About 30 per cent of workforce fatalities are a result of road crashes at work, the NSW Government told employers in a recent road safety guide.
“Around 25 per cent of the NSW road toll is fatalities from crashes involving a vehicle being used for business. The majority of these involve a car or light truck,” it said.
The latest data from Safe Work Australia showed that 53 people died in 2016 and 62 in 2015 at work in NSW.
The government recommends using an audio/video conferencing facility for meetings to avoid having to drive and purchasing five-star Australasian New Car Assessment Program-rated passenger vehicles.
“Encourage workers to plan their route and use the major roads as theyre safer. Motorways and major highways generally have barriers to prevent cars from running off the road and hitting objects such as trees, or colliding head-on with other vehicles,” it said.
“These safety features are usually not present on local roads.”
It said about 43 per cent of fatalities on country roads are on two-way roads with no centre barrier and a 100km/h speed limit.
Data showed that the highest number of road accident deaths take place in NSW, followed by Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.
A total of 391 people, including 118 females, died in road accidents in NSW in 2017.
“It is a frightening statistic, but in NSW if you drive on country roads, you are four times more likely to die in a crash than in a metropolitan area,” Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said in a statement on October 10 ahead of Rural Road Safety Week.
Data further showed that though road accident deaths were moderate in the Central West, people were suffering serious injuries.
The most injuries have been reported in the Dubbo, Bathurst, Mid-Western Regional, Orange and Lithgow councils in the past five years.
This story Drive safe: 30 per cent of workplace fatalities due to road crashes first appeared on Western Advocate.
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Nyngan Observer
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