West Virginia Workplace Fatalities, 2006 (PDF)

Fatal work injuries totaled 79 in 2006 for West Virginia, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that the increase was largely the result of an uptick in the number of occupational fatalities from explosions and fires, which pushed the 2006 count to its highest level since the fatality census was first conducted in 1992.  A low of 40 fatalities, about half the number of deaths that occurred in 2006, had been reached only four years earlier in 2002.  (See chart A.)  The most frequent types of workplace fatalities in 2006 were highway crashes (16), explosions (13), and fires--unintended or uncontrolled (9); these 3 types of events¹ accounted for almost one-half of all work-related deaths in the State.

Chart A.  Total workplace fatalities in West Virginia, 1992-2006

Highway crashes led all events as the most frequent type of on-the-job fatalities for both the nation and the State.  The number of fatal work injuries from highway crashes in West Virginia changed little over the year, from 15 in 2005 to 16 in 2006.  (See table A.)  Work-related deaths from highway crashes accounted for 20 percent of West Virginia’s and 23 percent of the United States’ total in 2006.

Nearly all of the 13 work-related fatalities due to explosions in West Virginia were the result of the Sago Mine disaster.  Explosions accounted for 16 percent of all workplace deaths in West Virginia, but just 2 percent of the Unites States’ total in 2006. It should be noted, however, that Sago accounted for about only one-half of the 23 fatalities that occurred in the mining industry in the State in 2006. 

The nine fatalities resulting from fires--unintended or uncontrolled--accounted for 11 percent of West Virginia’s workplace deaths.  Nationally, this event accounted for 2 percent of the total.

Other frequent events of workplace fatalities in West Virginia in 2006 were being struck by objects (7), falls to a lower level (7), and nonhighway incidents (7).  All together, these three events were responsible for 27 percent of the fatal work injuries in the State.  (See table 1.)

Nationwide, a total of 5,703 fatal work injuries were reported in 2006, down slightly from the revised total of 5,734 fatal work injuries recorded in 2005.  The count for 2006 was the third lowest annual total recorded by the fatality census, which has been conducted yearly since 1992.  (See table A.)  The 2006 count of 1,329 fatal highway crashes was the lowest annual total since 1993.  Highway crashes in 2006 accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries and continued to lead all other events in the frequency of on-the-job fatalities.  Fatal work injuries involving falls to a lower level increased 10 percent in 2006 after a sharp decrease in 2005.  The 2006 total of 728 fatal falls to a lower level was the second highest since the fatality census began.  The number of workers who were fatally injured from being struck by objects was lower in 2006, after increasing for the last three years.  The 583 fatalities resulting from being struck by objects in 2006 represented a 4-percent decline from the 2005 total.

Workplace homicides decreased 9 percent to 516 in 2006, the lowest annual total ever reported by the fatality census.  Overall, workplace homicides have decreased more than 50 percent from the series high in 1994.

Key characteristics of workplace fatalities in West Virginia in 2006:

• Men accounted for 95 percent (75) of the work-related fatalities in the State. Transportation incidents, which include highway, nonhighway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail fatalities, accounted for 32 percent of these deaths and fires and explosions made up 29 percent.  Four women were fatally injured on the job.  (See table 2.) 

• Ninety-four percent of those who died from a workplace injury in West Virginia were white, non-Hispanic (74) and 4 percent were black, non-Hispanic (3).  The most frequent causes of death for white, non-Hispanics were transportation incidents (23) and fires and explosions (22).  (See table 2.)

• Workers 25-54 years old--the prime working age group--made up 72 percent of the State’s work-related fatalities in 2006 with 57 deaths; this was higher than the proportion of worker deaths for this age group at the national level, 64 percent.  (See table 2.)

• Ninety-one percent of workers killed on the job worked for wages and salaries, the rest were self-employed.  The leading causes of death for wage and salary workers were transportation incidents (22) and fires and explosions (21).  Transportation incidents accounted for more than half of the deaths among self-employed workers.  (See table 2.)

• Three industry sectors made up 63 percent of the workplace fatalities in West Virginia¾mining recorded 23 deaths, construction, 15, and transportation and warehousing, 12.  Fires and explosions accounted for the largest number of fatal occupational injuries in both mining and construction, while in the transportation and warehousing sector, transportation incidents were the most frequent event.  (See table 3.) 

• The Sago mining disaster coupled with other fatal mine incidents in West Virginia pushed work-related fatalities in coal mining up from 5 in 2005 to 23 in 2006, more than a four-fold increase. 

• Workers in construction and extraction occupations had the highest number of fatalities at 35, followed by those in transportation and material moving occupations with 19; combined, these two occupational groups accounted for 68 percent of all fatal work injuries in the State.  Fires and explosions were the most frequent type of fatal injury in the construction and extraction occupations while in the transportation and material moving occupations, transportation incidents were the most frequent event.  (See table 4.)

Additional Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data are available on the BLS Internet site at http://www.bls.gov/iif/.  Data can be accessed in two ways, through Create Customized Tables, which allows quick access to particular items, or via the special request FTP service, which allows access to an extensive collection of flat text files.  For personal assistance or further information on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.  Information on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and other programs and surveys are available on our Web site at http://www.bls.gov/ro3/.

Technical Notes

Background of the program

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, part of the BLS occupational safety and health statistics program, compiles a count of all fatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. in each calendar year.  The program uses diverse State and Federal data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries.  Information about each workplace fatality (industry, occupation, and other worker characteristics; equipment being used; and circumstances of the event) is obtained by cross-referencing source documents, such as death certificates, workers’ compensation records, news accounts, and reports to Federal and State agencies.  This method assures counts are as complete and accurate as possible.

Definitions

For a fatality to be included in the census, the decedent must have been employed (that is working for pay, compensation, or profit) at the time of the event, engaged in a legal work activity, or present at the site of the incident as a requirement of his or her job.  Fatalities to volunteer and unpaid family workers who perform the same duties and functions as paid workers are also included in the counts.  These criteria are generally broader than those used by Federal and State agencies administering specific laws and regulations.  (Fatalities that occur during a person's normal commute to or from work are excluded from the census counts.)

Data presented in this release include deaths occurring in 2006 that resulted from traumatic occupational injuries.  An injury is defined as any wound or damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to energy, such as heat, electricity, or impact from a crash or fall, or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen caused by a specific event or incident within a single workday or shift.  Included are open wounds, intracranial and internal injuries, heatstroke, hypothermia, asphyxiation, acute poisonings resulting from short-term exposures limited to the worker's shift, suicides and homicides, and work injuries listed as underlying or contributory causes of death.

Information on work-related fatal illnesses is not reported in the BLS census and is excluded from the attached tables because the latency period of many occupational illnesses and the difficulty of linking illnesses to work exposures make identification of a universe problematic.

Measurement techniques and limitations

Data for the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries are compiled from various Federal, State, and local administrative sources--including death certificates, workers' compensation reports and claims, reports to various regulatory agencies, medical examiner reports, and police reports--as well as news and other non-governmental reports.  Diverse sources are used because studies have shown that no single source captures all job-related fatalities.  Source documents are matched so that each fatality is counted only once.  To ensure that a fatality occurred while the decedent was at work, information is verified from two or more independent source documents or from a source document and a follow-up questionnaire.  Approximately 30 data elements are collected, coded, and tabulated, including information about the worker, the fatal incident, and the machinery or equipment involved.

Federal/State agency coverage

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries includes data for all fatal work injuries, whether the decedent was working in a job covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or other Federal or State agencies or was outside the scope of regulatory coverage.  Thus, any comparison between the BLS fatality census counts and those released by other agencies should take into account the different coverage requirements and definitions being used by each agency.

Several Federal and State agencies have jurisdiction over workplace safety and health. OSHA and affiliated agencies in States with approved safety programs cover the largest portion of the nation's workers.  However, injuries and illnesses occurring in certain industries or activities, such as coal, metal, and nonmetal mining and highway, water, rail, and air transportation, are excluded from OSHA coverage because they are covered by other Federal agencies, such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration and various agencies within the Department of Transportation.

Fatalities occurring among several other groups of workers are generally not covered by any Federal or State agencies. These groups include self-employed and unpaid family workers, which accounted for about 18 percent of the fatalities; laborers on small farms, accounting for about 1 percent of the fatalities; and State and local government employees in States without OSHA-approved safety programs, which accounted for about 4 percent.  (Approximately one-half of the States have approved OSHA safety programs, which cover State and local government employees.)

Acknowledgments

BLS thanks the West Virginia Department of Labor for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries.  BLS also appreciates the efforts of all Federal, State, local, and private sector agencies that submitted source documents used to identify fatal work injuries.  Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; the Employment Standards Administration (Federal Employees' Compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers' divisions); the Department of Energy; State vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; State departments of health, labor and industries, and workers' compensation agencies; State and local police departments; and State farm bureaus.