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Vehicle safety

Last update March 2026

This chapter explains your health and safety obligations to workers who drive in the course of their work, and how to manage vehicle safety in your business.

What are your vehicle safety obligations?

You have a duty under health and safety legislation to ensure the safety of your workers while they are working for your business, including when they are:

  • required to drive or travel in a vehicle for work, e.g. truck drivers; and
  • exposed to vehicles in your workplace, e.g. a worker who walks through a loading dock with traffic.
Caution: Vehicles pose one of the greatest threats to people in the workplace, resulting in a significant number of deaths and injuries each year. Safe Work Australia reported that in 2024–2025, vehicle incidents accounted for the largest proportion of worker fatalities in Australia (42%, 79 fatalities).

Case Law: SafeWork NSW v State Asphalt Services Pty Ltd (2025)

In SafeWork NSW v State Asphalt Services Pty Ltd (2025), an asphalt-paving company was the principal contractor for the re-sheeting of a roadway. In May 2021, a truck was operating on the worksite in the ‘truck clean out’ area. When excess asphalt was being loaded onto the truck using a bobcat, a hose on the bobcat burst and required immediate repair. A worker began the repairs in the ‘truck clean out’ area and was not directed at any point to stop working. During the repair of the hose, there were communications to the effect that the truck was “good to go”. The truck then accelerated forwards, crushing and killing the worker.

The company was fined $450,000 in the NSW District Court after it pleaded guilty to failing to comply with its primary duty of care under section 19(1) of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011. 

Read more on this case here.

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