No job is worth dying for

Friday 03 August 2001

Last year forty New Zealand workers never made it home.

Figures released today by the Occupational Safety and Health Service (OSH) show that the service investigated 40 deaths in the last financial year. Seventeen of those deaths were in the agricultural sector.

This compares with 57 deaths for the same period last year.

"These figures are unacceptable. No job is worth dying for," said OSH General Manager, Bob Hill.

"It’s sometimes easy to mistake these numbers as just another statistic, they are not.

"Each of these deaths involved a huge emotional, social and economic cost to New Zealand.

"The deaths in the agricultural sector are particularly frightening. The rural sector makes a huge positive contribution to New Zealand in so many ways, but being the leader in workplace deaths is not a positive statistic.

Thirty-five per cent of the agricultural deaths involved four wheel farm bikes (ATVs).

"ATVs are an increasingly vital part of farming life so it is important that everyone who uses them is aware of their lethal potential," said Mr Hill.

"The ‘it won’t happen to me’ attitude is killing and injuring people at work. I urge the rural community to stop and take the sobering thought, what if it does?

One area which has shown a dramatic improvement is deaths caused by falling from heights in the construction area. Last year there were 13 construction fall related deaths over the year, this year there was one.

This years figures show 17 less deaths for the same time last year and included:

• Industry and Commercial 7 deaths
• Construction 9 deaths
• Forestry 7 deaths
• Agriculture 17 deaths

"While there has been some improvement, it is only through the combined efforts of employees, employers, industry organisations and OSH that there will be a significant drop in death and injury at work," said Mr Hill.