This represents 15% of hospitalised injuries and 0.9% of injury deaths. Males were particularly at risk, with a hospitalisation rate 2.7 times as high as females.
Deaths caused by contact with objects are comparatively rare, with just 120 deaths recorded in 2019–20.
Contact with objects (also known as Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces) includes harmful contact with every-day or industrial objects such as knives, tools, machines and sports equipment. It also includes unintentional injuries caused by guns and non-heat-related injuries caused by explosions. (For heat-related injuries, see Thermal causes).
This chapter covers accidental contact with objects. Intentional injuries are included under Intentional self-harm and suicide and Assault and homicide.
The most common causes of hospitalised injury due to exposure to inanimate mechanical forces fall under the broad categories listed in Table 1.
Table 1: Causes of hospitalisation due to contact with objects, 2019–20
Cause
|
Hospitalisations
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Contact with blunt objects such as doors, walls, trees, rocks, and sporting equipment (W20–22)
|
20,550
|
27
|
81
|
Contact with knives, glass, and other sharp objects (W25–26)
|
19,533
|
25
|
77
|
Contact with tools or machinery (W27–31)
|
15,909
|
21
|
62
|
Other or unspecified (W23–24, W32, W34–46, W49)
|
20,979
|
27
|
82
|
Total
|
76,971
|
100
|
301
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
- Totals may not equal the sum of the rows due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10-AM (11th edition) external cause codes for hospitalisations (ACCD 2019).
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
For more detail, see Data tables B15–16.
The most common cause of injury death due to exposure to inanimate mechanical forces was contact with blunt objects such as doors, trees, rocks and sporting equipment (43%) (Table 2).
Table 2: Causes of death due to contact with objects, 2019–20
Cause
|
Deaths
|
%
|
Rate
(per 100,000)
|
Contact with blunt objects such as doors, walls, trees, rocks, and sporting equipment (W20–22)
|
51
|
43
|
0.2
|
Contact with tools or machinery (W27–31)
|
20
|
17
|
0.1
|
Caught, crushed, jammed or pinched in or between objects (W23)
|
15
|
13
|
0.1
|
Contact with knives, glass, and other sharp objects (W25–26)
|
14
|
12
|
0.1
|
Other or unspecified (W24, W32–W49)
|
20
|
17
|
0.1
|
Total
|
120
|
100
|
0.5
|
Notes
- Rates are crude per 100,000 population, calculated using estimated resident population as at 31 December of the relevant year.
- Totals may not equal the sum of the rows due to rounding.
- Codes in brackets refer to the ICD-10 external cause codes for hospitalisations (WHO 2011).
Source: AIHW National Mortality Database.
For more detail, see Data tables E22–24.
Hospital admissions due to contact with objects appear to have a minimal seasonal pattern, with a slight increase in injuries from November through to March.
In March 2020 the first lockdowns and social distancing measures associated with COVID-19 interrupted the usual activity of Australians. The restrictions to movement and activity coincide with a drop in admissions due to injuries caused by contact with objects when compared to those months in previous years, however admissions then rebounded and were above past years in June (Figure 1).
See the interactive COVID-19 display for data and further discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on hospital admissions.

Notes
1. Months have been standardised to 31 days.
2. A scale up factor has been applied to June admissions to account for cases not yet separated.
Source: AIHW National Hospital Morbidity Database.
The age-standardised rate of hospitalisations due to contact with objects in 2019–20 was the same as a year earlier.
Over the period from 2009–10 to 2016–17 there was an average annual increase of 1.3%. There is a break in the time series for hospitalisations between 2016–17 and 2017–18 due to a change in data collection methods (see the Technical notes for details).
For deaths due to contact with objects the average annual change in rate between 2010–11 and 2019–20 was 0.8%.