More than one in four workplace fatalities occur whilst travelling to or from work, where safety depends on the roads

Enrico Vacca was 45 years old and played the violin in the orchestra at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari. On the morning of 4 September, he was struck by a lorry whilst cycling at the junction of Via Alberotanza and Corso De Gasperi, on his way back from a rehearsal, and died shortly afterwards in hospital. Local police are still piecing together the circumstances of the accident, but the Independent Observatory in Bologna, run by Carlo Soricelli, has already included him in its memorial as one of those killed whilst travelling to or from work. For the purposes of that tally – and also in the eyes of the law, should INAIL recognise the incident as an accident at work – he is considered to have died at work. 

Her name is among the thousand recorded by the Observatory since January this year. The threshold was exceeded on Tuesday, and today the daily newspaper Avvenire featured her story, pointing the finger at the culprit: cascading contracts. The story is the usual one, involving falls from scaffolding and overturned tractors. All true. Stories like that of Enrico Vacca, however, remain outside the narrative. According to provisional data from INAIL, in the first seven months of 2026 there were 422 reported work-related deaths, ten fewer than in the same period last year. Fatalities occurring whilst commuting – that is, on the journey between home and work – totalled 160, compared with 168 in 2025. This accounts for more than one in four deaths, a proportion that has remained almost unchanged since 2019. The Bologna Observatory, which uses broader criteria and also counts uninsured workers, records 197 commuting fatalities out of a total of 1,002.

It is a detail that tends to get lost in public debate. The tally of workplace fatalities, repeated with every new accident, lumps together those who fall from scaffolding and those who are hit by a car on a zebra crossing at seven in the morning. In the first case, the question is who was responsible for supervising the building site; in the second, the focus is more on the safety of the junction and the speed of the cars.

INAIL classifies deaths whilst travelling to or from work as work-related deaths because the law provides specific protection for them. Since 2000, accidents whilst travelling to or from work have been covered in the same way as those occurring on the premises, provided the route is the usual one and the use of a private car is necessary; for those travelling by bicycle, cover has always applied, since 2015. This insurance approach makes sense, but it has an impact on the debate: deaths with very different causes and remedies end up being included in the same total. The employer has little control over commuting journeys, because the obligations under the Consolidated Law on Safety generally (if transport is not provided by the company) end at the boundaries of the workplace. In the case of the violinist at the Petruzzelli Theatre, for example, inspections and the ‘points-based’ driving licence system on building sites would not have made any difference. Such deaths are prevented by other means: safer roads, junctions and cycle paths; traffic regulations; enforcement; and a public transport system that offers an alternative to the car for shift workers. Many of these measures fall not so much within the remit of the Ministry of Labour as that of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, which drafts the Highway Code and allocates funds for local public transport. Furthermore, responsibility is shared: enforcement is the remit of the police, whilst a large part of the road network falls under the jurisdiction of regions, provinces and local authorities. Rules and resources, however, stem from there, and the new Highway Code, which comes into force in December 2024, shows that the government can take action on that front.

Road safety figures show just how much of an ongoing issue this is. In 2025, according to Istat and Aci, there were 2,868 road deaths – 5.3 per cent fewer than the previous year – whilst the number of accidents rose by 2.2 per cent. Italy remains a long way from the European target of halving the number of fatalities and serious injuries by 2030. And the number of casualties is rising precisely amongst those travelling by bicycle, e-bike or scooter, and amongst lorry drivers: the modes of transport used by many commuters and those who work on the roads. ASAPS, the association of friends of the traffic police, is calling for a ‘Marshall Plan for enforcement’.

Then there are the workers for whom the road is their workplace. Soricelli has counted 136 lorry drivers who have died this year, often from a sudden illness whilst driving. The INAIL criteria are more restrictive, and the two figures differ. But they still point in the same direction: a significant part of workplace safety is determined on the road.

Next Tuesday, INAIL will present its annual report in the presence of the Minister for Labour, Marina Calderone. The discussion will focus on construction sites and contracts, and rightly so. However, for one in four workplace fatalities, the discussion should be moved to Porta Pia.