Sixty people in Saskatchewan died last year as a result of workplace related accidents and illnesses.
That’s the highest number of fatalities in more than 30 years.
“One fatality is too many,” said David Eberle, chair of the board. “Sixty is 60 times too many…what each one of us should be talking about is what we can do to make certain this never happens again.”
Forty-six of the deaths are related to accidents and other events that happened in 2012, and 14 are from earlier years.
Nineteen of the deaths were from an occupational disease – such as exposure to toxic materials that may have taken place decades earlier.
The highest number of people killed was in construction, where 14 died. Another 10 workers died in automobile accidents, and 15 were from heart attacks.
The WCB says it has managed to reduce the injury rate in the province by 44 per cent since 2002. However, the high number of fatalities shows there is still much work to be done.
