Truckies, farmers most at risk

Safe Work Australia has reported a decline in workplace fatalities across the country, but highlighted road transport and farming as by far the most dangerous sectors to work in.

The latest data from the national agency shows there were 169 workplace fatalities across Australia in 2021.

That equated to 1.3 deaths per 100,000 workers, down from 1.5 last year and a high of 3.0 in 2007.

Western Australia recorded 20 deaths, equivalent to 1.4 per 100,000 workers.

The industry with the most fatalities was transport, postal and warehousing (52), followed by agriculture, fishing and forestry (33 fatalities) and construction (24 fatalities).

Within these broad industry groups, the most dangerous sectors were road transport, with 16.2 deaths per 100,000 workers, followed by agriculture (9.2 per 100,000).

In keeping with these numbers, the most common causes of worker fatalities were vehicle collisions (38 per cent), being hit by moving objects (14 per cent) and falls from a height (11 per cent).

Mining (2.3 fatalities per 100,000), construction (2.1 per 100,000) and manufacturing (1.8 per 100,000) were comparatively much safer but still above average.

The data also highlighted a wide gender split – the past year saw 163 male fatalities and just six female fatalities.

The national data broadly aligned with Western Australian data compiled by WorkSafe WA, which is based on financial years.

WorkSafe’s statistics show 18 work-related deaths in WA in the year to June 2022.

There has been a recent spike in WA with WorkSafe investigating five work-related deaths in the month of October alone.

This included two in farming and two in mining.

WorkSafe WA commissioner Darren Kavanagh launched a special inquiry earlier this year into safety in the agricultural sector, after the loss of 15 lives in the space of 18 months.

The total for the year-to-date is seven, since July 1.