CWS 3.0: October 8, 2014

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Fatal injuries rise among contractors

The number of “contractors” in the US who died from fatal workplace injuries rose in 2013, according to preliminary numbers released last month by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. It defines a contractor as a worker employed by one firm but working at the behest of another that exercises responsibility for operations at the site where the worker was fatally injured.

In 2013, a total of 734 contractors died from fatal workplace injuries, according to the preliminary numbers. That’s up from 715 in 2012, according to the BLS. The agency began tracking fatal workplace injuries among contractors in 2011; during that year 542 contractors died in fatal workplace injuries.

Fatal workplace injuries among contractors represented 17 percent of all such injuries in 2013 — up from 15 percent in 2012.

Among fatal incidents among contractors:

  • 31 percent were falls to a lower level.
  • 18 percent were the result of being struck by an object or equipment.
  • 11 percent were cases of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle.
  • 7 percent were the result of exposure to electricity.

Fatally injured workers were most often contracted by:

  • A government entity, 20 percent
  • Private construction, 19 percent
  • Financial activities, 8 percent
  • Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, 8 percent
  • Manufacturing, 8 percent

Contractors in the construction and extraction occupations represented 367 of the 734 fatal workplace injuries. The next highest group outside of those two occupations was tractor-trailer truck drivers with 55 deaths.

Texas recorded the highest number of fatal workplace injuries for contractors at 108 in 2013, according to the preliminary numbers — down from 119 in 2012. California recorded the second-highest at 59, and Florida was third-highest with 57.

For more information on contractor fatal workplace injuries, click here (PDF).

The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration has had a focus on temporary worker safety. For more, click here.