November 24, 2004 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Work-related multiple-fatality incidents, 1995-99

Nearly three-fifths of work-related multiple-fatality incidents from 1995 to 1999 involved transportation.

[Chart data—TXT]

Most of the transportation-related incidents leading to more than one fatal injury were head-on highway collisions or incidents involving air and water vessels.

Assaults and violent acts accounted for about one-fifth of multiple-fatality incidents. The category includes 173 multiple homicides claiming 535 workers’ lives, plus 34 murder-suicides claiming 40 workers’ lives in addition to the assailants who committed suicide.

Fires and explosions and exposure to harmful substances or environments each accounted for less than one-tenth of multiple-fatality incidents. Falls accounted for just two percent of multiple-fatality incidents. 

These data are from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program. To learn more, see "Work-related multiple-fatality incidents," by Dino Drudi and Mark Zak, in the October 2004 issue of the Monthly Labor Review.