INAIL: 13 fatal accidents involving students in the first nine months of 2026

Fatal accidents involving pupils and students of all ages and educational levels – including those taking part in ‘school-to-work’ training programmes – almost doubled in the first nine months of 2026. Whereas there were seven deaths in the first nine months of 2025, there were 13 fatal accidents in the same period of 2026. As regards accidents, three out of every four involved children under 15. The number of accident reports involving pupils of all age groups submitted to INAIL by September 2026 stood at 56,388 (compared with 52,849 in August), an increase of 5.3 per cent compared with the 53,563 recorded in the first nine months of 2025. Of these accident reports, 664 concerned pupils involved in ‘school-to-work’ training programmes; in August, the figure was 624. Overall, INAIL points out, accidents are down by 49 per cent compared with the same month in 2025. Lombardy tops the list with the highest number of reports (24 per cent of the national total; +8.9 per cent compared with 2025), followed by Emilia-Romagna (13 per cent; +13.6 per cent), Veneto (12 per cent; +3.5 per cent) and Piedmont (10 per cent; +2.4 per cent). Ninety-seven per cent of reported cases occurred during school activities, whilst 3 per cent occurred whilst travelling to and from school; in the latter case, these involved only pupils taking part in ‘school-to-work’ programmes.