Informant38

Job Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities

More than 236,800 workers can now say that their lives have been saved since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. Unfortunately, too many workers remain at risk. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 6,023 workplace deaths due to traumatic injuries in 1999, virtually the same number of deaths as in 1998, when 6,026 workplace deaths were reported. [1] Alaska led the country with the highest fatality rate (15.6/100,000); the lowest state fatality rate (2.3/ 100,000) was found in Connecticut. These statistics do not include deaths from occupational diseases, which claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers each year.
Transportation incidents, in particular highway crashes, continue to be the leading cause of workplace deaths, responsible for 2,613 or 43 percent of all fatalities in 1999. Highway crashes account for one- fourth of the fatal work injury total (1,491) and are at the highest level since the BLS fatality census began in 1992. Contact with objects and equipment claimed the lives of 1,029 workers in 1999. The construction industry reported the largest number of workplace fatalities, with 1,190 work-related deaths (20 percent of all fatalities). This is an increase from the number of deaths in the construction industry the previous year. The occupations at greatest risk of work-related fatalities, based on the number of fatalities per 100,000 employed, were fishers (162.5/100,000), timber cutters (129.5/100,000) and sailors and deckhands (93.8/100,000).

The number of workplace homicides and electrocutions declined by 10 percent and 17 percent respectively in 1999. There was an 8 percent increase in the number of fatalities resulting from contact with objects and equipment. The leading events that caused fatalities among women were highway related incidents and homicide; for men they were highway related incidents and falls.

On average, 17 workers were fatally injured each day during 1999. Eighty-three percent of fatally injured workers died the day of the incident. There were 235 multiple-fatality incidents, which resulted in 617 job- related deaths.