**3. Results**

### *3.1. Child Work-Related Fatal Injuries*

Of the 1335 injury deaths of New Zealand children less than 15 years of age from 1999 through 2014, 206 (15%) were classified as being work-related. This equates to an average of 13 deaths per year, or 1.54 deaths per 100,000 children per year (Table 1). The overwhelming majority (91%) of these WRFI were bystanders to another person's work activity, with a slightly higher proportion of these fatalities occurring in workplaces (*n* = 93) compared with the work-traffic setting (*n* = 84). Of the few (*n* = 9) workers identified, one was aged 5–9 years and the remainder aged 10–14 years. A small number of deaths were children in rural workplaces.

### *3.2. Multiple Fatality Incidents*

Among the 206 children who were fatally injured, 160 (78%) were involved in single fatality incidents, and 46 (22%) were involved in multiple fatality incidents, giving a total of 193 fatal incidents over the

16-year study period. Of the 46 multiple fatality incidents, 25 (54%) incidents included more than one child aged 0–14, primarily involving two child fatalities; however, one incident involved three.


**Table 1.** Work circumstance of work-related fatal injuries to children (0–14 years), New Zealand, 1999–2014.

Abbreviations: Rate—incidence rate per 100,000 person years, 95% CI—95% Confidence Interval.

*3.3. Socio-Demographic Characteristics*

Regardless of work-related injury setting, it was more common for males (64%) to be fatally injured than females (36%), with the incidence of WRFI higher than that for females (1.9, 95% CI 1.5, 2.1 compared with 1.1, 95% CI 0.8, 1.3) (Table 2). The burden of child WRFI was split fairly evenly across the three age groups. Younger children aged 0–4 years were more commonly involved in workplace deaths (43%), while older children were slightly more likely to have sustained work injuries in the work-tra ffic setting (38% of 10–14 years). The incident rate was highest in 0–4 year-olds with 1.7 (95% CI 1.3, 2.1) deaths per 100,000 person years.

**Table 2.** Socio-demographic characteristics by location of injury, work-related fatalities to children (0–14 years), New Zealand, 1999–2014.


Confidence Interval.

The greatest number of child WRFI was observed in children of European ethnicity, followed by those of Maori ethnicity. However, the rate of child WRFI was highest amongs<sup>t</sup> M ¯ aori children (1.9 per ¯

100,00 person years, 95% CI 1.1, 2.5) followed by those of European ethnicity (1.6, 95% CI 1.3, 1.9) Among deaths of Maori children, most occurred in work-tra ¯ ffic settings, while among those of European ethnicity the majority of deaths occurred in the workplace. There were no clear di fferences observed by level of deprivation other than the rate for the most deprived group of children (NZ Dep 9–10) being the highest.

### *3.4. Incident and Injury Characteristics*

Over one third of all child work-related injury deaths occurred in the major industry grouping of agriculture, forestry and fishing (37%), almost exclusively involving agriculture (Table 3). Agriculture was the largest single industry group across all child age groups, with the largest contribution occurring in children under five years of age (40%). One in five child WRFI involved the 'transport, postal and warehousing' major sector (20%), predominantly in the transport sector.


**Table 3.** Industry, location, activity and mechanism of work-related fatal injuries to children (0–14 years), New Zealand, 1999–2014.

The most common incident locations of child WRFI were public roads (45%) and farms (35%). For those under five years of age, WRFI were more commonly sustained on farms (40%) while children aged 5–14 years were more likely to be fatally injured on public roads (51% in 5–9 years, 53% in 10–14 years). Fatalities occurring in industrial/construction settings were rare. Of the 71 children who sustained WRFI on farms, the majority normally resided on the farm where the incident occurred or in surrounding rural areas (*n* = 59, 83%). Children fatally injured while visiting farms were older (> 5 years) and most commonly operating farm vehicles, such as quad bikes.

Overall, the most common activities at the time of the WRFI were being transported as a passenger in, or on, a vehicle (34%), followed by recreation/playing (26%). It was more common for children under five years of age to be fatally injured while engaged in recreation/playing (40%) activities than it was for older children. Almost 20% of older children (10–14 years) were fatally injured while driving vehicles.

The mechanism of injury most commonly involved in child WRFI was vehicle crashes (34%) and being hit by moving objects (32%) with these incidents occurring on- or o ff-road. Slightly more children under five years of age were fatally injured when hit by a moving object compared with vehicle crashes, while the opposite pattern was observed for older children.
