Most people go off to work every day without giving a second thought as to whether they are going to return home safely that evening. They trust laws that have put safety measures in place and assume that proper procedures are being followed. However, workplace injuries do occasionally occur and unfortunately sometimes there are even deaths. Just exactly how common are workplace fatalities?
Forbes recently reported that according to data just released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018 there were 5,250 people who died as a result of workplace accidents. The majority of these deaths were attributed to vehicular accidents while working and account for 40% of the total statistic. However, throughout the past twelve years, the overall number of workplace fatalities has been slowly declining. This can be attributed to transportation improvements such as developments in roadway design and advances in vehicular safety features.
Other causes of workplace fatalities are largely linked to the industry in which someone works. The second major reason for such deaths last year resulted from violence or injuries credited to either humans or animals. Not surprisingly, states with a large percentage of jobs in the mining, quarrying or oil and gas industry had a greater rate of deaths. The deadliest occupation fell into the category of “Farming, fishing and forestry.” And notably, there has been a significant increase in suicide at work, jumping from 250 workplace suicides in 2011 to 304 suicides just seven years later.
