Bureau of Labor Statistics
General Information: (312) 353-1880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact: Paul LaPorte Tuesday, October 30, 2007
(312) 353-1138
http://www.bls.gov/ro5 Data Tables MICHIGAN WORKPLACE FATALITIES, 2006 Fatal work injuries in Michigan totaled 155 in 2006, an increase of 45 from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that Michigan's fatalities had declined to 110 in 2005, a series low for the State. (The fatality census has been conducted annually since 1992). This year's 41-percent rise was spread across several categories, including highway incidents which accounted for almost a quarter of the increase in fatalities. (See table A.) Some of the other events that showed notable increases included self- inflicted injuries, being struck by a vehicle, being struck by an object, and electrocutions. The most frequent types of workplace fatalities in Michigan in 2006 were highway incidents (referred to here as highway crashes, but including non-collision incidents as well) (31), falls to a lower level (21), being struck by an object (19), and homicides (11). Taken together, these four events 1/ accounted for over half of the workplace fatalities in the State. The number of fatalities from highway crashes in the State rose by 11 from the 20 recorded in 2005. This was the largest number of work-related deaths due to highway crashes since 1999 when 37 were reported. Highway crashes accounted for 20 percent of Michigan's fatal work injuries in 2006. Nationally, highway crashes were also the most frequent event leading to workplace fatalities, accounting for 23 percent of workplace fatalities in 2006. There were 21 fatal work injuries from falls to a lower level in the State in 2006, an increase of 4 from the previous year. This was the fourth time since the inception of the fatality census that on- the-job deaths from falls to a lower level exceeded 20 cases. Work- related deaths involving falls to a lower level accounted for 14 percent of workplace fatalities in Michigan and 13 percent nationally in 2006. Nineteen workers in Michigan were fatally injured from being struck by an object in 2006, up 6 cases over the year. This type of fatal work-related injury accounted for 12 percent of the State's and 10 percent of the nation's occupational fatalities in 2006. On-the-job deaths from homicides declined by 3 cases in the State in 2006, after declining by 8 in 2005. A total of 11 workplace homicides occurred in 2006, a series low for this event. The highest number of workplace homicides, 39, occurred in 1994. (See table A.) In 2006, homicides accounted for 7 percent of the fatally injured in Michigan and 9 percent nationwide. Other work-related fatalities in Michigan in 2006 included pedestrians being struck by a vehicle or mobile equipment (10); electrocutions (9); aircraft incidents and self-inflicted injuries (8 each); nonhighway accidents, except rail, air, water, and being caught in or compressed by equipment or objects (7, each); and exposure to caustic, noxious, or allergenic substances (6). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/ Fatal events are categorized into several major groupings including transportation incidents, assaults and violent acts, and falls. These major groups are further broken down into more detailed groups. For example, transportation incidents includes highway incidents and aircraft incidents; assaults and violent acts includes homicides and suicides; and falls includes falls to a lower level (as from a roof or ladder) and falls on the same level (as from grease on a floor or ice on a sidewalk). Table A. Fatal occupational injuries in Michigan by selected event groups, 1992-2006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Total | Highway | Falls to | Struck | Year |fatali- | crashes | lower level | by object | Homicides | ties |----------------------------------------------------------- | |Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1992 143 20 14 14 10 9 6 26 18 1993 160 33 21 8 5 18 11 25 16 1994 180 34 19 10 6 24 13 39 22 1995 149 39 26 12 8 16 11 23 15 1996 155 39 25 20 13 14 9 29 19 1997 174 21 12 21 12 13 7 26 15 1998 179 30 17 16 9 14 8 22 12 1999 182 37 20 22 12 11 6 20 11 2000 156 24 15 17 11 25 16 13 8 2001 175 28 16 21 12 15 9 24 14 2002 152 26 17 18 12 17 11 22 14 2003 152 27 18 13 9 19 13 14 9 2004 127 19 15 12 10 10 8 22 17 2005 110 20 18 17 15 13 12 14 13 2006 155 31 20 21 14 19 12 11 7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 B.) The 1,329 fatal highway crashes in 2006 was the lowest annual count 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. Table B. Fatal occupational injuries in the United States by selected event groups, 1992-2006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Total | Highway | Falls to | Struck | Year |fatali- | crashes | lower level | by object | Homicides | ties |----------------------------------------------------------- | |Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1992 6,217 1,158 19 507 8 557 9 1,044 17 1993 6,331 1,242 20 534 8 565 9 1,074 17 1994 6,632 1,343 20 580 9 591 9 1,080 16 1995 6,275 1,346 21 578 9 547 9 1,036 17 1996 6,202 1,346 22 610 10 582 9 927 15 1997 6,238 1,393 22 653 10 579 9 860 14 1998 6,055 1,442 24 625 10 520 9 714 12 1999 6,054 1,496 25 634 10 585 10 651 11 2000 5,920 1,365 23 659 11 571 10 677 11 2001 1/ 5,915 1,409 24 700 12 553 9 643 11 2002 5,534 1,373 25 638 12 505 9 609 11 2003 5,575 1,353 24 604 11 531 10 632 11 2004 5,764 1,398 24 738 13 602 10 559 10 2005 2/ 5,734 1,437 25 664 12 607 11 567 10 2006 5,703 1,329 23 728 13 583 10 516 9 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/ Totals for 2001 exclude fatalities due to the events of September 11, 2001 which claimed the lives of 2,886 persons in work status. 2/ The BLS news release issued August 10, 2006, reported a total of 5,702 fatal work injuries for calendar year 2005. Since then, an additional 32 job-related fatalities were identified, bringing the total job-related fatality count for 2005 to 5,734. Key characteristics of workplace fatalities in Michigan in 2006: - Men accounted for 94 percent of the work-related fatalities in the State with 146 deaths. Transportation incidents, which include highway, nonhighway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail, were the most prevalent cause, accounting for 56 deaths. The second most frequent fatal event was contact with objects and equipment (30) followed by falls (21). Nine women were fatally injured on the job, with four of these deaths resulting from assaults and violent acts and four from transportation incidents. - Seventy-seven percent of those who died from a workplace injury were white non-Hispanics, 11 percent were black non-Hispanics, and 8 percent were Hispanic or Latino. - Workers 25-54 years old-the prime working age group-accounted for 69 percent of the State's work-related fatalities in 2006; 22 percent were 55 years or older. - Eighty-seven percent of workers killed on-the-job in Michigan worked for wages and salaries; the rest were self-employed. - The construction industry sector had the largest number of worker fatalities (31), followed by manufacturing (21), and transportation and warehousing (18). Falls accounted for the most fatalities in construction. In manufacturing, contact with objects and equipment, such as being struck by, trapped in or crushed by objects or machinery was the most frequent type of fatal event; in transportation and warehousing, it was transportation incidents. - Workers in transportation and material moving, and construction and extraction jobs led all other major occupational groups with 38 and 28 worker fatalities, respectively. Combined, these two groups accounted for over two-fifths of all fatal work injuries in Michigan. Within the transportation and material moving occupational group, transportation incidents (24) accounted for over 60 percent of all fatal injuries. Among construction and extraction workers, falls (11) was the most frequent fatal event accounting for about 40 percent of the deaths. Additional data available Additional Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data are available from the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm. Data tables for 2006 are available for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and selected metropolitan areas. Detailed data may be accessed through the online query system located at http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/outside.jsp?survey=fi. For additional information or assistance, please contact the Midwest Information Office in Chicago at (312) 353-1880, menu option 0. TECHNICAL NOTE 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 Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth 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.
Last Modified Date: October 31, 2007
