More workers die in motor vehicles than any other workplace incident, a statistic that transport safety experts are hoping to reverse at an international conference being hosted by QUT's Centre for Accident Research & Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q).
The Occupational Safety in Transport Conference (OSIT) to be held on the Gold Coast on September 18 and 19 will bring together experts from all facets of transport safety including roads, rail, fleets, and mining to improve workplace health and safety.
CARRS-Q research fellow Darren Wishart said the aim of the conference was to save lives by working together to come up with innovative solutions to address the transport and safety challenges faced in the modern workplace.
"In the past 10 year period, every year, the motor vehicle killed more people than any other mechanism of injury in the workplace, with 46 per cent of Australian workplace fatalities being vehicle-related," Mr Wishart said.
"The next two highest killers are being hit with a moving object (12 per cent) and falling from a height (11 per cent)."
Mr Wishart said that in the modern work environment, the vehicle was an extension of the office, and under relevant legislation was considered a workplace.
"Work-related road safety is a complex issue comprising many components, therefore to address it any initiatives need to be inclusive of the driver, employers, organisation, family members and the environment," he said.
"That is because safety when driving for work is everyone's responsibility."
Mr Wishart said this was just one of the topics to be discussed at the OSIT conference.
Other topics to be discussed include:
•Increase in Drive-in/Drive-out and Fly-in/Fly-out workers
•Changing nature of work such as rosters, shifts, times in the office and on the road
•Alcohol and drug testing in the workplace
•Impact of new technologies and safety features in vehicles
Keynote speakers at the conference include:
•Colonel Simon Tuckerman, Australian Defence Force
•Professor Ann Williamson, director of the Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research Group, University of New South Wales
•Stephanie Pratt, US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
•Professor Le De Milia, Central Queensland University
WHAT: 2014 Occupational Safety in Transport Conference
WHEN: September 18-19
WHERE: Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise
MORE INFO: http://ositconference.com/
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Media contact:
Sandra Hutchinson, QUT Media (Tue, Wed, Fri), 07 3138 9449 or media@qut.edu.au
After hours, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901
