A transdisciplinary approach to reducing workplace injury through the use of coronial reports

The concept of the engineering profession working with the Coroner in an attempt to reduce the rate of injury in the workplace is presented. The paper briefly looks at the role of both the engineering profession and the coroner in relation to safety. The output of the coroner – findings and recommendations following death – is considered as an input to engineering design. Two uses of the coronial information are suggested. Those are case studies in undergraduate education, and the development of publicly accessible databases identifying root causes of workplace accidents. Current work in both areas is presented. All this is presented with the background of a transdisciplinary approach.