Work-Related Traumatic Injury Fatalities Australia 2012

Safe Work Australia

WORK-RELATED TRAUMATIC INJURY FATALITIES,AUSTRALIA 2012

October 2013

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ISBN[PDF] 978-1-74361-185-2

[DOCX] 978-1-74361-186-9

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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 document. Before relying on the material, users should carefully make their own assessment as to its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. The views in this report should not be taken to represent the views of Safe Work Australia unless otherwise expressly stated.

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 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.

Forewordiii

Summary of findings vii

Worker fatalities1

Characteristics by sex1

Characteristics by age group2

Involvement of vehicles3

Mechanism of incident4

Fatalities due to a vehicle incident7

Fatalities due to being hit by moving objects8

Fatalities due to falls from height9

Fatalities due to being hit by falling objects9

Characteristics by Industry10

Characteristics by Occupation14

State/territory of death17

Working on farms21

Bystander fatalities23

Characteristics by age group23

Mechanism of incident24

Explanatory Notes25

Glossary31

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 100000 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 100000 workers is still three times the rate for all workers.
Workers aged 25–34 years recorded the lowest fatality rate in 2012, with 1.15deaths per 100000 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.
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 100000 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 100000 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 100000 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).

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. Figure1 shows that the fatality rate of 1.93 deaths per 100000 workers is the lowest rate since the series began.

Figure 1: Worker fatalities: number of fatalities and fatality rate, 2003 to 2012

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 100000 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 (0.19deaths per 100000 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

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
2012 / 27 / 27 / 42 / 51 / 41 / 25 / 213
Total Male / 244 / 400 / 511 / 530 / 468 / 276 / 2429
Percentage / 10% / 16% / 21% / 22% / 19% / 11% / 100%
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
Total Female / 19 / 38 / 26 / 38 / 33 / 13 / 167
Percentage / 11% / 23% / 16% / 23% / 20% / 8% / 100%

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 6.85deaths 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.

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 100000 workers remains above the rate it recorded in 2010 (1.83).

Figure 3: Worker fatalities: fatality rate by age group, 2003 to 2012

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%
Vehicle incident (crash) / 70 / 90 / 77 / 83 / 108 / 76 / 89 / 58 / 53 / 64 / 768 / 30%
Being hit by moving objects / 7 / 3 / 8 / 7 / 11 / 4 / 10 / 5 / 4 / 5 / 64 / 2%
Other incident / 3 / 0 / 3 / 0 / 4 / 1 / 3 / 1 / 0 / 2 / 17 / 1%
Non-traffic incident / 84 / 102 / 78 / 94 / 77 / 113 / 72 / 83 / 80 / 70 / 853 / 33%
Vehicle incident (crash) / 34 / 30 / 27 / 37 / 23 / 44 / 23 / 22 / 24 / 23 / 287 / 11%
Being hit by moving objects / 16 / 20 / 10 / 14 / 15 / 20 / 12 / 15 / 11 / 17 / 150 / 6%
Rollover of non-road vehicle / 8 / 14 / 9 / 6 / 12 / 11 / 10 / 8 / 11 / 5 / 94 / 4%
Being trapped by vehicle / 14 / 17 / 17 / 13 / 15 / 13 / 10 / 11 / 16 / 7 / 133 / 5%
Other incident / 46 / 51 / 42 / 61 / 35 / 69 / 40 / 49 / 42 / 41 / 476 / 18%
No vehicle involved / 90 / 90 / 91 / 102 / 111 / 86 / 82 / 76 / 84 / 82 / 894 / 34%
Total / 254 / 285 / 257 / 286 / 311 / 280 / 256 / 223 / 221 / 223 / 2 596 / 100%

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 toBeing 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).

Table 3: Worker fatalities: number by mechanism of incident, 2003 to 2012

Mechanism of incident / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / Total / % of 2012 fatalities / % of all fatalities
Vehicle incident / 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 / 14 / 17 / 19 / 18 / 15 / 14 / 10 / 11 / 17 / 7 / 142 / 3% / 5%
Contact with electricity / 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%
Total / 254 / 285 / 257 / 286 / 311 / 280 / 256 / 223 / 221 / 223 / 2596 / 100% / 100%

Work-Related Traumatic Injury Fatalities Australia 2012

Safe Work Australia