Background Road traffic injuries are decreasing in the last decades in Spain. However, the percentage of traffic-related occupational injuries was increasingly rising in relation to the total occupational injuries. The aims of this study were (1) to analyse the incidence rate of fatal work-related road traffic injuries between 2000 and 2013; and (2) to assess the effect of the economic recession.

Methods Before-after evaluation study with time-series. Annual incidence rates of work-related road traffic injuries were calculated by sex, age, and reason of travelling. Using binomial regression, and adjusting by age, the annual percentage change and its 95% confidence interval was estimated for the period 2000–2013 as a whole, and also for the periods before the economic recession (2000–2007) and during the economic recession (2008–2013).

Results Fatal work-related road traffic injuries incidence rates decreased from 53.7 in 2000 to 11.2 per 1,000,000 workers in 2013. This trend was found in both, men and women, and either during working or commuting hours. Moreover, there was no significant change in the reduction of this trend after the start of the economic recession in 2008.

Conclusions These results show a significant decline of fatal work-related road traffic injuries in the whole time period studied, without an effect of the economic recession on this decline