Workers' Memorial Site Opens

IN THE EXAMINER TODAY
Memorial site pays tribute to workers
20 Jun, 2011 12:00 AM

"AND when the phone rang I just knew." This is just one of the phrases featured at the Tasmanian Workers' Memorial Park in Elizabeth Gardens, next to Aurora Stadium, unveiled on Saturday.

Those words ring true for the mother and sister of Scott Sharpe, who died last August doing the job he loved, working as an arborist.

Christine Sharpe and her daughter Jodie Ombao attended the official opening of the park and said it was a wonderful tribute to all those killed at work.

"It's a really good thing," Mrs Sharpe said.

"They all mean something to us and it's a nice place to come and sit." ... click here to go to The Examiner story

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

WorkCover's records for 2009 show that 9273 Tasmanians were injured while at work and 15 were killed. However, there are an as yet unknown number of workers killed in road accidents while at work and that are not considered workplace deaths.

The Project up to now has been managed by a community based committee, the Tasmanian Workers Commemorative Park Committee, made up of the following membership:

• Robert Groenewegen : Chairman
• Ian Pattie : Secretary
• Rex Neil
• Tim Thorne
• Lionel Morrell
• Guy Hudson
  
• Niall Simpson

with the support of numerous sponsors and supporters.

The site's design is the outcome of a collaboration between Launceston City Council's landscape architect, Niall Simpson and Launceston poet Tim Thorne.

The site's opening coincided with the launch of the website www.commemoratingtasmanianworkers.com.au. It is hoped that in time the site in Elizabeth Gardens and the website will be of some help to those family, friends and workmates left behind after a fatal workplace accident.

The next phase of the project is to realise the casting in bronze of the enigmatic symbol of a past presence a pair of work boots.CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Question: When is a work place death not a work place death?

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:

• Deaths while working for an income;
• Deaths while commuting;
• Deaths while being a bystander.

Other sectors include transport and construction industries. The Tasmanian Government does not report like this but publishes overall work place accidents. These do not include statistics where the work place was the highway even though a work place fatality is broadly defined as a
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.