Warmer weather deadly for workers

The lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer could be the most dangerous time of the year for New Zealand workers.

Labour Department statistics show staff have investigated an average six or seven deaths every December and January for the past five years.

The yearly average over the same period is about five workplace deaths, with an average of four a month during winter.

The average number of workplace deaths in mid-winter is two.

The department has employed an Australian firm to find an answer to why the summer months are so hazardous.

Sydney-based Human Engineering will identify seasonal work trends and their relationship to summer fatalities.

News of the investigation comes as the Labour Department is investigating the death of a worker at a Fisher & Paykel Appliances plant in Auckland at the weekend.

Vili Salogo Purcell, 56, died after becoming trapped in a vacuum forming machine at the East Tamaki factory early on Saturday.

Mr Purcell, who had been with the company for 15 years, will be buried in Mangere on Friday.

Mystery surrounds the reasons for this higher seasonal death rate, and the increased rate of injury over summer.

Reported serious injuries also appear to be higher from December to March, with the number of notifications during the four summer months over the last five years averaging 101 a month, compared with an average of 80 a month during winter.

It is not known whether the figures are just a blip or if summer is truly more dangerous.


WORK DEATHS

Fatal accidents investigated by the Labour Department in the year to June 30:

* Industrial/commercial: 26.

* Agriculture/horticulture: 17.

* Construction: 14.

* Forestry: 7.

* Extractive industries: 1.

* Total: 65.