Background The burden of road traffic crashes (RTC) is commonly reported using fatalities and hospital admissions. Disruption to regular activities, such as work, is rarely reported, yet known to have significant economic and human costs. In the state of Victoria, Australia, people injured and unable to work due to RTC may have treatment and income support provided either through the RTC compensation system or through workers’ compensation. By examining data from both systems, this study sought to determine the rate (per 1 00 000 working population) of RTC injury resulting in work absence, and to quantify the amount of working time lost to RTC injury.

Methods Data from each compensation system were harmonised. Analysis included claims from RTCs that occurred between July 1 2003 and June 30 2013 by 15–65 year olds who received at least one day of income support. Fatalities and rejected claims were excluded. Time lost was calculated as the total weeks of income support. Non-parametric tests were performed to determine differences between exposure variables (e.g. male versus female).

Results There were 36 640 workers meeting inclusion criteria (average 305 cases per month; mean rate per month of 11.6 per 1 00 000 working population). A total of 1,121,863 lost working weeks were compensated, with a median of 10 weeks. Thirty-two percent of cases did not have a record of attending hospital. The lowest median duration of time loss was among those involved in a train or tram crash (2.9 weeks) and the highest among those with quadriplegia (142.2 weeks). Duration of income support was significantly different within age, sex, injury type, severity, crash type, and compensation system groups.

Conclusions Results showed that RTC injuries of all severities caused considerable work absence. Measures of work absence can complement existing measures of RTC burden.