Question: When is a work place death not a work place death?Answer: Statistically speaking, when it is a road death.
This anomaly is important to those who seek to support families and friends who have lost loved ones when they were apparently at work. A carpenter, who loses his life on a building site, for example, is recognised as a work place death. A bus driver, for example, who loses his life in the course of his driving around city and suburban streets, is assessed as a road death, yet, if he or she were to be killed at the bus depot, the assessment would be that the death was in the work place.
The data about those killed in the course of their work should be more refined. Of course a person killed on the road is a road death but the bald statistic says nothing about the circumstances of the death.
If the death was a log truck driver travelling to or from a mill, he or she is conducting business. Road death statistics should be able to show this.
Similarly for a travelling salesman, an educational consultant travelling to or from a seminar or a doctor driving to see a patient.
The Australian Government’s Traumatic Injury Fatalities reports attempts a breakdown of the statistics. It is possible to find workplace deaths by sector, e.g. agriculture, and within that sector there are listed:
fatality which arises out of, or in the course of, employment or at a workplace where the activity of the deceased was contributing to or subject to the activity of that work place.
At the moment, over the last 10 years, there has been an annual average of about 9 work place deaths. This would be much higher, and have a greater impact on the community if the average also accounted for road deaths where the person killed was in the course of his or her work.
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you know of a circumstance where someone died as a result of road accident while at work please use the comment section below to draw attention to it or any other relevant matter.
The data about those killed in the course of their work should be more refined. Of course a person killed on the road is a road death but the bald statistic says nothing about the circumstances of the death.
If the death was a log truck driver travelling to or from a mill, he or she is conducting business. Road death statistics should be able to show this.
Similarly for a travelling salesman, an educational consultant travelling to or from a seminar or a doctor driving to see a patient.
The Australian Government’s Traumatic Injury Fatalities reports attempts a breakdown of the statistics. It is possible to find workplace deaths by sector, e.g. agriculture, and within that sector there are listed:
- Deaths while working for an income;
- Deaths while commuting;
- Deaths while being a bystander.
fatality which arises out of, or in the course of, employment or at a workplace where the activity of the deceased was contributing to or subject to the activity of that work place.
At the moment, over the last 10 years, there has been an annual average of about 9 work place deaths. This would be much higher, and have a greater impact on the community if the average also accounted for road deaths where the person killed was in the course of his or her work.
IAN PATTIE 2011
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you know of a circumstance where someone died as a result of road accident while at work please use the comment section below to draw attention to it or any other relevant matter.
1 comment:
The Matthew Wayman Case, Hobart Tasmania.
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