate of 3.84 deaths per
100 000 workers in 2012 was the lowest in the series, it was still
twice the national rate.
Bystander fatalities
The actions of a work or a fault in a workplace resulted in the deaths of
63 members of the public in 2012. This is the highest number since
2007 when 71 members of the public were killed. As bystander fatalities
are difficult to identify this decrease may not represent an improvement
in the risk to members of the public.
A vehicle collision on a public road accounted for 50 (79%) of the 2012
fatalities. This is higher than the proportion this type of incident
represents in the full time series (60%).
Over the past ten years 37% of bystanders have been killed in a vehicle
crash with a truck. Most of these incidents involved a bystander in a car
(22% of all bystander fatalities).
viii
Worker fatalities
Injuries at work resulted in the deaths of 223 workers in 2012. This is
similar to the previous two years, which have been the lowest since the
series began in 2003. The highest number of work-related injury
fatalities was recorded in 2007 when there were 311 deaths.
As there was a greater percentage rise in employment than in fatalities
the fatality rate in 2012 decreased. Figure 1 shows that the fatality rate
of 1.93 deaths per 100 000 workers is the lowest rate since the series
began.
400
4.0
300
3.0
200
2.0
100
1.0
0
Number
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
254 285 257 286 311 280 256 223 221 223
Fatality rate 2.67
2.95
2.57
2.78
2.93
2.57
2.33
1.99
1.94
Deaths per 100 000 workers
Number of fatalities
Figure 1: Worker fatalities: number of fatalities and fatality rate, 2003 to 2012
0.0
1.93
Characteristics by sex
In 2012, 213 of the 223 (96%) workers killed were men. The 10 fatalities
involving female workers in 2012 was the lowest in the time series with
the highest (24) in 2007. Figure 2 shows that the fatality rate for male
workers has declined over the 10 years from 4.55 deaths per 100 000
workers in 2003 to 3.39 in 2012. The 2012 rate is the second lowest in the
series behind 2011 when it was 3.27. Due to the small number of fatalities
for females in 2012, the fatality rate for female workers (0.19 deaths per
100 000 workers) was the lowest in the series. Over the series, the fatality
rate of male workers has been between 10 and 13 times the rate of
female workers. The exception is 2012 when the male rate was nearly 18
times greater than the female fatality rate.
Figure 2: Worker fatalities: fatality rate by sex, 2003 to 2012
Deaths per 100 000 workers
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
Males
2003
4.55
2004
5.00
2005
4.39
2006
4.72
2007
4.95
2008
4.33
2009
4.04
2010
3.43
2011
3.27
2012
3.39
Females
0.35
0.39
0.33
0.43
0.48
0.45
0.30
0.26
0.33
0.19
1
Characteristics by age group
Table 1 shows the distribution of fatalities by age group and sex. For
males, the age profile in 2012 was quite different to the previous year
with a greater number of young worker but fewer older workers (those
aged 65 years and over) killed. The 27 deaths of male workers under
the age of 25 is the highest in four years while the 25 deaths of workers
aged 65 years and over is the lowest number since 2006.
Due to the relatively small number of fatalities for females it is difficult to
discern a pattern by age except by using the full time series. The 10
year series shows a similar pattern to males except for a much greater
proportion of fatalities in the 25–34 years age group (23% of female
fatalities compared with 16% for males) and a lower proportion for the
35–44 years age group (16% for females compared with 21% for
males).
Table 1: Worker fatalities: number by age group and sex, 2003 to 2012
Age group (years)
Years
Less
than 25
25–34
35–44
45–54
55–64
65 &
over
Total
Male workers
2003
25
48
57
46
38
25
239
2004
26
50
50
60
50
32
268
2005
25
48
56
50
40
23
242
2006
23
51
65
50
56
21
266
2007
32
43
69
63
50
31
288
2008
29
39
51
58
48
33
258
2009
20
42
41
56
56
26
241
2010
17
32
39
44
51
27
210
2011
20
20
41
52
38
33
204
27
27
42
51
41
25
213
Total Male
244
400
511
530
468
276
2429
Percentage
10%
16%
21%
22%
19%
11%
100%
2012
Female workers
2003
1
5
3
3
3
0
15
2004
2
5
4
3
2
1
17
2005
0
6
1
6
1
1
15
2006
3
3
5
4
4
1
20
2007
4
5
1
5
5
3
23
2008
5
6
3
4
2
2
22
2009
2
2
3
5
3
0
15
2010
0
2
2
1
7
1
13
2011
2
1
1
7
3
3
17
2012
0
3
3
0
3
1
10
19
38
26
38
33
13
167
11%
23%
16%
23%
20%
8%
100%
Total Female
Percentage
Although the 65 years and over age group has a considerably higher
fatality rate than the other age groups, its rate has fallen substantially
over the past ten years. Figure 3 shows that the fatality rate for this
oldest age group of 6.85 deaths per 100 000 workers in 2012 is the
lowest in the series. While the gap between the oldest age group and
the other age groups is now at its narrowest, it still remains three to six
times higher than the other age groups.
2
The only other age group to record a fall in fatality rate in 2012 was the
45–54 years age group. However, its rate of 2.08 deaths per 100 000
workers remains above the rate it recorded in 2010 (1.83).
Figure 3: Worker fatalities: fatality rate by age group, 2003 to 2012
Deaths per 100 000 workers
20.0
15.0
10.0
5.0
0.0
Less than 25
2003
1.55
2004
1.64
2005
1.35
2006
1.44
2007
1.87
2008
1.77
2009
1.17
2010
0.91
2011
1.12
2012
1.45
25–34
2.42
2.50
2.42
2.39
2.08
1.88
1.83
1.38
0.82
1.15
35–44
2.59
2.33
2.39
2.89
2.83
2.16
1.76
1.63
1.65
1.75
45–54
2.32
2.94
2.53
2.38
2.91
2.60
2.53
1.83
2.40
2.08
55–64
4.02
4.79
3.52
4.79
4.16
3.61
4.03
3.77
2.59
2.74
65 & over
16.10
20.06
12.58
10.60
14.19
13.54
9.18
8.78
10.67
6.85
Involvement of vehicles
Over the 10 years from 2003 to 2012 one-third of worker fatalities arose
from injuries sustained in a vehicle incident on a public road (Traffic
incident), one-third in other vehicle incidents that did not occur on a
public road (Non-traffic vehicle incident) and the remaining one-third did
not involve a vehicle. Table 2 shows that at different points in time each
of these categories have recorded the highest number of fatalities and
that falls in the numbers have not occurred concurrently. The Glossary
provides more details on these terms.
Table 2: Worker fatalities: number by vehicle involvement, 2003 to 2012
Type of incident
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total % of all
fatalities
Vehicle involved
164
195
166
184
200
194
174
147
137
141
1 702
66%
Traffic incident
80
93
88
90
123
81
102
64
57
71
849
33%
70
90
77
83
108
76
89
58
53
64
768
30%
7
3
8
7
11
4
10
5
4
5
64
2%
3
0
3
0
4
1
3
1
0
2
17
1%
84
102
78
94
77
113
72
83
80
70
853
33%
34
30
27
37
23
44
23
22
24
23
287
11%
16
20
10
14
15
20
12
15
11
17
150
6%
8
14
9
6
12
11
10
8
11
5
94
4%
14
17
17
13
15
13
10
11
16
7
133
5%
46
51
42
61
35
69
40
49
42
41
476
18%
90
90
91
102
111
86
82
76
84
82
894
34%
254
285
257
286
311
280
256
223
221
223
2 596
100%
Vehicle incident
(crash)
Being hit by moving
objects
Other incident
Non-traffic incident
Vehicle incident
(crash)
Being hit by moving
objects
Rollover of non-road
vehicle
Being trapped by
vehicle
Other incident
No vehicle involved
Total
3
There was a major increase in the number of Traffic incident fatalities in
2012 compared with the previous years. Traffic incident fatalities rose to
71 from 57 although this number remains significantly below most other
years of the series. Workers in vehicles accounted for all but 3 of the
fatalities. The remaining 3 were pedestrians who were hit by vehicles.
Occupants of trucks accounted for the majority of the Traffic incident
fatalities (40) with car occupants accounting for 26 fatalities. Relative to
the previous year, the 2012 Traffic incident fatalities include 11 more
truck driver fatalities and 3 more car driver fatalities.
Of the 70 Non-traffic vehicle incident fatalities in 2012, 16 were truck
occupants, 13 were in aircraft and 16 were pedestrian workers not
associated with the vehicle that hit them. These pedestrian workers
were mainly hit by loaders (4), excavators (3) and trucks (3).
Workers working in or around trucks accounted for 76 (34%) of the
fatalities in 2012. Over the 10 years of the series trucks were involved in
30% of fatalities.
Mechanism of incident
The most common mechanism of fatality in 2012 was a vehicle crash
where the occupant of the vehicle is killed (Vehicle incident). Vehicle
incident resulted in 87 worker fatalities (39% of worker fatalities) in 2012.
This is the highest number in three years. Over the 10 years of the
series Vehicle incident accounted for 41% of fatalities. In addition there
were 8 workers killed in 2012 when their non-road vehicle rolled on a
property or business premises. Rollover of non-road vehicle accounted
for 4% of fatalities in the 10 years.
Table 3 shows the number of fatalities for each year of the series by the
mechanism of incident. These data show that the number of Vehicle
incident fatalities has fallen dramatically in recent years with the highest
number recorded in 2007 when 131 workers were killed.
Being hit by moving objects and Falls from a height each accounted for
29 fatalities or 13% of fatalities in 2012. This proportion is slightly higher
than the proportions these mechanisms accounted for over the 10 years
of the series (12% and 11% respectively). The time series data show
there has been no improvement in the number of deaths each year due
to these mechanisms.
Being hit by falling objects accounted for 26 fatalities or 12% of fatalities
in 2012. The proportion in 2012 is notably higher than the 9% of
fatalities this mechanism has accounted for over the 10 years of the
series.
The time series data show these four mechanisms accounted for the
majority of work-related fatalities in all years of the series (between 65%
and 77% in each year of the series).
In comparison to previous years the 2012 fatalities included many fewer
fatalities due to Being trapped between stationary and moving objects (7
compared with an average of 15 for the previous years) and Contact
with electricity (6 compared with an average of 13 for the previous
years).
4
Table 3: Worker fatalities: number by mechanism of incident, 2003 to 2012
Mechanism of incident
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
104
120
104
120
131
120
112
80
77
87
1055
39%
41%
Being hit by moving objects
39
35
29
31
37
31
34
26
21
29
312
13%
12%
Falls from a height
28
22
26
39
30
27
27
26
21
29
275
13%
11%
Being hit by falling objects
13
22
25
24
23
24
14
31
25
26
227
12%
9%
Being trapped between stationary & moving
objects
Contact with electricity
14
17
19
18
15
14
10
11
17
7
142
3%
5%
12
16
13
19
13
9
13
10
10
6
121
3%
5%
Rollover of non-road vehicle
9
14
10
6
12
12
12
9
11
8
103
4%
4%
Being trapped by moving machinery
5
7
6
6
10
9
9
8
10
5
75
2%
3%
Being assaulted by a person or persons
9
9
5
5
8
3
3
4
2
5
53
2%
2%
Drowning
4
6
2
3
5
8
7
1
3
3
42
1%
2%
Being hit by an animal
1
3
1
1
2
3
2
3
6
4
26
2%
1%
Explosion
3
1
2
1
1
6
1
3
5
2
25
1%
1%
Falls on the same level
4
5
1
1
4
4
2
1
0
3
25
1%
1%
Contact with hot objects
1
0
2
2
7
2
1
1
3
1
20
0%
1%
Single contact with chemical or substance
3
0
0
1
3
2
1
2
2
2
16
1%
1%
Slide or cave-in
1
2
4
3
1
0
1
1
2
1
16
0%
1%
Being bitten by an animal
1
1
3
2
0
0
1
1
2
2
13
1%
1%
Exposure to environmental heat
1
1
0
1
3
0
2
1
2
1
12
0%
0%
Hitting moving objects
0
1
3
0
3
3
1
0
0
0
11
0%
0%
Hitting stationary objects
0
1
1
0
1
0
1
3
1
2
10
1%
0%
Insect & spider bites & stings
0
1
0
0
2
3
1
1
0
0
8
0%
0%
Other mechanisms of injury
1
1
1
3
0
0
1
0
1
0
8
0%
0%
254
285
257
286
311
280
256
223
221
223
2596
100%
100%
Vehicle incident
Total
2010
2011
2012
Total
% of 2012 % of all
fatalities fatalities
2003
5
Breakdown agency
The Breakdown agency identifies the object, substance or circumstance
principally involved at the point at which things started to go wrong.
Table 4 shows that the Breakdown agency of Mobile plant & transport
accounted for 62% of fatalities over the 10 years. Within this group
Trucks, semi-trailers, lorries were the biggest contributor accounting for
23% of all fatalities. This was followed by Cars, station wagons, vans,
utilities with 14% and Tractors with 5%. The second biggest group was
Machinery & fixed plant, which accounted for 10% of fatalities. This
group includes Forklift trucks and Cranes. Environmental agencies also
accounted for 10% of fatalities. This group includes the built
environment and the natural environment in which the worker is
employed.
Table 4: Worker fatalities: number and proportion by mechanism of
incident, 2003 to 2012 combined
Breakdown agency
Mobile plant & transport
Number of
fatalities
% of
fatalities
1602
62%
1037
Road transport
40%
610
373
35
Trucks, semi-trailers, lorries
Cars, station wagons, vans, utilities
Motorbikes
Air transport
161
Self-propelled plant
101
6%
4%
32
25
Front-end loaders & other loading plant
Excavators, backhoes, other digging plant
159
Other mobile plant
1%
1%
6%
120
Tractors
23%
14%
1%
5%
Water transport
55
2%
Other transport
46
2%
39
Quad bikes
Machinery & fixed plant
271
154
Conveyors & lifting plant
54
Electrical installations
10%
97
53
6%
71
3%
49
19
Ladders
Scaffolding
124
2%
1%
5%
49
31
17
Human agencies
Horses, donkeys, mules
Cows, steers, cattle, bulls, buffalo
2%
1%
2%
160
Ladders, mobile ramp &,stairways & scaffolding
Animal, human & biological agencies
4%
48
20
Roof
Buildings under construction or demolition
Vegetation
2%
2%
1%
2%
256
Buildings & other structures
Non-powered handtools, appliances & equipment
6%
50
44
38
Forklift trucks
Power hoists
Cranes
Environmental agencies
2%
10%
2%
1%
1%
Powered equipment, tools & appliances
85
3%
Materials & substances
68
3%
Chemicals & chemical products
26
1%
2596
100%
Total (including unknown agency)
6
Fatalities due to a vehicle incident
Table 5 shows that of the 1055 workers who died in a Vehicle incident
between 2003 and 2012, two-thirds involved a single vehicle (27% of all
worker fatalities). Trucks were involved in just under half of the single
vehicle incidents (313 fatalities) followed by aircraft (150) and cars
(144). The number of workers killed in a single vehicle incident has
been consistently lower in the last three years with 55 fatalities in 2012
compared to a high of 91 in 2006. In contrast, the number of workers
killed in multi-vehicle incidents has not shown consistent improvement.
There were 32 fatalities from multi-vehicle incidents in 2012, which is a
notable rise from the 24 recorded in 2011 but is still below the series
high of 47 recorded in both 2004 and 2008.
The lower number of single vehicle incidents in recent years can be
attributed to a major fall in the number of workers killed in car crashes.
There were 6 single vehicle car crash fatalities recorded in 2012
compared to a series high of 27 in 2007. While single vehicle truck
crash fatalities were relatively low in 2010 (20) and 2011 (21), the 30
fatalities recorded in 2012 is similar to other years in the series.
Trucks are also prominent in multi-vehicle incidents. In the 10 years 112
workers died when two trucks collided, 86 workers in cars died in
incidents with trucks and a further 26 workers in trucks died in incidents
with cars. In total 462 occupants of trucks were killed in a Vehicle
incident in the 10 years from 2003 to 2012 which amounts to 18% of all
worker fatalities. Over this same period 308 workers (or 12% of all
worker fatalities) were killed in car crashes.
Table 5: Worker fatalities due to Vehicle incident: number by breakdown agency, 2003 to 2012
Type of incident 2003
Total % of all
fatalities
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
66
73
72
91
86
73
72
55
53
55
696
27%
28
36
31
36
44
32
35
21
20
30
313
12%
22
11
14
21
10
17
9
14
19
13
150
6%
Car
8
13
13
24
27
13
17
15
8
6
144
6%
Motorbike
1
2
4
1
4
5
1
1
1
1
21
1%
Watercraft
1
4
3
1
1
3
2
2
17
1%
Tractor
4
3
2
3
1
2
16
1%
2
2
3
1
2
12
0%
Single vehicle
incident
Truck
Aircraft
2
Quad bike
Other single
vehicle incident
Multi-vehicle
incident
Two trucks
Car occupant
killed in incident
with truck
Two cars
Truck occupant
killed in incident
with car
Motorbike & other
vehicle
Tractor & other
vehicle
Other multivehicle incident
Total
1
2
2
5
3
1
2
2
3
2
1
23
1%
38
47
32
29
45
47
40
25
24
32
359
14%
14
17
10
5
13
17
13
8
6
9
112
4%
10
9
3
8
10
6
9
8
11
12
86
3%
8
9
13
8
6
7
7
4
2
8
72
3%
0
6
1
3
4
2
5
2
2
1
26
1%
3
3
1
0
4
7
1
1
0
0
20
1%
1
1
1
1
0
2
0
0
1
0
7
0%
2
2
3
4
8
6
5
2
2
2
36
1%
104
120
104
120
131
120
112
80
77
87
1055
41%
7
Fatalities due to being hit by moving objects
Over the 10 year period from 2003 to 2012, 312 workers died as a result
of Being hit by moving objects which amounted to 12% of all worker
fatalities. Table 6 shows that two-thirds (118 fatalities) of these incidents
involved Mobile plant & transport particularly trucks and cars.
The 29 fatalities recorded in 2012 resulting from Being hit by moving
objects is similar to other years, although they are a notable increase
from the series low of 21 fatalities in 2011. Of these 29 fatalities, 26
(90%) involved being hit by Mobile plant & transport, which is
substantially higher than the series average (68%). In 2012 there were
more fatalities due to being hit by a truck, tractor or other self-propelled
plant such as loaders and fewer fatalities in the other Breakdown
agency groups. Many of the Mobile plant & transport fatalities involved
the worker being hit by their own vehicle after having temporarily
alighted to unload their cargo or open a gate.
Recent years have seen a fall in the number of workers who were hit by
a car. There were 2 such fatalities recorded in 2012, which is the lowest
number in the series and considerably below the series high of 12
fatalities in 2007.
In addition to being hit by a vehicle, there were 13 workers killed over
the 10 years when they were hit by Vehicle wheels and tyres. All but 1
of these involved the worker undertaking maintenance activities on the
tyres. There were no incidents like this in 2012.
Over the 10 year period 14 workers died from a gunshot wound while
working. Of these, 10 were farmers. Eight of the farmers accidently shot
themselves while eradicating vermin from their properties or destroying
an animal. Many of these incidents involved riding in a vehicle or
attempting to climb a fence with a loaded firearm. One worker died in
this type of circumstance in 2012.
Table 6: Worker fatalities due to Being hit by moving objects: number by breakdown agency,
2003 to 2012
Breakdown agency
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Total
Mobile plant & transport
23
17
20
20
27
23
23
19
16
26
214
Trucks, semi-trailers, lorries
4
7
3
8
5
5
10
10
6
8
66
Cars, station wagons, vans,
utilities
6
4
8
4
12
5
4
3
4
2
52
Self-propelled plant
4
3
1
2
2
2
3
3
2
4
26
6
1
3
3
0
8
3
2
2
4
32
6
2
2
2
3
2
6
3
1
1
28
3
1
1
0
0
0
4
3
1
1
14
2
6
3
4
2
4
1
0
1
0
23
Tractors, agricultural or
otherwise
Powered equipment, tools &
appliances
Weapons
Non-powered handtools,
appliances & equipment
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
0
1
0
13
Machinery & (mainly) fixed
plant
4
5
0
2
1
2
2
2
0
2
20
Conveyors & lifting plant
2
1
0
0
1
2
1
2
0
1
10
Vehicle wheels and tyres
Other
4
5
4
3
4
0
2
2
3
0
27
Total
39
35
29
31
37
31
34
26
21
29
312
8
Fatalities due to falls from height
Over the 10 year period from 2003 to 2012, 274 workers died following
Falls from a height, which amounted to 11% of all worker fatalities. In
2012, 29 workers died due to this mechanism, which is a large increase
on the previous year (21) and the third highest number in the series
behind 39 in 2006 and 30 in 2007. The increase is a result of more
fatalities due to Environmental agencies (17), particularly falls from a
Roof, which accounted for 8 fatalities in 2012, nearly twice the yearly
average.
Table 7 shows that over the past 10 years Falls from a height most
commonly involved falls from Roof and falls from Ladders with both
accounting for 46 fatalities. Interestingly, while there were more falls
from roofs in 2012 than most other years there was only 1 fall from a
ladder in 2012, the lowest number in the series.
There were also no falls from Horses, donkeys, mules in 2012 when all
other years recorded between 1 and 4 deaths.
Table 7: Worker fatalities due to Falls from a height: number by breakdown agency, 2003 to
2012
Breakdown agency
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Environmental agencies
14
10
12
13
10
10
13
4
9
2
6
5
4
5
3
1
3
4
1
4
0
2
1
6
5
5
11
11
8
Ladders
3
3
3
5
9
Scaffolding
1
0
2
1
2
2
3
4
8
1
2
1
2
3
Machinery and (mainly) fixed
plant
3
2
2
3
Roof
Buildings under construction
or demolition
Non-powered handtools,
appliances and equipment
Mobile plant and transport
Trucks, seim-trailers & lorries
2010
2011
2012
Total
6
17
109
3
8
46
0
0
2
17
6
11
7
3
73
4
4
8
6
1
46
3
2
2
1
1
15
4
2
4
4
4
36
3
2
3
2
1
19
4
3
5
3
2
5
32
Elevating work platforms
1
2
0
0
4
0
2
2
2
2
15
Animal, human and biological
agencies
3
2
3
4
4
2
1
3
2
0
24
Horses, donkeys, mules
3
2
3
4
4
1
1
3
2
0
23
28
22
26
39
30
27
27
26
21
29
275
Total
Fatalities due to being hit by falling objects
Over the 10 year period from 2003 to 2012, 227 workers died due to
Being hit by falling objects, which amounted to 9% of all worker
fatalities. This mechanism claimed the lives of 26 workers in 2012,
which is similar to previous years.
Table 8 provides more detail on the object that hit the worker. Over the
10 years, 56 workers were killed by falling Vegetation, mainly trees. This
is one-quarter of all workers who died following Being hit by falling
objects. Similar to most other years, except 2011 when 11 people were
killed, falling Vegetation killed 5 workers in 2012. All of these workers
were felling trees at the time.
Being hit by falling metal objects claimed the lives of 4 workers in 2012
and 22 workers over the 10 years.
9
Table 8: Worker fatalities due to Being hit by falling objects: number by breakdown agency,
2003 to 2012
Agency
2003
2010
2011
6
8
10
9
8
5
2
10
14
8
80
Vegetation
4
5
9
6
5
2
2
7
11
5
56
Buildings & other structures
2
1
0
3
3
2
0
2
2
2
17
3
7
4
7
4
9
4
8
3
6
55
Ferrous & non-ferrous metal
0
2
2
3
3
2
2
3
1
4
22
Sawn or dressed timber
0
0
0
1
0
3
0
3
1
0
8
Mobile plant and transport
2
3
3
4
4
5
4
4
2
6
37
Road transport
0
1
2
1
0
4
2
2
0
2
14
Self-propelled plant
0
1
0
3
0
0
2
0
1
3
10
1
3
3
3
5
4
3
4
2
2
30
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
1
0
1
12
Environmental agencies
Materials and substances
Non-powered handtools,
appliances and equipment
Fastening, packing &
packaging equipment
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2012
Total
0
2
2
2
0
0
1
2
1
1
11
Machinery & (mainly) fixed
plant
1
1
3
0
1
1
1
4
4
3
19
Conveyors & lifting plant
1
0
2
0
1
1
1
1
3
3
13
Furniture & fittings
Other
Total
0
0
2
1
1
0
0
1
0
1
6
13
22
25
24
23
24
14
31
25
26
227
Characteristics by Industry
In 2012, 29% (65 fatalities) of the workers who died were employed in
the Transport, postal & warehousing industry. A further 24% (53) were
employed in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry and 13% (30)
were employed in the Construction industry. Together these three
industries accounted for 66% of all worker fatalities in 2012. Figure 4
shows that over the past 10 years these three industries have together
accounted for 62% of all worker fatalities.
Figure 4: Worker fatalities: proportion by industry of employer, All years
(2003 to 2012 combined) and 2012
Transport, postal & warehousing
Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Construction
Manufacturing
Public administration & safety
Mining
Professional, scientific & technical services
Retail trade
Wholesale trade
Administrative & support services
Electricity, gas, water & waste services
Arts & recreation services
Education & training
Health care & social assistance
Information media & telecommunications
Rental, hiring & real estate services
Other services
Accommodation & food services
Financial & insurance services
2012
All years
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
Proportion of worker fatalities
10
25%
30%
With 15.91 deaths per 100 000 workers, the Agriculture, forestry &
fishing industry recorded the highest fatality rate in 2012. This is eight
times the national fatality rate of 1.93. Within this industry, the
Agriculture sector accounted for 37 of the 53 worker fatalities in 2012
and recorded a fatality rate of 12.74 deaths per 100 000 workers,
slightly below the rate for the industry as a whole. This is due to other
sectors of the industry such as forestry, fishing and aquaculture
recording much higher fatality rates.
After a couple of years with relatively low numbers of fatalities, the
Transport, postal & warehousing industry recorded 65 fatalities in 2012,
a number similar to most other years in the series. The Transport, postal
& warehousing industry recorded a fatality rate of 11.54 deaths per 100
000 workers in 2012. While this is one of the lowest in the series (due to
an increase in employment), it is still six times the national rate.
The Road freight transport sector accounted for one-quarter of workers
in the Transport, postal & warehousing industry in 2012 but accounted
for 71% (46) of the fatalities. This number of fatalities equates to a
fatality rate of 29.09 deaths per 100 000 workers, which is 15 times the
all industries rate and two and a half times the rate for the industry as a
whole.
While the Construction industry recorded the third highest number of
fatalities (30), the Electricity, gas, water & waste services industry
recorded the third highest fatality rate with 3.29 deaths per 100 000
workers. There were 5 fatalities recorded in this industry in 2012, which
is the highest number since 2006 when 9 deaths were recorded. Of
these, 4 involved being hit by a vehicle.
The Construction industry recorded 30 fatalities in 2012, its lowest
number in the 10 years and substantially lower than the 42 recorded in
the previous year. This number of fatalities equates to 3.00 deaths per
100 000 workers, which is the fourth highest fatality rate of all the
industries.
The Mining industry recorded 7 fatalities in 2012 compared with 5 in the
previous year. This corresponds to a fatality rate of 2.64 deaths per 100
000 workers. This rate is the second lowest in the series and
considerably below the series high of 12.35 deaths per 100 000 workers
in 2003 when 11 workers were killed. Employment in the Mining industry
has nearly tripled over this 10 year period.
Because fatality rates are sensitive to the number of workers employed
in each industry, fatality rates are liable to show volatility in those
industries that employ the fewest workers even when small variations in
the number of fatalities are recorded. Therefore, the actual number of
fatalities should also be considered when interpreting the fatality rates in
Table 9.
11
Table 9: Worker fatalities: number and fatality rate by industry of employer, 2003 to 2012
Industry of employer
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
69
67
55
60
81
70
40
48
38
46
58
49
2009
2010
2011
2012
63
44
47
65
51
32
24
46
Number of worker fatalities
Transport, postal & warehousing
Road freight transport
58
76
61
46
52
64
60
52
59
53
Agriculture
44
54
43
35
40
41
43
44
43
37
Construction
44
36
34
48
51
41
40
44
42
30
Manufacturing
19
23
22
28
24
29
22
21
22
18
9
11
13
12
12
4
11
6
10
8
11
11
8
15
7
12
10
5
5
7
Retail trade
Professional, scientific & technical
services
Administrative & support services
7
5
6
10
16
6
6
6
1
6
2
5
2
6
7
5
4
3
2
6
3
9
13
9
11
10
10
12
8
5
Wholesale trade
Electricity, gas, water & waste
services
Arts & recreation services
5
11
9
8
9
12
4
9
4
5
4
8
6
9
4
4
4
1
2
5
3
5
6
5
9
3
1
5
6
4
Education & training
2
1
2
8
5
2
2
2
2
4
Health care & social assistance
Information media &
telecommunications
Other services
2
3
3
2
0
2
6
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
3
0
1
3
3
2
4
7
9
5
4
8
4
0
4
1
Rental, hiring & real estate
services
Accommodation & food services
3
2
6
4
10
4
2
4
0
1
5
4
0
8
6
1
3
2
1
1
Financial & insurance services
1
0
0
1
0
3
3
0
1
0
All industries (incl unknown)
254
285
257
286
311
280
256
223
221
223
14.64
13.77
10.99
11.82
14.96
12.24
10.68
7.63
8.06
11.54
25.89
32.19
27.71
30.85
37.56
28.26
29.44
19.77
14.68
29.09
Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Public administration & safety
a
Mining
Fatality rate (deaths per 100 000 workers)
Transport, postal & warehousing
Road freight transport
15.85
21.28
17.17
13.11
14.74
17.85
16.47
14.02
18.05
15.91
Agriculture
13.90
17.46
14.13
11.47
13.06
13.24
13.35
13.53
15.19
12.74
Construction
5.84
4.50
3.98
5.25
5.36
4.11
4.02
4.33
4.07
3.00
Manufacturing
1.82
2.19
2.13
2.74
2.31
2.74
2.17
2.11
2.28
1.87
Public administration & safety
1.42
1.70
1.96
1.77
1.73
0.57
1.51
0.80
1.29
1.05
12.35
10.82
6.67
11.32
5.07
7.25
6.10
2.66
2.25
2.64
Retail trade
Professional, scientific & technical
services
Administrative & support services
0.62
0.45
0.51
0.85
1.32
0.49
0.49
0.50
0.08
0.49
0.32
0.79
0.29
0.81
0.93
0.63
0.50
0.35
0.23
0.66
0.86
2.63
3.65
2.54
3.07
2.90
2.79
3.09
1.99
1.25
Wholesale trade
Electricity, gas, water & waste
services*
Arts & recreation services*
1.32
2.87
2.41
2.02
2.30
2.94
0.97
2.16
0.96
1.22
4.34
8.72
5.96
8.41
3.77
3.22
2.97
0.70
1.32
3.29
2.05
3.20
3.46
2.82
4.62
1.58
0.49
2.60
2.84
1.89
Education & training*
0.28
0.14
0.28
1.07
0.65
0.25
0.24
0.23
0.23
0.45
Health care & social assistance*
Information media &
telecommunications*
Other services*
Rental, hiring & real estate
services*
Accommodation & food services*
0.22
0.31
0.30
0.19
0.00
0.18
0.50
0.32
0.15
0.15
0.89
0.45
0.42
0.41
1.23
0.00
0.45
1.40
1.43
0.88
0.94
1.67
2.20
1.19
0.89
1.74
0.90
0.00
0.89
0.22
1.77
1.13
3.34
2.04
4.97
1.95
1.08
2.06
0.00
0.47
0.77
0.60
0.00
1.20
0.85
0.14
0.41
0.27
0.13
0.13
Financial & insurance services*
0.29
0.00
0.00
0.26
0.00
0.74
0.75
0.00
0.24
0.00
All industries (incl unknown)
2.67
2.95
2.57
2.78
2.93
2.57
2.33
1.99
1.94
1.93
Agriculture, forestry & fishing
Mininga
* Movements in fatality rates in industries where 5 or fewer fatalities occurred in most years should be viewed with caution.
a
Mining fatalities include those that occur in coal and metal ore mining, oil and gas extraction, sand and gravel quarrying, exploration
and support services.
12
Table 10 shows the most common mechanisms of incident for the four
industries with the highest numbers of fatalities. These data show quite
different patterns for each industry compared with the all industries
average.
Vehicle incident accounted for most (72%) of the fatalities in the
Transport, postal & warehousing industry. This is nearly twice the
proportion that this mechanism represents of all worker fatalities but is
not unexpected as this industry includes long and short distance freight
and passenger transport.
Within the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry one-third (32%) of
fatalities were due to Vehicle incident. An additional 12% of fatalities
were attributed to Rollover of non-road vehicle and these typically
involved tractors and quad bikes. This industry has higher proportions of
fatalities due to Hit or bitten by animal (5%) and Drowning (4%) than the
other industries.
Falls from a height dominated fatalities in the Construction industry. This
mechanism accounted for 27% of fatalities, which is nearly three times
the proportion this mechanism represents of all worker fatalities.
Contact with electricity accounted for a further 15% of fatalities in this
industry. This proportion is also three times the proportion this
mechanism represents of all worker fatalities. The proportion of fatalities
due to Vehicle incident (18%) was relatively low.
Of the four industries shown in Table 10, the mechanism profile of the
Manufacturing industry most closely resembled the all industry profile.
However, one key difference was that the proportion of fatalities due to
a Vehicle incident was relatively low (22% compared with 41%
nationally). In the Manufacturing industry there is a greater likelihood of
being Hit by falling object, Trapped by objects (which includes Being
trapped between stationary & moving objects and Being trapped by
moving machinery or equipment) or Being hit by moving objects than in
the other three industries. All three of these mechanisms each
accounted for 17% of fatalities compared with 9%–12% in the all
industries profile.
Table 10: Worker fatalities: percentage by mechanism of incident and selected industries, 2003
to 2012 combined
Selected industry
Mechanism
Agriculture,
forestry &
fishing
Construction Manufacturing
Transport,
All industries
postal &
warehousing
Vehicle incident
32%
18%
22%
72%
41%
Rollover of non-road vehicle
12%
2%
2%
1%
5%
Being hit by moving object
14%
13%
17%
8%
12%
Falls from a height
5%
27%
11%
3%
10%
Hit by falling object
10%
11%
17%
4%
9%
Trapped by objects
9%
8%
17%
6%
9%
Contact with electricity
3%
15%
4%
1%
5%
Drowning
4%
0%
0%
0%
2%
Hit or bitten by animal
5%
0%
0%
0%
2%
Other mechanisms
5%
6%
10%
4%
6%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
Total
13
Characteristics by Occupation
In 2012, 35% (79 fatalities) of the workers killed were employed as
Machinery operators & drivers. Labourers accounted for a further 22%
(48 fatalities) of fatalities followed by Managers (15% – 34 fatalities) and
Technicians & trades workers (13% – 29 fatalities). Figure 5 shows that
the pattern for 2012 is broadly similar to the combined pattern for all 10
years.
Figure 5: Worker fatalities: proportion of fatalities by occupation, all years
(2003 to 2012 combined) and 2012
Machinery operators & drivers
Occupation
Labourers
Managers
Technicians & trades workers
2012
Professionals
All years
Community & personal service workers
Sales workers
Clerical & administrative workers
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Percentage of Worker fatalities
Table 11 provides a breakdown of the number of fatalities in each
occupation group over time and the corresponding fatality rates. These
data show that while the overall number of fatalities increased by only 2
from the previous year there were some major shifts across the
occupation groups. The number of fatalities among Machinery operators
& drivers increased from 60 to 79 and among Labourers from 40 to 48.
This was offset by falls among Managers (40 down to 34), Technicians
& trades workers (42 down to 29) and Professionals (25 down to 18).
The pattern for 2012 is similar to most previous years of the series with
the 2011 pattern being unusual.
The highest fatality rate at the occupation major level in 2012 was
recorded by Machinery operators & drivers. Their rate of 10.47 deaths
per 100 000 workers was five times the national rate. Within this
occupation group Road & rail drivers recorded 62 fatalities in 2012, a
substantial increase on the previous two years but still lower than most
other years in the series. This number of fatalities equates to a fatality
rate of 20.55 deaths per 100 000 workers, 10 times the national rate
and twice the rate for the occupation group. At a finer level of the
classification, Truck drivers accounted for 47 fatalities in 2012 up from
37 in 2011 but still considerably below the 73 fatalities involving truck
drivers in 2007. In the 10 years of the series 519 truck drivers have died
while working.
The Labourers occupation group recorded the second highest fatality
rate, 4.12 deaths per 100 000 workers, twice the national rate. Within
this occupation, Farm, forestry & garden workers recorded 17 fatalities
in 2012 equating to 15.09 deaths per 100 000 workers, nearly eight
times the national rate. This number of deaths is similar to previous
years.
14
In addition, 25 Farmers & farm managers were killed at work in 2012,
which is the lowest number of deaths since 2008 when there were 23.
The fatality rate for this occupation was 14.05 deaths per 100 000
workers, seven times the overall rate.
Table 11: Worker fatalities: number and fatality rate by occupation, 2003 to 2012
Occupation
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
83
92
76
88
113
93
63
72
55
67
83
61
61
42
54
57
Farm, forestry & garden workers
21
27
15
13
Construction & mining labourers
22
10
12
15
40
48
48
31
35
34
29
48
11
2009
2010
2011
2012
95
65
60
79
66
72
48
44
62
64
38
47
40
48
17
32
11
19
15
17
13
16
10
11
12
14
42
39
33
43
33
40
34
27
27
23
31
27
34
25
44
54
53
46
37
40
42
29
12
6
17
18
12
13
12
7
12
9
15
13
11
11
17
10
10
9
5
Professionals
19
15
24
25
24
21
20
24
25
18
Design, engineering, science &
transport professionals
Community & personal service
workers
17
12
19
17
12
16
13
13
19
12
11
16
12
14
10
8
14
7
10
9
Sales workers
7
4
5
7
10
7
4
5
1
3
Clerical & administrative workers
4
1
6
2
5
8
5
2
3
3
254
285
257
286
311
280
256
223
221
223
Number of worker fatalities
Machinery operators & drivers
Road & rail drivers
Labourers
Managers
Farmers & farm managers
Technicians & trades workers
Construction trades workers
Automotive & engineering trades
workers
Total all occupations
Fatality rate (deaths per 100 000 workers)
Machinery operators & drivers
Road & rail drivers
13.12
14.23
11.74
13.14
15.59
12.74
13.55
9.07
7.89
10.47
23.93
26.23
20.44
24.16
28.58
22.62
24.60
16.36
13.87
20.55
5.57
5.52
3.77
4.77
4.90
5.42
3.24
4.01
3.41
4.12
Farm, forestry & garden workers
15.00
21.24
13.14
10.59
14.39
29.12
9.71
15.08
12.28
15.09
Construction & mining labourers
16.20
6.89
8.30
10.06
7.69
9.39
6.10
6.87
6.96
8.60
3.51
4.03
3.80
3.22
2.88
2.38
3.02
2.24
2.75
2.31
15.89
18.10
16.99
13.80
13.48
11.35
14.79
12.99
19.67
14.05
2.04
3.31
2.91
3.47
3.29
2.77
2.28
2.43
2.52
1.72
Construction trades workers
3.60
3.76
1.78
4.90
5.16
3.16
3.61
3.29
1.84
3.42
Automotive & engineering trades
workers
2.68
4.35
3.76
3.07
3.08
4.60
2.80
2.75
2.45
1.37
Professionals
1.03
0.79
1.22
1.21
1.12
0.93
0.87
1.00
1.02
0.71
Design, engineering, science &
transport professionals
Community & personal service
workers
6.78
4.60
6.43
5.54
3.86
4.69
3.77
3.62
4.91
3.08
1.38
1.94
1.41
1.61
1.09
0.85
1.39
0.68
0.93
0.82
Sales workers
0.70
0.41
0.48
0.69
1.00
0.68
0.39
0.46
0.09
0.28
Clerical & administrative workers
0.26
0.07
0.38
0.13
0.31
0.48
0.30
0.12
0.18
0.18
All occupations
2.67
2.95
2.57
2.78
2.93
2.57
2.33
1.99
1.94
1.93
Labourers
Managers
Farmers & farm managers
Technicians & trades workers
Table 12 shows the number of fatalities for the lowest level of the
occupation classification to which the fatalities have been coded. These
data show that the highest number of fatalities over the 10 years was
recorded by Truck drivers with 523 fatalities, which is 20% of all worker
fatalities. This was followed by Livestock farmers (139), Mixed crop &
15
livestock farmers (104) and Air transport professionals (103). The
detailed occupation data should be viewed with caution due to the
limited information available in the data sources.
Table 12: Worker fatalities: number by detailed occupation, 2003 to 2012
Detailed occupation
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Total
Truck drivers
45
61
48
52
73
58
63
39
37
47
523
Livestock farmers
Mixed crop & livestock
farmers
Air transport professionals
15
16
13
12
10
10
20
8
21
14
139
8
14
16
11
10
9
8
13
9
6
104
13
7
9
9
10
13
7
11
13
11
103
Crop farm workers
13
14
3
4
6
10
5
4
4
3
66
Delivery drivers
12
7
3
11
6
5
4
8
4
6
66
Electricians
5
7
10
6
9
4
4
4
9
5
63
Livestock farm workers
3
5
4
4
4
11
5
8
6
6
56
Earth moving plant
operators
Building & plumbing
labourers
3
5
4
6
13
3
5
6
5
2
52
14
3
7
5
2
8
2
2
6
2
51
Crop farmers
8
3
5
4
7
4
3
6
3
5
48
Deck & fishing hands
2
9
5
5
4
7
6
1
4
3
46
Table 13 shows the most common mechanisms of incident for the five
occupations with the highest total numbers of fatalities over the 2003 to
2012 period. These data show quite different patterns.
Vehicle incident is the dominant mechanism of incident for both
Machinery operators & drivers and Professionals accounting for 61%
and 74% of fatalities respectively in these occupations compared with
41% nationally. This is not unexpected for Machinery operators &
drivers because the occupation group includes truck and delivery
drivers. For Professionals, 107 of the 215 (50%) fatalities in the 10 year
period involved a plane crash with 98 of the workers being the pilot of
the plane.
Falls from a height accounted for one quarter of Technicians & trades
worker fatalities, which is more than twice the proportion that this
mechanism represents of all worker fatalities. More than half of the
workers in this occupation group who died from a fall were Construction
trades workers. Similarly Contact with electricity accounted for 17% of
fatalities in this occupation group which is more than three times the
national proportion (5%). Not surprisingly 34 of the 71 workers (48%) in
this occupation group who died from this mechanism were electricians.
A lower proportion of Labourer fatalities were the result of a Vehicle
incident (21%) compared to the national proportions. Countering this
were higher proportions of Labourer fatalities due to Being hit by moving
object (15%), Falls from a height (15%) and Hit by falling object (15%).
16
Table 13: Worker fatalities: percentage by mechanism of incident and selected occupations,
2003 to 2012 combined
Machinery
operators &
drivers
Mechanism
Occupation
Technicians
Labourers
& trades
workers
Managers
Professionals
Total
Vehicle incident
61%
21%
15%
29%
74%
41%
Being hit by moving object
11%
15%
9%
18%
6%
12%
Falls from a height
4%
15%
25%
7%
4%
11%
Hit by falling object
6%
15%
12%
7%
3%
9%
Trapped by objects
9%
12%
10%
9%
1%
8%
Contact with electricity
1%
4%
17%
4%
1%
5%
Rollover of non-road vehicle
Being assaulted by a person
or persons
Drowning
3%
4%
1%
13%
0%
4%
1%
0%
1%
3%
2%
2%
0%
4%
1%
2%
2%
2%
Hit or bitten by animal
0%
1%
2%
5%
1%
2%
Explosion
1%
0%
3%
1%
0%
1%
Other mechanisms
Total
4%
6%
6%
4%
6%
5%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
State/territory of death
The most populous states accounted for the majority of fatalities over
the 10 years. In 2012, 83 workers were killed in New South Wales, 56 in
Queensland, and 33 in Victoria. Workers in these three states
comprised 77% of Australia’s working population and accounted for
77% of the fatalities in 2012.
Table 14 shows that the 83 fatalities in New South Wales is a major
increase on the 57 recorded in the previous year and is the highest
number since 2007 (86). This rise was mainly due to traffic incidents
(fatalities on public roads), which increased from 15 in 2011 to 31 in
2012, the highest number since 2007.
In contrast, most of the other states and territories recorded deceases
from the previous year with the largest being Victoria (down 12). The 33
fatalities recorded in Victoria for 2012 is the lowest in the 10 year series.
This decrease was most evident in the non-traffic fatalities with the 22
recorded in 2012 being the lowest in the series (equal to 2005).
Western Australia and South Australia also recorded relatively low
numbers of fatalities in 2012. The 24 fatalities in Western Australia is
only 1 more than the 23 recorded in 2005 and 2006 and considerably
below the series high of 46 in 2007. Similarly, the 13 fatalities in South
Australia is only 2 higher than the 11 recorded in 2007 and equals the
number of fatalities in 2003. The highest number of fatalities recorded in
South Australia in any one year was 20, which was recorded in both
2006 and 2010.
One-third (32%) of fatalities in 2012 were attributed to a traffic incident.
This is similar to the ten year average of 33%. Over the 10 years of the
series, Victoria recorded the highest proportion of traffic incident
fatalities (39%) followed by New South Wales (36%).
17
Table 14: Worker fatalities: number by traffic incident status and state/territory of death, 2003
to 2012
State/territory of death
2003
2004
2005
2006
New South Wales
50
47
55
69
55
53
31
45
42
52
Victoria
30
40
22
39
39
34
33
31
31
22
Queensland
43
41
51
43
44
51
42
36
44
44
Western Australia
21
27
18
14
31
35
21
23
19
17
South Australia
11
14
14
18
5
14
15
14
16
7
Tasmania
16
10
7
6
9
6
6
4
6
4
Northern Territory
2
10
1
5
5
6
5
5
5
4
Australian Capital Territory
1
3
1
2
0
0
1
1
1
2
174
192
169
196
188
199
154
159
164
152
Australia
2007
2008
2009
Non-traffic incident
2010 2011
2012
Traffic incident
New South Wales
30
28
35
29
31
29
30
22
15
31
Victoria
24
29
21
27
29
13
19
16
14
11
Queensland
15
17
19
19
34
22
26
10
16
12
Western Australia
7
9
5
9
15
8
12
8
5
7
South Australia
2
4
4
2
6
2
4
6
2
6
Tasmania
0
3
1
4
2
3
9
1
3
2
Northern Territory
2
3
3
0
5
3
1
1
2
1
Australian Capital Territory
0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
80
93
88
90
123
81
102
64
57
71
Australia
All Worker fatalities
New South Wales
80
75
90
98
86
82
61
67
57
83
Victoria
54
69
43
66
68
47
52
47
45
33
Queensland
58
58
70
62
78
73
68
46
60
56
Western Australia
28
36
23
23
46
43
33
31
24
24
South Australia
13
18
18
20
11
16
19
20
18
13
Tasmania
16
13
8
10
11
9
15
5
9
6
4
13
4
5
10
9
6
6
7
5
Northern Territory
Australian Capital Territory
Australia
1
3
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
3
254
285
257
286
311
280
256
223
221
223
Table 15 shows that the Northern Territory had the highest fatality rate in
all the years except 2003 and 2009. Tasmania recorded the second
highest fatality rate in all years except 2003 and 2009 when it was the
highest of all the states and territories. Over the 10 years the Northern
Territory accounted for 3% of fatalities while Tasmania accounted for 4%.
Table 15: Worker fatalities: incidence rate by state/territory of death, 2003 to 2012
State/territory of death
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Northern Territory
4.12
12.66
3.89
4.67
8.77
7.65
4.77
4.78
5.56
3.84
Tasmania
7.77
6.12
3.65
4.48
4.85
3.80
6.42
2.12
3.82
2.58
Queensland
3.18
3.05
3.49
2.98
3.59
3.26
3.00
2.00
2.58
2.38
New South Wales
2.55
2.37
2.79
2.98
2.56
2.38
1.77
1.90
1.59
2.30
Western Australia
2.92
3.65
2.20
2.13
4.10
3.68
2.79
2.57
1.94
1.85
South Australia
1.82
2.49
2.42
2.63
1.42
2.02
2.38
2.46
2.20
1.59
Australian Capital Territory
0.57
1.63
0.53
1.03
0.50
0.49
0.99
0.48
0.48
1.41
Victoria
2.29
2.87
1.73
2.60
2.59
1.75
1.91
1.68
1.57
1.15
Australia
2.67
2.95
2.57
2.78
2.93
2.57
2.33
1.99
1.94
1.93
18
Queensland recorded the highest fatality rate of the most populous
states. In 2012, Queensland fatality rate of 2.38 deaths per 100 000
workers was 23% above the national rate (1.93). This was closely
followed by New South Wales with 2.30.
The last five years (2008 to 2012) of fatalities data were analysed to
identify which industries had the highest numbers of fatalities in each
state or territory. The analysis excludes the Australian Capital Territory
due to the small numbers of fatalities involved.
Table 16 shows that the high fatality rates in the Northern Territory and
Tasmania are due to relatively high numbers of fatalities in the
Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry with 45% of fatalities in Tasmania
and 48% in the Northern Territory involving workers in the Agriculture,
forestry & fishing industry compared with 24% nationally.
Table 16: Worker fatalities: number by state/territory of death and the industries with the
highest number of fatalities, 2008 to 2012 combined
Industry
New South
Wales
Victoria
Queensland
Western
Australia
South
Australia
Tasmania
Northern
Territory
Australia
Number of fatalities
Transport, postal &
warehousing
Agriculture, forestry &
fishing
Construction
97
52
70
37
20
5
7
289
67
53
79
32
21
20
16
288
54
37
60
16
16
6
4
197
Manufacturing
Administrative &
support services
Public administration
& safety
Wholesale trade
34
24
28
17
7
2
0
112
16
10
7
7
2
1
2
45
15
5
10
2
2
4
1
39
12
6
9
3
2
0
1
34
Retail trade
7
6
6
4
2
0
0
25
Mining
7
4
7
16
5
0
0
39
Other industries
Total
41
27
27
21
9
6
2
135
350
224
303
155
86
44
33
1203
Percentage
Transport, postal &
warehousing
Agriculture, forestry &
fishing
Construction
28%
23%
23%
24%
23%
11%
21%
24%
19%
24%
26%
21%
24%
45%
48%
24%
15%
17%
20%
10%
19%
14%
12%
16%
Manufacturing
Administrative &
support services
Public administration
& safety
Wholesale trade
10%
11%
9%
11%
8%
5%
0%
9%
5%
4%
2%
5%
2%
2%
6%
4%
4%
2%
3%
1%
2%
9%
3%
3%
3%
3%
3%
2%
2%
0%
3%
3%
2%
3%
2%
3%
2%
0%
0%
2%
Retail trade
Mining
Other industries
Total
2%
2%
2%
10%
6%
0%
0%
3%
12%
12%
9%
14%
10%
14%
6%
11%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
During the last five years a large proportion of Tasmanian fatalities
occurred in the Public administration & safety industry (9% compared
with 1–4% in the other states). Offsetting this, Tasmania recorded a
much lower proportion of fatalities in the Transport, postal &
warehousing industry than the other states and territories: 11%
compared with 21–28% in the other states.
19
Fatalities in the Northern Territory occurred predominantly in the
Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry. There were very few fatalities in
any of the other industries except for Transport, postal and
warehousing.
These data also show that the Mining industry accounted for a much
high proportion of fatalities in Western Australia (10%) that the other
states. Over the past five years 41% of the Mining fatalities occurred in
Western Australia. Western Australia accounted for 41% of workers in
the Mining industry in this period.
Table 17 shows fatality rates for the four industries with the highest
number of fatalities by state/territory of death. These data show that the
Northern Territory recorded fatality rates substantially above the
national rate for three of the four industries shown. There were no
deaths in the Manufacturing industry over the five year period in the
Northern Territory. This industry accounts for just 4% of workers in the
Northern Territory.
Of the four industries shown, the greatest variability in fatality rates was
in the Agriculture, forestry & fishing industry. The rates for this industry
ranged from a relatively low 10.88 deaths per 100 000 workers in South
Australia to 27.52 in Tasmania and 106.84 in the Northern Territory,
more than six times the national rate for this industry.
In the Transport, postal & warehousing industry, the fatality rates were
much closer ranging from 7.58 deaths per 100 000 workers in Victoria to
12.35 in Western Australia but with the Northern Territory recording
22.38, twice the national rate for this industry.
The Northern Territory and Tasmania also recorded substantially higher
fatality rates than the other states in the Construction industry.
Table 17: Worker fatalities: incidence rate by selected industries and state/territory of death,
2008 to 2012 combined
Agriculture,
forestry &
fishing
Transport,
postal &
warehousing
New South Wales
14.57
10.18
3.68
2.27
2.00
Victoria
12.95
7.58
3.08
1.56
1.61
Queensland
19.78
10.57
5.07
3.02
2.66
Western Australia
15.83
12.35
2.51
3.58
2.55
South Australia
10.88
11.40
4.87
1.69
2.14
Tasmania
27.52
9.70
6.14
2.09
3.75
106.84
22.36
6.80
0.00
5.52
16.45
10.07
3.88
2.25
2.15
Northern Territory
Australia
Construction Manufacturing
Total all
industries
Working on farms
Over the ten years of the series 437 workers have been killed while
working on a farm. This is 17% of all worker fatalities. This pattern held
true in 2012 where 38 of the 229 (17%) deaths occurred on a farm.
Of the 437 farm fatalities, 353 (81%) involved a worker who usually
worked on that property. However, there were 48 (11%) fatalities
involving workers involved in providing agriculture support services and
36 (8%) fatalities involving workers from other industries who were on
the property performing some type of special work. In 2012 a higher
20
proportion of fatalities involved support workers (16%) and a lower
proportion involved workers from other industries (5%).
Table 18: Worker fatalities on farms: number by industry, 2003 to 2012
Industry
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Total
% of
total
40
48
33
29
31
35
31
40
36
30
353
81%
Agriculture,
forestry & fishing
support services
5
4
4
3
2
7
7
6
4
6
48
11%
Other industries
2
8
2
6
6
4
3
1
2
2
36
8%
47
60
39
38
39
46
41
47
42
38
437
100%
Agriculture
Total
Table 19 shows that vehicles were involved in 71% of the incidents that
resulted in a fatality on a farm in the 10 years of the series. Tractors
accounted for 25% of farm fatalities followed by aircraft (14%) and quad
bikes (9%). The pattern in 2012 was slightly different to this pattern with
a substantially lower number of tractor deaths (4 compared to an
average of 12 in the other years) contributing to a lower proportion of
vehicle related incidents (66%).
The number of worker fatalities due to quad bike use in 2012
(4)returned to numbers seen in many of the previous years after a
particularly bad year in 2011 when 9 workers died on farms while using
a quad bike.
Table 19: Worker fatalities on farms: number by vehicle involvement and type of vehicle, 2003
to 2012
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Total
% of
total
30
42
28
30
23
35
31
33
33
25
310
71%
Tractor
14
21
12
12
6
10
12
12
7
4
110
25%
Aircraft
4
5
4
5
2
7
9
10
8
6
60
14%
Quad bike
4
3
2
2
3
6
5
1
9
4
39
9%
Truck
2
5
0
6
1
1
2
3
3
5
28
6%
Light vehicle
Agricultural
vehicles excl
tractor
Motorbike
1
3
3
4
3
3
0
5
2
4
28
6%
4
2
3
0
1
1
2
0
3
2
18
4%
0
1
1
0
3
7
0
0
0
0
12
3%
Industry
Vehicle involved
1
2
3
1
4
0
1
2
1
0
15
3%
No vehicle involved
17
18
11
8
16
11
10
14
9
13
127
29%
Total
47
60
39
38
39
46
41
47
42
38
437
100%
Other
21
Bystander fatalities
The actions of a worker or a fault in a workplace resulted in the deaths
of 63 members of the public in 2012. This is the highest number since
2007 when 71 members of the public were killed. The 2007 figure
includes 10 people who were killed in the Kerang train crash. The other
year when a large number of people were killed in a single incident was
in 2011 when 11 nursing home residents died following a fire
deliberately lit by a worker. There was no one single incident to explain
the large number of bystander fatalities in 2012.
Over the 10 years of the series, 60% of the bystanders killed were male.
This pattern held true in 2012 where 36 (60%) of the 63 bystanders
killed were male.
In 2012, 79% (50 fatalities) of bystander fatalities involved a Traffic
incident (an incident on a public road). This is considerably higher than
the proportion Traffic incident accounted for of all bystander fatalities
(60%) across the 10 years of the series.
Characteristics by age group
Table 20 shows one-third of bystander fatalities in 2012 were among
those in the 65 years & over age group. All but 4 of these fatalities
involved a vehicle. The most common type of incident in this age group
was a bystander in a car being hit by a truck, which accounted for 10
bystander fatalities in 2012.
While the age profile in 2012 is similar to 2011, these two years are
quite different to most of the previous years. The pattern for the last two
years has seen considerably more fatalities in the 65 years & over age
group and considerably fewer in the Under 15 years age group. Over
the 10 years of the series, 20% of bystanders were people aged 65
years & over while the Under 15 years age group accounted for 21%. In
2012 these proportions were 33% and 10% respectively.
Table 20: Bystander fatalities: number by age group, 2003 to 2012
Age group
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Under 15 years
8
18
10
18
23
11
14
10
2
6
15–24 years
7
5
10
3
7
9
13
4
6
4
25–34 years
9
8
10
3
10
5
5
5
7
9
35–44 years
6
14
7
7
5
7
3
10
3
7
45–54 years
9
3
5
9
11
6
2
4
6
10
55–64 years
9
7
11
5
3
6
5
5
11
6
65 years & over
7
9
13
13
12
6
4
9
22
21
55
64
66
58
71
50
46
47
57
63
Total
Mechanism of incident
Table 21 shows that over the 10 years 56% of the bystander fatalities
were due to a Vehicle incident of which 80% occurred on a public road.
Of the 322 Vehicle incident fatalities, 211 involved a collision with a
truck and 21 involved a worker in a car colliding with another car. There
22
were also 40 passengers in aircraft and 9 bus passengers that were
killed.
Being hit by moving objects resulted in 19% of the bystander fatalities
with vehicles responsible for all the fatalities. Being hit by a truck
resulted in 51 bystander fatalities and being hit by a car or other light
vehicle killed a further 36.
Drowning incidents in a work environment resulted in the fatalities of 37
people over the 10 years, 6% of all bystander fatalities. Drowning in
farm dams was the largest group with 15 fatalities, all of which involved
children 8 years and under. In addition, 9 people drowned after falling
off watercraft and 7 drowned in public swimming pools while under
supervision.
Table 21: Bystander fatalities: number by mechanism of incident and
breakdown agency, 2003 to 2012 combined
Mechanism of incident/ Type of incident
Number of
fatalities
Percentage
322
56%
211
37%
Car occupant in incident with truck
127
22%
Non-working passengers in trucks
21
4%
Motorbike rider in incident with truck
27
5%
Train occupant in incident with truck
Vehicle incident
Truck-related vehicle incidents
13
2%
Bicycle rider in incident with truck
16
3%
Aircraft occupants
40
7%
Car occupant in incident with working car
21
4%
9
2%
20
3%
Bus passengers
Other car incidents
Other vehicle incidents
20
3%
Being hit by moving objects
112
19%
Hit by truck
51
9%
Hit by car or other light vehicle
36
6%
Hit by a bus
7
1%
Drowning/immersion
37
6%
15
3%
Fell from working watercraft
9
2%
Drowned in swimming pools
7
1%
Drowned in farm dams
34
6%
Falls by clients in health care
11
2%
Falls from vehicles
11
2%
Being hit by falling objects
22
4%
Falls
All other mechanisms
Total Bystander fatalities
23
50
9%
577
100%
24
Explanatory Notes
1
Inclusions
This report covers fatalities due to work-related injuries and explicitly
excludes deaths attributable to disease and other natural causes.
Among conditions specifically included as injuries are those arising from
poisonous plants and animals, environmental conditions (e.g. frostbite),
allergic reactions, and embolisms. Heart attacks and strokes are
regarded as natural causes of death, but where available information
shows that a work-related injury directly triggers a fatal heart attack or
stroke, the fatality is included.
Worker fatalities
All identified cases of persons who die from injuries sustained while they
are working are included in this report. For this purpose, ‘working’
includes travelling from one workplace to another. So a trades worker or
professional killed driving from one job or client to the next counts as a
worker fatality. Similarly, a worker killed in an air crash on their way to a
conference would be a worker fatality.
The number of worker fatalities shown in this report is considered
reliable. However, some fatalities, particularly those related to traffic
incidents, may be missed due to the way these deaths are identified.
The information in the National Coronial Information System (NCIS)
relies heavily on information collected by the police and the police report
may not include sufficient information to identify whether or not the
deceased was working at the time of the incident.
Bystander fatalities
Deaths of people in the general public are included in this collection if
the actions of a worker directly contributed to the death of the person.
Under this definition an ‘at fault’ rule is applied. Information from a
variety of sources including police reports is used to determine whether
or not the bystander’s action directly contributed to their own death. If
the bystander’s actions directly contributed to the death then the death
is considered to be a ‘bystander fault’ death and is not included in the
database. The most common example of this is when a non-working
person drives their car into the path of a truck and is killed.
There are many difficulties in identifying bystander fatalities within the
databases used in this study – bystanders cannot seek compensation
through workers’ compensation; notifications depend on the work health
and safety legislation of the jurisdiction; and they are only identified in
the coronial database when sufficiently detailed information on the
circumstances of all parties to the death is available. Most of the
bystander fatalities in this report were identified by examining NCIS
records involving heavy or light commercial vehicles as these are
relatively few and can be manually checked. However, due to the higher
number of deaths involving cars, it is not feasible to perform individual
checks and a bystander death is not likely to be identified unless the
NCIS record is marked as work-related or media has alerted the project
to a possible work-related bystander death. Estimates of bystander
fatalities in this collection should therefore be regarded as an
undercount and movements over time interpreted with caution.
25
Deaths resulting from criminal activity
Persons sustaining fatal injuries as a result of someone else’s criminal
activity are included in this collection if the decedent was at work at the
time of the incident. Where the criminal activity is incidental to legitimate
work activity, for example, where a worker dies of an injury sustained
while under the influence of legal or illegal substances, the fatality is
also included. Non-working persons fatally injured in an incident
involving criminals and law enforcement officers or security officers are
included as Bystanders. In the case of a bystander who is killed while
the police are pursuing a vehicle for a traffic or other violation the death
will be included regardless of whether they were hit by the police car or
the offender’s car.
Classification of fatalities
Persons who die of injuries sustained while they are working are
included among worker fatalities even when the cause of the injury is
another person’s work activity.
2
Exclusions
Deaths due to natural causes
Natural causes include heart attacks, strokes and where death is a
natural progression from a disease. In NCIS a death is classed as
Natural causes when the person did not die from external causes. An
external cause death is defined as any death that resulted directly or
indirectly from environmental events or circumstances that caused
injury, poisoning and other adverse effects (WHO, 1992).
Deaths due to complications of surgical and medical care
Although the death of a patient who dies as a result of medical
negligence or malpractice is in principle a bystander fatality, deaths
arising from such iatrogenic injuries are specifically excluded from this
collection.
Deaths of persons undertaking criminal activity
Persons fatally injured while undertaking criminal activities, such as
gaining illegal entry into a building or work site or crashing a car while
evading a police pursuit are excluded from this collection.
Suicide
The scope of this project excludes deaths resulting from self-harm
because it is difficult to assess the extent of the connection between
work and a decision to take one’s own life.
3
Data sources
This study uses information from three datasets:

the National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics
(NDS)
 the Notifiable Fatalities Collection (NFC), and
 the National Coronial Information System (NCIS).
The individual case records from each of the datasets are compared so
that duplicates can be removed. Generally date of death and sex are
used for initial matching as these data are available for most cases.
26
Date of birth is also used to match records between the NDS and NCIS
with age used from the NFC. Other data items used for matching are
industry and occupation of the deceased and the coding of the incident
in the NDS with narratives in the NFC and NCIS. Each of these datasets
has limitations, so all three datasets are needed to estimate the total
number of work-related fatalities that occur each year.
The National Data Set for Compensation-based Statistics (NDS)
The scope of the NDS is all accepted workers’ compensation claims
made by or for an employee (other than an employee of the defence
forces). The NDS is compiled annually by Safe Work Australia from data
supplied by the state, territory and Australian Government workers’
compensation authorities. The NDS has consistent data from 2000–01
onwards.
The strengths of the NDS are that it:


usually codes the industry of employer accurately
is supported by several classification systems, including the
Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification
(ANZSIC), the Australian and New Zealand Standard
Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) and the Safe Work
Australia Type of Occurrence Classification System
(TOOCS), and
 medical professionals independently assess workrelatedness.
The weaknesses of the NDS are that:











workers’ compensation is only available to employees, so the
NDS does not provide good coverage of fatalities in industries
where a significant proportion of workers are self-employed
some work-related injury fatalities do not appear in the NDS
because there are no dependants to lodge a claim
date of death is not available for all fatalities although
jurisdictions are progressively introducing this data item
bystander fatalities are not compensable within the workers’
compensation system in any jurisdiction and are therefore not
included in the NDS
narratives are not provided
coding of Mechanism, Agency, Breakdown agency and
Occupation may not be complete or accurate
data are not available until a year after the reference period
workers who die overseas are included in the NDS but are
excluded from the Traumatic Injury Fatalities database
location of incident is not identified so workers who died in an
incident in a state different to their employer can be difficult to
match to an NCIS record. This is particularly relevant to
Commonwealth compensation claims with workers employed
in all states and territories
date of birth may not be accurate, and
names are not provided.
27
Notifiable Fatalities Collection (NFC)
Since 1 July 2003, Safe Work Australia has maintained a database of
work-related injury fatalities notified to work health and safety authorities
in each jurisdiction under their work health and safety legislation. There
are 13 work health and safety jurisdictions in Australia that report to
Safe Work Australia: each of the eight states and territories; the
Commonwealth (Comcare); the mining sectors in New South Wales,
Queensland and Western Australia; and the National Offshore
Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.
The strengths of the NFC are that:

it captures fatalities that may not be compensated such as
deaths to self-employed, contract workers and bystanders
 information is available within a few months of the incident
 work-relatedness is assessed by work health and safety
officers
 names are supplied by some jurisdictions, and
 it provides a brief narrative account of the circumstances of
the fatality.
The weaknesses of the NFC are that:




data are only available from 2003–04 onwards
only limited information is available at the time of notification
information on age is often inaccurate, and
it tends to capture work-related fatalities only when they occur
shortly after the injury.
Prior to 1 January 2012 there was limited coverage of transport-related
fatalities in the NFC because these deaths were generally only notified
to and investigated by the police, road traffic authority or, in the case of
plane crashes and marine fatalities, by Commonwealth agencies.
Following the introduction of model Work Health and Safety legislation
this project was reviewed and from 1 January 2012 improvements in the
reporting of fatalities has occurred particularly in relation to work-related
road fatalities.
National Coronial Information System (NCIS)
The NCIS was officially launched in July 2000 and is a national internetbased data storage and retrieval system of coronial cases in Australia.
Each state and territory in Australia has a licence agreement with the
Victorian Department of Justice permitting the transfer of coronial
information for storage and dissemination via the NCIS.
The strengths of the NCIS are that:



the scope of the collection includes all deaths reported to an
Australian coroner regardless of compensation status or work
arrangement
when available, attachments to records, including police
narratives and coronial findings, may shed light on the causes
and circumstances surrounding a fatal incident
some information is available within a few months of the
incident, and
28
 work-relatedness is assessed against standard criteria.
The weaknesses of the NCIS include:


not all work-related fatalities are correctly coded
industry information is more closely linked to the workplace
than the employer
 it can be many years before the case is closed and all files
loaded and coded
 crucial data items, including name, date of birth and date of
death, as well as documentation, may be missing for open
cases and even some closed cases, and
 it is difficult to identify bystander fatalities.
Identification of work-related fatalities in the NCIS
It is necessary to examine all NCIS records that have the potential to be
work-related because the work-related flag may not be finalised until the
case is closed. For this project all records notified during the reference
period are extracted from NCIS. From this list, deaths are excluded that
do not match the scope criteria such as intentional injuries and deaths
from natural causes. The remaining cases are then examined more
closely. In particular, all deaths that are coded as work-related or where
the activity is coded as paid work are reviewed. In addition, all deaths
that involve a heavy or light commercial vehicle, aircraft or occurred at a
farm, industrial or commercial workplace are reviewed.
At the end of this process there are still a number of fatalities where
cause of death and other information is not yet coded. These records
are monitored to ensure all work-related fatalities are identified.
Therefore updates to historical numbers may be evident in future
releases.
Other data sources
The media and accident investigation reports from the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau relating to plane crashes, train crashes and
maritime incidents are used to supplement information found in each of
the datasets.
Dataset contribution
Figure 6 shows that the proportion of cases each dataset contributed to
the total number of work-related fatalities in each year remained
relatively stable from 2004 to 2011. The 2003 and 2012 years have
been affected by the change from financial year to calendar year. The
NFC has a low proportion (20%) for the 2003 year as the collection only
began from 1 July 2003 while the NDS has a low proportion for 2012
(27%) as workers’ compensation data from 1 July 2012 have not yet
been supplied to Safe Work Australia. The NFC has shown a
substantial improvement in 2012 (up from 55% to 74%) due to the
increased coverage of this collection as mentioned earlier.
Of the 221 worker fatalities identified in 2011, just 72 (33%) were
identified in all three datasets. Another 49 (22%) were found only in
NCIS and 3 could only be found in the NDS. All of the NFC cases were
identified in the other datasets. For the 2012 collection these
proportions are quite different due to the issues detailed in the previous
29
paragraph with the NDS proportion expected to rise when updated data
are provided.
Figure 6: Worker fatalities: dataset contribution, 2003 to 2012
Proportion of fatalities
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
4
NCIS
2003
98%
2004
100%
2005
99%
2006
98%
2007
98%
2008
98%
2009
99%
2010
100%
2011
99%
2012
100%
NDS
56%
53%
63%
63%
68%
65%
65%
64%
56%
27%
NFC
20%
51%
49%
48%
45%
53%
51%
52%
55%
74%
Calculation of fatality rates
Fatality rates are calculated as the number of fatalities divided by the
number of workers in the reference period. Employment figures from
quarterly ABS Labour Force Survey data are used to calculate fatality
rates in this publication. The number of workers is derived from the
average of all persons employed over the four quarters of the year for
each sex, age group, industry, occupation, or state or territory.
Because work-related injury fatalities of Australian Defence Force (ADF)
personnel within Australia are in scope for this report, worker estimates
for the Public administration & safety industry division and the total of all
industries, as well as each sex and state or territory are supplemented
with the average of levels of ADF permanent members reported in the
Department of Defence Annual Report.
Worker fatalities include volunteers who cannot be accounted for in the
worker estimates. As this study has only identified one or two volunteer
workers each year, their inclusion does not impact on the fatality rates in
this publication. Similarly the worker estimates do not include children
under 15. Across the 10 years, 3 workers under the age of 15 years
have been killed. The inclusion of these fatalities without increasing the
worker estimates does not impact on the fatality rates in this publication.
30
Glossary
Being hit by moving
objects
Bystander fatality
Part of the Mechanism classification used to describe the action of
an object hitting a person. This includes pedestrians hit by
vehicles as well as being hit by other moving equipment or
objects.
The death of a person who dies from injuries sustained as a
result of another person’s work activity and who was not engaged
in a work activity of their own at the time of the injury.
A traffic incident death is only classified as a bystander fatality
when attributable to someone else’s work activity. Typically, this
means the driver of a work vehicle is at fault. Cases where fault
could not be determined with sufficient confidence are excluded.
Employed
Employee
Fatality rate
Industry
The denominators used in calculating fatality rates in this report
are based on ABS estimates of Employed persons, as defined in
Labour force, Australia (ABS cat no 6202.0). This population
includes Employees, who work for an employer; self-employed
persons, whether they employ others or not; and those who work
without pay for a family business or farm. It excludes persons
whose only work is voluntary.
A person who works for a public or private employer and receives
remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from their employer
while working on a commission basis, tips, piece-rates, or
payment in kind; or a person who operates his or her own
incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.
The number killed as a result of work-related injury expressed as
a per-capita rate against the population at risk of work-related
injury. In this report the rate is expressed as the number of
deaths per 100 000 Employed persons: for brevity this is usually
expressed as ‘deaths per 100 000 workers’. See Paragraph 4 of
the Explanatory notes for further details.
A grouping of businesses that carry out similar economic
activities. Fatalities data in this publication have been coded to
the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial
Classification (ANZSIC) 2006 (ABS cat. no. 1292.0) and unless
specified are shown at the industry division level.
31
Injury
Job
Mechanism of incident
Occupation
Traffic incident
Type of occurrence
classification system
(TOOCS)
A condition coded to ‘External Causes of morbidity and mortality’
and ‘Injury, poisoning and certain other consequences of external
causes’ in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases
and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Australian
Modification (ICD-10-AM).
A set of tasks designed to be performed by one person for an
employer (including self-employment) in return for payment or
profit.
The action, exposure or event that best describes the
circumstances that resulted in the most serious injury.
A set of jobs with similar sets of tasks. Fatalities data in this
publication have been coded to the Australian and New Zealand
Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) (ABS cat. no.
1220.0) First edition and unless specified are shown at the major
group level.
A collision on a public road between any vehicle or self-propelled
plant and anything else, including a pedestrian. Incidents involving
vehicles at worksites or on private roads are excluded. Traffic
incidents can be due to a Vehicle incident (crash) or being hit by a
vehicle (which is included in the Mechanism of Being hit by
moving object). Vehicles that are caught in bushfires or hit by
falling trees while on public roads are also categorised as traffic
incidents and will be coded to Mechanisms of Contact with hot
object and Hit by falling object respectively.
A suite of four classifications to code the way an injury occurred,
comprising:
•
the Nature of injury/disease classification
•
the Bodily location of injury/disease classification
•
the Mechanism of incident classification, and
•
the Agency of injury/disease classification.
Version 3.1 is used for coding the data presented in this report.
Fatalities are only coded by Mechanism and Agency.
Rollover of non-road
vehicle
Part of the Mechanism classification used to identify when a
vehicle that is not normally a road vehicle overturns. This includes
tractors and quad bikes being used on farm properties.
32
Vehicle incident
Worker fatality
Part of the Mechanism of incident classification which identifies if
the fatality occurred due to a vehicle crash and the occupant of
the vehicle is killed. Vehicle crashes that occur on public roads
are further classified as a Traffic incident. Vehicle incidents do not
include people hit by a vehicle, which are coded to Being hit by
moving object. Vehicles not only include cars and trucks but also
include other motorised equipment such as aircraft, boats,
loaders, tractors and quad bikes.
The death of a person who dies from injuries sustained while at
work, including those workers whose injury was caused by
another’s work activity.
33
Inquires
For further information regarding the contents of this publication contact:
The Data & Analysis Section
Safe Work Australia
(02) 6121 9256
34