Maryland Workplace Fatalities, 2006 (PDF)

Fatal work injuries in Maryland totaled 105 in 2006, up 10 from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Sheila Watkins noted that the 2006 count was the highest ever recorded in Maryland by the fatality census, which has been conducted yearly since 1992. (See chart A.) The most frequent types of workplace fatalities in 2006 were homicides (21), highway crashes (20), and falls to a lower level (18); these three types of events¹ accounted for 56 percent of the deaths in the State.

Chart A. Total workplace fatalities in Maryland, 1992-2006

Homicides led all events as the most frequent type of on-the-job fatalities for the State in 2006. The number of workplace homicides in Maryland increased from 15 in 2005 to 21 in 2006. (See table A.) Homicides accounted for 20 percent of fatal work injuries in Maryland and 9 percent of the work-related fatalities in the nation in 2006.

Fatal work injuries due to highway crashes, the most frequent fatal event in the State in 2005 with 18 fatalities, numbered 20 in 2006, almost matching the number of homicides. Highway crashes, or highway accidents as it is officially titled, accounted for 19 percent of Maryland’s and 23 percent of the nation’s occupational fatalities in 2006.

The number of fatalities resulting from falls to a lower level in Maryland in 2006 matched the series high of 18 recorded in 2000. Work-related fatalities from falls to a lower level in 2006 accounted for 17 percent of workplace deaths in Maryland; in the United States, this event accounted for 13 percent of the total.

Other frequent types of fatal work-related events in the State in 2006 were pedestrian incidents (8) and aircraft incidents (5). (See table 1.) The number of workplace fatalities due to pedestrian incidents (such as being struck by a vehicle) had reached a series high of 10 in 2005. Combined, deaths resulting from pedestrian incidents and aircraft incidents were responsible for 12 percent of the fatal work injuries in Maryland in 2006.

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 1,329 fatal highway crashes in 2006 was the lowest annual count 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 Maryland in 2006

• Men accounted for 91 percent (96) of the work-related fatalities in the State. Transportation incidents, which include highway, nonhighway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail, accounted for 36 percent of these deaths. Nine women were fatally injured on the job, with four of these deaths resulting from transportation incidents. (See table 2.)

• Fifty-three percent of those who died from a workplace injury in Maryland were white, non-Hispanic (56); 22 percent were black, non-Hispanic (23); 20 percent were Hispanic or Latino (21); and 3 percent were Asian (3). The most frequent cause of death for white, non-Hispanic workers was transportation incidents, while for black, non-Hispanic workers, assaults and violent acts was the most prevalent. Among Hispanic or Latino workers, transportation incidents and falls were the most frequent types of workplace fatalities, with both events accounting for 29 percent, or six deaths, each. (See table 2.)

• Workers 25-54 years old--the prime working age group--made up 63 percent of the State's work-related fatalities in 2006; this was similar to the proportion of worker deaths for this age group at the national level, 64 percent. (See table 2.)

• Seventy-three percent of workers killed on the job worked for wages and salaries, the rest were self-employed. The leading cause of death for wage and salary workers was transportation incidents (30). Assaults and violent acts (12) was the most frequent type of fatal injury among the self-employed workers. (See table 2.)

• Four industry sectors made up 65 percent of the workplace fatalities in Maryland--construction (34 fatalities); administrative and support and waste management and remediation services (14); transportation and warehousing and government (10 each). Falls accounted for the largest number of fatal occupational injuries in construction, while deaths in both the administrative and support and waste management and remediation services and transportation and warehousing were mainly the result of transportation incidents. In the government sector, no one event dominated, with transportation incidents, assaults and violent acts, and falls accounting for 3 fatalities each. (See table 3.)

• Construction and extraction occupations had the highest number of fatalities at 27, followed by transportation and material moving occupations with 22; combined, these two occupational groups accounted for 47 percent of all fatalities in Maryland. Falls was the most frequent type of fatal injury in construction and extraction while in transportation and material moving, transportation incidents was the most frequent event (accounting for nearly all of the workplace fatalities for this occupation). (See table 4.)

• Among Maryland’s metropolitan areas, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va., registered the highest number of work-related fatalities at 68, followed by Baltimore-Towson, Md., at 58. (See chart 1.)

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 Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation 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.