Make safety your top priority in 2015

Although injuries in the workplace are declining, deaths still occur with tragic frequency.

According to provisional figures recently released by the Victorian WorkCover Authority (VWA), 23 people died in Victorian workplaces in 2014. Seven of these fatalities occurred during the last two months of the year.

The message from the VWA Director of Health and Safety to all Victorians at the beginning of this New Year is simple – “let’s aim for a fatality-free 2015.”

Employers can improve safety by training staff and providing supervision, identifying and appropriately managing risks and ensuring the correct equipment is available so that employees can carry out their work.

Sitecraft provides a comprehensive range of materials handling equipment and devices designed to increase safety as well as productivity in the workplace.

Monthly 2014 fatalities

February

1. A farm worker, 28, riding a quad bike killed at Bungador after driving into the path of a truck
2. A man, 71, run over by the tractor he was operating, near Shepparton
3. A wheelchair-bound man, 22, found face down in a pond after undertaking activities at a Werribee day centre
4. A logger, 54, hit by a falling tree at Gellibrand
5. A truck driver, 58, crushed between the trailer of his truck and the front of a prime mover at Brooklyn

March

1. A man, 55, crushed while doing maintenance work on a tree harvester at Myamyn

May

1. A man, 22, electrocuted after coming into contact with overhead power lines while lopping tree branches in Highett
2. A painter, 73, fell from a ladder at a house in Box Hill North
3. A dock worker, 42, run over by a trailer being loaded onto a ship at Port Melbourne

June

1. A carpenter, 30, crushed by a collapsing brick wall at Brighton East

July

1. A bobcat operator, 42, killed by when a large piece of hot cast feel through the windscreen at a Wodonga foundry
2. A contractor, 45, struck on the head by a drilling rig in Ascot Vale

August

1. A man, 45, crushed under a cage used for flattening cardboard boxes at a factory in Campbellfield

September

1. A boy, 12, died when his quad bike rolled on top of him at Jancourt East
2. A subcontractor, 53, found dead in Tongala at the bottom of a silo in a screw conveyor

October

1. A farm worker, 28, crushed when a silo collapsed on him at Underbool

November

1. A man, 27, bitten by a tiger snake while hand weeding in bush at Jarrahmond in East Gippsland
2. A boy, 15, crushed when the forklift he was operating rolled onto him at a pea farm in Mooroopna
3. A contractor, 58, fell through corroded roof sheeting onto a concrete floor at a warehouse in Narre Warren North
4. A retired farmer, 79, crushed when the tractor he was maintaining rolled backwards at Greta South

 December

1. A nine-month-old boy hit by a forklift in an automotive garage at Moolap, near Geelong.
2. A contractor, 66, crushed by the tractor he was operating at a farm at Nar Nar Goon North.
3. A woman, 59, killed when her quad bike rolled down an embankment on a cattle farm in Devon North.