Can what you say keep you safe, I think not!

I enjoy hard data as it more often than not tells a very compelling story. In an effort to help employers and employees understand the causes of fatal injuries in the workplace, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently analyzed their trend data and published a summary based on its data collected from 1992 to 2011.
BLS reported:

• A total of 115,091 workers were killed in the United States from injuries incurred while on the job during 1992 to 2011.
• In comparison, in 1994, annual fatalities ranged from a high of 6,632 to a low of 4,551 in 2009.  These counts translate to an average of one worker fatality every 79 minutes in 1994, compared with an average of one every 115 minutes in 2009.
• The most common event leading to a fatal occupational injury in both 1992 and 2011 was a roadway incident. Roadway incidents accounted for 19 percent of all occupational fatalities in 1992 and 24 percent in 2011.
• Falls increased as a percentage of all fatalities, rising from 8 percent in 1992 to 12 percent in 2011.
• Homicide accounted for 17 percent of all work fatalities in 1992 and 10 percent in 2011.
• Contact with electricity accounted for 5 percent of fatalities in 1992 and 4 percent in 2011.

The most startling information here is the simple fact that a worker dies on the job in the United States every 115 minutes or just shy of 2hrs. So 4 workers die on each 8hr shift & someone has to inform the families & co-workers.

The workers above were sons/daughters/fathers/mothers/grandparents/friends and I’m confident that all of them said at some point they were safe workers, that they knew what they were doing. We are what we do, not what we say we’ll do. So I ask; What are you going to actually do at work to ensure you or a co-worker do not become a fatal statistic?