Australian External Cause Deaths While Engaged in Hunting Activities is a report into sporting-related fatalities compiled by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine for the Game Council of NSW. The period covered by the report runs from July 1, 2000, to August 1, 2010. The report aims to contribute to the development of firearms safety and hunter education, planning for compliance programs and the provision of accurate advice to the state government. The data was obtained through conducting a search of the National Coroners Information System (NCIS).
The results found that during the designated period, there were 1473 external cause deaths while the deceased was undertaking sporting-relating activities identified on the NCIS. Of these 1473 fatalities, 22 involved a target sport, with 13 of these deaths relating to an unintentional shooting incident. An additional 12 fatalities involving an unintentional shooting event during a leisure/hunting activity were identified where the activity had not been coded as occurring during a ‘sport’. De-identified case summary information for each of the shooting/hunting related deaths are provided in the report.