Work fatalities continue to fall: 195 deaths in 2015

The number of people who have died in Australia from work-related injuries is on a downward trend, a Safe Work Australia report shows.

The Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities report revealed that 195 workers died from injuries received at work in 2015.

This represents a continuation of a downward trend in worker fatality rates with 1.6 fatalities per 100,000 workers recorded.

This rate represents a decrease of 44 per cent from three fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2007 – it is also the lowest rate since the report series began in 2003.

Safe Work Australia CEO Michelle Baxter said the report included statistics “resulting from an injury at work, and as a bystander resulting from someone else’s work” and was largely reliant on workers compensation data, which may change as more information comes to hand.

In 2015, 115 of the 195 fatalities (59 per cent) involved a vehicle.

Specifically, 53 workers (27 per cent) were killed in vehicle collisions, followed by fatalities due to moving objects (14 per cent) and falling from a height (13 per cent).

The risks of fatalities involving vehicles in the workplace was also highlighted by bystander fatalities, where over the period from 2003–15, 60 per cent of bystander fatalities were due to a vehicle collision, while being hit by moving objects accounted for a further 16 per cent.

Two industries dominated rates of fatalities with almost half (47 per cent) occurring in the agriculture forestry and fishing industries (52 fatalities), and transport, postal and warehousing (40 fatalities).



Split by gender, male workers accounted for 97 per cent of fatalities.