Work-related Liaison Service

Service Overview

The number of deaths that occur in the context of 'work' remain unacceptably high and have significant social and economic costs to the community. Moreover, many such deaths are preventable.

The Work-Related Fatalities Research program, funded by WorkSafe Victoria, provides a research service to both WorkSafe and the Victorian State Coroner's Office to suport their growing and important role in the prevention of work-related injury. The research is also published in the scientific literature. Translational activities include a quarterly industry bulletin (WorkWISE) and stakeholder advisory committees and workshops.

The program is situated within the Prevention Research Services of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, where a wealth of forensic, scientific and legal data are generated as part of medico-legal death investigations. These data provide a vital source of information for injury research purposes.

Work-related fatal injury surveillance

Fatal injury surveillance is a pre-requisite for effective prevention and allows new and emerging injury problems to be identified. Currently there is no universally agreed approach to defining a 'work-related' death and no single data source accurately captures such fatal incidents in Australia. The exact number of people who die as a result of work-related activities in Australia is consequently difficult to establish (ASCC, 2007).

The research service operates a surveillance program of all fatalities reported to the Victorian coroner. A comprehensive classification system allows for a more accurate depiction of the true extent of work-related death in Victoria. The increasing recognition of work factors contributing to injury deaths is transcending the conventional boundaries of work activity and location. Deaths not typically considered 'work-related' but which may still provide important learnings for injury prevention may include:

• Non-working bystanders;
• Deaths on hobby farms;
• Do-It-Yourself (DIY) maintenance activities;
• Intentional self-harm where work factors are identified;
• Deaths while commuting to or from work.

A collaborative approach is taken to build industry partnerships and strengthen work-related injury prevention in Victoria.
Specific research projects undertaken to date include:

• Young, novice and migrant workers;
• Fatal heavy vehicle crashes; and
• The presence of alcohol and/or drugs among work-related fatalities.

A Heavy Vehicle Driver Safety Workshop was held in May 2009. Workshop information available here

WorkWise - the quarterly free publication of the Work-related Liaison Service WorkWise Current Edition

For further enquiries please contact the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine: wrls@vifm.org

Reference

Australian Safety and Compensation Council (2008, September). Work-related traumatic injury fatalities in Australia, 2005-2006. Canberra:Author

Publications

Brodie L., Bugeja, L. & Ibrahim, J.E. (2009). Heavy vehicle driver fatalities: Learnings from fatal road crash investigations in Victoria.Accident Analysis & Prevention, 41(3), 557-564.

Ehsani J., Ibrahim, J.E. (2008). Defining Novice Workers. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Occupational Health & Safety 24(5), 409-415.

Conference Abstracts 2009

Kennedy, B., Bugeja, L., Ibrahim, J.E., Killian, J.J., Drummer, O.H. & Ozanne-Smith, J. (2009). Interpretation of post-mortem forensic toxicology results for fatal injury prevention. 9th Australian Injury Prevention Conference. Melbourne.

Kitching, F., Ibrahim, J.E., Brodie, L., Bugeja, L., Kennedy, B. & Ozanne-Smith, J. (2009). Identifying work-related cases for fatal injury prevention 9th Australian Injury Prevention Conference. Melbourne.

Brodie L., Ibrahim, J.E. (2009). Deaths during tree felling: A dangerous DIY activity. 9th Australasian Injury Prevention Conference. Melbourne.

Ozanne-Smith, J. (2009). The mortuary as a source of injury data: with particular reference to occupational injury. 9th Australasian Injury Prevention Conference. Melbourne.

Conference Abstracts 2008

Ibrahim, J.E., Bugeja, L. & Brodie, L. (March 2008). Specialist investigation of work-related fatal injury for the coroner: a public health prevention model. 9th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, Merida, Mexico.

Brodie, L., J.E., Bugeja, L., Ozanne-Smith, J. & Ibrahim, J.E. (November 2008). Coronial and mortuary information for work-related death prevention. 2nd Asia Pacific Injury Prevention Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam

Conference Abstracts 2006-07

Bugeja, L., Brodie, L., Osborne, N., Thorne, B., Davies, Z., Bourke, D. et al. (October 2007). The development of a specialist investigation standard for heavy vehicle fatal collisions in Victoria. Australasian Road Safety Research Policing and Education Conference, Melbourne.

Bugeja, L., Thorne, B., Davies, Z., O'Brien, A., Young, C., Charles, A. et al. (July 2007). The role of a specialist investigation unit in death and injury prevention. 9th Indo-Pacific Congress on Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Sri Lanka.

Killian, J., Thorne, B., Davies, Z., Bugeja, L., Hoy, M. et al. (October 2006). Work-related truck fatalities in Victoria. 20th World Congress of International Traffic Medicine Association Conference, Melbourne.

Bugeja, L., Killian, J., Ibrahim, J., Thorne, B., Davies, Z., Hoy, M. et al. (September 2006). Developing a collaborative approach to the prevention of work-related death in Victoria - The Coronial Services Centre Work-Related Liaison Service. 8th Australian Injury Prevention Conference, Sydney.

	WorkWise