ROGER MORONEY
Workplace fatalities in the Hawke's Bay/East Coast region have already reached last year's total.
Three people have died so far in workplace accidents in 2006 - the latest being forklift driver Repanga William Taana, whose machine overturned at the Port of Napier on March 29.
That incident is still under investigation
by Department of Labour safety inspectors.
Mr Taana's death saw this year's toll equal 2005's, and if the fatality rate continues at the same rate it will match the black year of 2003 when nine workplace deaths were reported.
Serious-harm injuries for the region so far this year number 88, while there have been 15 notifiable occupational diseases.
The figures provided by the Department of Labour come on the eve of a service in Napier tomorrow to commemorate the annual Workers Memorial Day.
The Department of Labour Health and Safety manager for Hawke's Bay, Murray Thomson, said the day was a time for workers in the Bay to remember and honour people killed or injured in workplace accidents, and a day to use as a starting point to look closely at and improve workplace health and safety.
"Accidents and disease in the workplace take a toll, not only on the employees and businesses affected, but also on families, friends and the whole community," Mr Thomson said.
The department was committed to an ongoing programme of work to provide safe, healthy and productive workplaces, he said, adding that most workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses were preventable.
"Safe and healthy workplaces make good business sense as well as being good for the community and New Zealand as a whole - everybody wins," Mr Thomson said.
However, against a background of increasing workforce participation, 2006 had not started off well in Hawke's Bay or throughout the whole of New Zealand.
Nationally, Department of Labour officers investigated 57 workplace deaths in 2004 and 52 last year.
After just four months, the 2006 toll already stands at 23. The annual cost of deaths, injuries and illnesses was estimated at between $4.3 billion and $8.7 billion a year.
Last year the Government launched The Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015, with its main aim being to reduce workplace accidents, increase safety and health awareness and assist relevant organisations in co-ordinating and prioritising health and safety issues.
* Tomorrow's Workers Memorial Day service will be held at the Port of Napier Seafarers Centre at 10am.
