Catastrophic Injury Information Based on Events and Exposures in the Workplace

1.5 Events/Exposures
· Transportation related incidents (including land, water and air transport incidents) led all event categories. During the nine-year period, 221 workers (35% of fatalities) died from work-related transportation incidents. Within this category, highway motor vehicle incidents and water vehicle incidents were the most frequent, resulting in 84 and 51 fatalities respectively. Forty workers were struck by vehicles and 24 died in aircraft crashes.

· Falls, the second leading event category, accounted for one-fifth (133 fatalities, 21%) of all fatal occupational injuries. Within this category, fall to lower levels was the single leading event; sixty percent (71 fatalities) of the falls to lower levels occurred in the construction industry division.

· Assaults and Violent Acts was the third leading event category, accounting for 115 fatalities (18%). Homicide, which is the major single event within this category and the third leading event overall, claimed a total of 82 workers’ lives, while suicides and animal attacks accounted for 33 fatalities. In more than two-thirds (68%) of the homicides, firearms were used as a means of assault. Robbery was the primary circumstance in workplace homicides for which information about circumstance was available; 25 out of 51 (49%) of the cases occurred during robbery. 

· Contact with objects accounted for the fatalities of 88 workers (14%). Twenty-four victims died after being struck by falling objects such as trees and electrical poles. Another 21 workers died when they were caught in running equipment or machinery. About 61% (54 fatalities) of the 88 fatalities due to contact with objects occurred in the Construction, Manufacturing and Agriculture industries, whereas only 35% of all fatalities occurred in these industries. 

· Fifty workers (8%) died from Exposure to Harmful Substances and Environments at their workplaces. Half (25) of them were electrocuted, 15 died from inhaling harmful substances, and 8 died from oxygen deficiency.

· Fires and Explosion events fatally injured 25 workers (4%) during the nine-year period. Fire incidents claimed the lives of 17 workers while 7 workers died from explosions. Ten victims of fire incidents were fire fighters who died in the line of duty due to an injury; six of them died in a single incident.

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