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Observational Study
. 2021 Apr;27(2):124-130.
doi: 10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043643. Epub 2020 Mar 24.

Decade of fatal injuries in workers in New Zealand: insights from a comprehensive national observational study

Rebbecca Lilley  1 , Brett Maclennan  2 , Bronwen M McNoe  2 , Gabrielle Davie  2 , Simon Horsburgh  2 , Tim Driscoll  3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Decade of fatal injuries in workers in New Zealand: insights from a comprehensive national observational study

Rebbecca Lilley et al. Inj Prev. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Introduction: Current priorities and strategies to prevent work-related fatal injury (WRFI) in New Zealand (NZ) are based on incomplete data capture. This paper provides an overview of key results from a comprehensive 10-year NZ study of worker fatalities using coronial records.

Methods: A data set of workers, aged 15-84 years at the time of death who died in the period 2005-2014, was created using coronial records. Data collection involved: (1) identifying possible cases from mortality records using selected external cause of injury codes; (2) linking these to coronial records; (3) retrieving and reviewing records for work-relatedness; and (4) coding work-related cases. Frequencies, percentages and rates were calculated. Analyses were stratified into workplace and work-traffic settings.

Results: Over the decade, 955 workers were fatally injured, giving a rate of 4.8 (95% CI 5.6 to 6.3) per 100 000 worker-years. High rates of worker fatalities were observed for workers aged 70-84 years, indigenous Māori and for males. Workers employed in mining had the highest rate in workplace settings while transport, postal and warehousing employees had the highest rate in work-traffic settings. Vehicle-related mechanisms dominated the mechanism and vehicles and environmental agents dominated the breakdown agencies contributing to worker fatalities.

Discussion: This study shows the rates of worker fatalities vary widely by age, sex, ethnicity, occupation and industry and are a very serious problem for particular groups. Future efforts to address NZ's high rates of WRFI should use these findings to aid understanding where preventive actions should be prioritised.

Keywords: driver; epidemiology; mortality; occupational injury; workplace.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Rate per 100 000 worker-years of WRFI in workers by work setting, 2005–2014, New Zealand. Dashed lines exclude catastrophic injury events occurring in 2010 and 2011.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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