11:46 am, Friday 30 November, 2012

Safe Work Australia has recently released the Notifiable Fatalities Monthly report for the month of July where 10 work-related notifiable fatalities were reported – 8 male workers; 1 female worker and 1 male bystander.

Of these fatalities, 2 were categorised as Fall from a height; and 2 as being Hit by falling object. The remaining 6 fatalities involved the following type of incidents: Pedestrian hit by a vehicle-public road, Vehicle incident – public road crash, Vehicle incident – air crash, Explosion, Fall on the same level and Hit by moving object (unattended vehicle) – not on a public road.

Safe Work Australia’s Notifiable Monthly report provides a national summary of work-related fatalities notifiable to Australian work health and safety jurisdictions. Aside from providing an estimate of the number of work-related fatalities, the report also shows details of the types of incidents involved. It also includes details of the industry of the workplace at which the fatalities occurred, as well as the industry of the decedent’s employer.

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11:57 am, Friday 2 December, 2011

Five more fatalities have been added to Victoria’s workplace toll for this year. These recent incidents bring Victoria’s workplace fatality toll to 21 for this year, according to a media release by WorkSafe Victoria.

WorkSafe Health and Safety Executive Director Ian Forsyth said that the accidents including the five recent fatalities which happened in the past 11 days are a gruesome reminder of the importance of workplace safety.

“Christmas is traditionally about spending time with loved ones and we want to ensure this happens. Every worker deserves to go home at the end of the day. Tragically, 21 workers so far this year didn’t get that opportunity,” said Mr. Forsyth.

The latest fatality occurred yesterday at a boat manufacturing company in Campbellfield when a 26-year old victim suffered from fatal head injuries when a 150kg piece of machinery fell on him from an overhead crane. He was brought to a hospital but was later on pronounced dead.

A night before this incident, another worker lost his life when he was run-over by a reversing street sweeping truck in Bayswater. He was directing traffic when the truck hit him.

Concurrently, a 37-year old worker was brought to a hospital after sustaining life-threatening injuries when he was crushed while doing repair works on a dock leveller at a company in Laverton North yesterday.

WorkSafe investigators are working with emergency workers at a water treatment plant near Carrum after a sub-contractor carrying out routine sampling failed to return from the tank area.

Other horrific workplace accidents which happened last week include a 73-year old farmer who died after being gored by a bull near Alexandra; a 45-year old man who was killed after a cherry picker collapsed with a man on board at Lara; a 46-year old man who was killed after being crushed by a vehicle in Westmeadows.

Mr. Forsyth encouraged workplaces to be extra vigilant in the lead up to Christmas as this month is one of the busiest periods for most industries. He also urged Victorian workplaces to take action in improving safety.

“We’re calling on Victorian workplaces to stop, think and take action about improving safety. Simple steps make a real difference to individuals, families and businesses.”

WorkSafe will relaunch its ‘Homecomings’ campaign on December 11 which aims to highlight the fact that the most important reason for making a workplace safe is not at work at all. The campaign will end on January 7.

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