Analysis of Fatalities Recorded by OSHA

Abstract

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has had the long-standing mandate to promulgate standards and to enforce them. Another mandate is for OSHA to collect injury and illness information. While vast amounts of information have been collected over the past two decades, only isolated studies have been conducted to evaluate that information. An independent study was conducted on selected injury data pertinent to the construction industry. This analysis focused on those areas in which the greatest numbers of violations have been recorded and those in which the greatest number of fatalities have occurred. This examination of the data revealed some interesting trends. Some of the findings confirmed the work of other research efforts and others appear to be unique to this study. The injury data can be useful to identify key areas that warrant special attention. Falls continue to be the major cause of fatalities. Safety efforts must be focused on fall protection if dramatic improvements in safety performance are to be made. Through the examination of the existing data it was concluded that the injury data is not consistently coded and this leads to less meaningful information.