Rate of serious workplace injuries, fatalities spiked in 2020
Despite a higher rate of serious injuries and fatalities, overall incidents declined during 2020.
Although the average number of days away from work for injured workers declined 60% between 2019 and 2020, and the total number of serious injuries and fatalities (SIF) dropped, the rate at which SIF incidents occurred increased significantly, according to analysis from ISN Software Corporation.
Overall, 2020 had an incident rate of 429 SIF incidents per 100,00 workers compared with a rate of 366 events per 100,000 workers in 2019 and a rate of 406 in 2018, according to ISN.
The drop in the number of SIF incidents during 2020 can partially be attributed to the pandemic, which caused organizations to slow and some industries to stop temporarily. This in turn reduced the chances of work-related injuries or illnesses, ISN reported.
Contact with equipment issues persist
For the third year running, contact with an object or equipment was the most common cause of a SIF event, accounting for 35% of these incidents. Falls, slips and trips; and overexertion and bodily reaction were the second and third most common causes of a serious injury or fatality.
Sprains, strains and tears were again the most common serious injuries, while fractures and dislocations; and cuts, lacerations, wounds and bruises ranked second and third, respectively.
The construction industry saw the most SIF incidents during 2020, accounting for 42% of these events as well as 48% of all fatalities. The administrative support, waste management and remediation fields also saw a high share of events, accounting for 29% of incidents and 13% of fatalities, according to ISN. Transportation and warehousing also saw an outsized number of fatalities, accounting for 11%.
Certain activities are characteristically correlated with higher rates of SIF. For example, contractors with employees that work at heights have a 21% higher rate of SIF incidents. Conversely, organizations that leverage things such as safe return-to-work plans have a 35% lower SIF rate. Other practices that typically lower SIF rates are working in a facility with process safety management and environmental programs in place, ISN reported.
Related: