Work-related accidents are an interesting data source since they also include traffic accidents, more particularly traffic accidents during commuter traffic, business and professional traffic. Accidents during commuting to work can easily be selected out of the work-related accidents due to a clear distinction that is made between these accidents and accidents in the workplace. The number of accidents during commuting to work hasn't changed much over the last 15 years. The total number of work-related accidents, however, is characterized by a decrease. This decrease is completely attributable to the decrease in the number of work-related accidents in the workplace. The number of serious accidents, however, has increased in the same period of 15 years. The accidents during commuting to work are, in total, responsible for 10 per cent of the total number of work-related accidents. The share of the serious accidents and deadly accidents is respectively 16 per cent and 43 per cent. The accidents during commuting to work are, on average, more serious and more expensive than those occurring in the workplace. The data concerning work-related accidents by sector indicate that the share of the accidents during commuting to work is highest for the chemical sector and the service sector. When the number of accidents during commuting to work is calculated per 1.000 employees for the different sectors most of the accidents occur in the service sector. According to the branch of industry, ‘services’ has the highest number of accidents during commuting to work. The share of the accident victims during commuting to work in the total number of traffic victims increases from 22.2 per cent in 1990 to 34.4 per cent in 2001. To interpret these figures it is important to take into account the increase of the commuting distance, the increasing share of commuting in the total number of travelled kilometres and the increasing use of the car for commuting. Selection of the work-related accidents occurring on the road during work, is more difficult. The only way to get an indication of these accidents is by using the material cause, which is registered for each accident. The figures of the work-related accidents in the workplace show that motor vehicles are the material cause for 4 per cent of the accidents (7,368 accidents in 2002). A problem is the inclusion of accidents, not occurring on public roads, which are not traffic accidents. Moreover, other means of transport can be used. Using the traffic accident statistics it is possible to get an idea of the accidents due to road haulage. It accounts for nearly 80 deaths (not taking into account the deaths among the other involved road users) and 6,400 accidents yearly. The figures for work-related accidents in the workplace for the branch of industry ‘land transport’ point to 9,000 accidents. Taking into account the high share of work-related accidents on the road, the high severity of these accidents and the accompanying very high costs, it seems necessary to fully integrate traffic safety and the prevention of traffic accidents in the management and safety policy of each company or institution. This document supports the need for better and more detailed work-related accident statistics in order to accurately describe the issue of traffic accidents during commuting to work and especially during business and professional traffic. Measures have to be taken to obtain detailed figures of work-related accidents for the public sector, to facilitate the selection of traffic accidents out of the category ‘work-related accidents in the workplace’ and to obtain reliable and sufficiently differentiated exposure data for commuting to work as well as for business and professional traffic. (Author/publisher) The report is available at: http://www.steunpuntverkeersveiligheid.be/nl/modules/publications/store…
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