| Popis: |
Forest work is considered one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. The present article compares fatal accidents occurring at professional and non-professional work in terms of the amount of removals. The data covering the years from 1980 to 2004 are dealt with by 5-year periods. For Slovenia and Austria, all five periods are compared, for Switzerland four, whereas for Germany, Finland, Sweden and Croatia fewer periods are dealt with. The accident frequency is expressed in the number of fatalities per 1 million m3 of gross removals. Absolutely the highest frequency (9.52) was established at non-professional work in Slovenia during the period 1990–1994, the lowest (0.03) at professional work in Sweden (2000–2004) and Finland (1995–1999). In the last period (2000–2004), the highest number of fatal accidents at professional work was recorded in Switzerland (1.00). At non-professional work, on the other hand, the highest number of fatalities occurred in Slovenia (7.27), which is almost five times as many as in Austria and Switzerland. In all countries, however, a downward trend of fatal accident frequency has been noted. The most successful, as far as total number of fatalities is concerned, is Sweden. In Switzerland and Austria, the accident frequency has been cut by half, whereas in Slovenia no progress has been noted in this respect. The number of fatalities is an important indicator of mastering the risks during forest work as well as of the efficiency and integrity of measures implemented by separate countries in their attempts to provide for safety at forest work. |
