According to numerous national and international studies, around 35% of workplace incidents, injuries and fatalities have causal factors related to design. This emphasises the opportunity for engineers and designers to prevent injury through deliberate interventions to address safety during the design stage.

In 2013, the Engineers Australia, Engineered Safety Group was created, comprising engineering, education and safety professionals from varied backgrounds. With the aim of preventing workplace injuries related to design, the group works to discuss, enhance, test and promote a set of leading practice Safety in Design tools and techniques that can be applied across engineering disciplines and industries.

In this presentation, Mike Hurd, inaugurator and former chair of the Engineered Safety Group, will present on the learnings of the group, the key elements of safe design, and how the group continues to promote safe design in academia and industry.