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Safety & Health Assessment & Research for Prevention (SHARP) — Research for Safe Work
Logging-related fatalities have decreased
November 5, 2009.
Washington State loggers and logging-related workers have made their industry safer and it shows.
According to a new FACE Fatal Facts report published by the Washington State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program, logging-related fatalities have steadily decreased over the previous decade.
The report shows that while the number of fatalities has decreased, 2 main causes of fatalities persist:
- Struck by an object incidents.
- Motor vehicle incidents.
In other words, the majority of fatal incidents involved logging and transportation industry workers being struck by trees and logs and killed in motor vehicle crashes. This report also presents fatal cases intended to illustrate common hazards and provide recommendations to help workers avoid injuries and stay alive.
Work-related fatalities have decreased but hazards remain
November 5, 2009.
Reports on work-related fatalities in construction and other industries for the third quarter of 2009 were recently published by the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program.
Fatal work-related incidents in Washington State decreased 80% in the construction industry and 26% overall compared with the third quarter of 2008. At this rate, 2009 is projected to experience the fewest number of workplace fatalities since FACE surveillance began in 1998.
While work-related fatalities were down overall, certain hazards continue to threaten the safety of Washington state workers. Motor vehicle incidents contributed to 28% of the work-related fatalities in the first 3 quarters of 2009. The highest number of work-related motor vehicle incidents occurred in the long distance trucking industry.
See FACE Fatal Facts to review fatal work-related motor vehicle incidents along with prevention tips for employees and employers.
Hazards related to agriculture and construction machinery
August 24, 2009.
In Washington State, agriculture and construction consistently rank among the most hazardous industries. The Washington FACE program has developed 2 new FACE Fatal Facts reports to highlight hazards in these industries.
The first report, Agriculture Fatalities in Washington State (538 KB PDF / 2 min), describes work-related fatalities in the main sectors of agriculture, by different types of agriculture, and by individual occupations. This report also shows how hazards vary across age and ethnic groups in agriculture.
The second report, Construction Machinery Fatalities (863 KB PDF / 2 min), focuses on hazards to operators and others working with machinery in the construction industry. This report describes the most hazardous sectors for construction machinery, types of machinery and incidents involved, and how these factors differ for machinery operators and workers on foot.
Both reports include a case series representing key hazards in each industry along with Washington FACE recommendations on how to identify and prevent future hazards.
Get Help Downloading Files (files open in a new window).Construction fatalities supplement
August 20, 2009.
Washington's FACE Program has published a new Construction Fatalities Supplement for 2008. The supplement characterizes construction-related fatalities by industry group, occupation, incident type, and age. It also identifies trends and compares construction-related fatality data for 1998-2007 with 2008.
