Volume 35, Number 11, November 2000

SafetySavvy

Study Reveals Alarming Facts
on Job-Related Fatalities

According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 6,023 fatal work injuries occurred during 1999. Despite an increase in employment, the Bureau found that the number remained level between 1998 and 1999. Likewise, the causes of job-related deaths was similar in each year, with highway crashes ranking as the number-one cause of job-related fatalities. Ranking second in on-the-job fatalities was deaths caused by falling, which accounted for 617 of the 6,023 job-related deaths of the year. The Bureau reported that more than half of these falls were from a roof, ladder or scaffold, and more than half of the fatal falls occurred on construction sites.

New York Glass Association Earns 35 Percent Annual Dividend
Members of the New York Glass Association Workers’ Compensation Insurance Safety Group #547 have something to celebrate. The group met recently to declare a 35 percent dividend for the 1998-1999 group year. The group distributed checks totaling $541,642 to its members at its annual group meeting.

The plan is administered by the Risk Management Planning Group, which joined them in the announcement.

Falls Remain the Leading Cause of Construction-Related Deaths
A study recently conducted in Knoxville, Tenn., led to some alarming results. The University of Tennessee’s Construction Resources Analysis (CRA) unit for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) studied the causes of death in construction accidents in 1998. The unit discovered that 130 of the fatalities were caused when workers fell from roofs or other structures. These falls accounted for 130 of the 624 construction-related deaths occurring that year, the last year the data was recorded.

In an attempt to interpret the data, which falls in line similarly with the construction fatality data for 1991-1997, William R. Schriver, project director of the CRA and the study said there are increased chances for falling at construction sites, as opposed to fatalities caused by lifting, getting run over by vehicles, or being struck by falling objects.

“It seems like the very nature of these accidents are virtually unavoidable,” Schriver said. “There are so many opportunities for falls and electrocutions.”