Transport and storage industry top dangerous jobs

A report released today has placed the transport and storage sector at the top of Australia's 10 most dangerous industries

According to a report from life insurance comparison website lifeinsurancefinder.com.au, the transport and storage industry recorded 65 fatalities in 2012, marking it as the clear leader in workplace deaths in this country.

Using information collated from Safe Work Australia, the research found that workplace fatalities among truck drivers, postal workers and storage workers accounted for 29 per cent of the total workplace fatalities in 2012. Some 8450 serious injuries were also recorded for the year across the sector's 600,600 workers – equating with 1.4 per cent of the total.

Agriculture, forestry and fishing recorded 53 fatalities and 3815 serious injuries in the same year, while construction recorded 30 fatalities and 12,485 serious injuries.

Even though that figure for serious injuries in construction is significantly higher than the number recorded in transport and storage, the construction figure still accounts for 1.3 per cent of its total workers – 0.1 per cent lower than the transport and storage equivalent.

Only the manufacturing industry recorded a higher proportion of serious injuries, at 1.8 per cent.

The most common cause of death was found to be vehicle accidents, which accounted for one third of all fatalities across all the industries surveyed.

Lifeinsurancefinder.com.au's Michelle Hutchinson said some people may be surprised by the report's findings.

"Many Australian workers have to drive vehicles or lift things as part of their job and they may not realise how dangerous their work can be," she said.

"The most common serious claim for all industries was muscular stress while lifting, carrying or putting down objects and the most common fatality was vehicle incidents.

"If you work in any of these industries on the list you are even more likely to be killed or suffer a serious injury while on the job, so you need to take extreme caution while at work and have a worst-case-scenario plan in place."

The report lists Australia's top 10 most dangerous industries as follows:

	INDUSTRY	NO. OF DEATHS	NO. OF SERIOUS INJURIES	NO. OF WORKERS	PERCENTAGE OF WORKERS INJURED
1.	Transport/postal/warehousing	65	8450	600,600	1.4
2.	Agriculture/forestry/fishing	53	3815	301,100	1.3
3.	Construction	30	12,485	995,800	1.3
4.	Manufacturing	18	16,670	953,700	1.8
5.	Admin/safety/defence	13	4330	1,100,000	0.4
6.	Mining	7	2670	262,400	1.0
7.	Retail	6	11,200	1,200,000	1.0
8.	Professional/scientific/technical	6	2100	899,100	0.2
9.	Wholesale	5	5310	416,300	1.3
10.	Electricity/gas/water/waste	5	530	140,500	0.4

Transport and storage industry top dangerous jobs

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