Bureau of Labor Statistics
General Information: (312) 353-1880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact: Paul LaPorte Monday, October 22, 2007
(312) 353-1138
http://www.bls.gov/ro5
Data Tables
SOUTH DAKOTA WORKPLACE FATALITIES, 2006
Fatal work injuries in South Dakota totaled 37 in 2006, an
increase of 6 from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department
of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. Regional Commissioner Jay A.
Mousa noted that the fatality count in South Dakota peaked in 1999 with
46 work-related deaths after reaching a low of 23 just two years
earlier. (The fatality census has been conducted annually since 1992.)
The most frequent types of fatal workplace events in the State in 2006
were highway crashes (11), nonhighway incidents (6), and being struck
by objects (5). Taken together, these three events 1/ accounted for
nearly three-fifths of the workplace fatalities in South Dakota.
Highway incidents (referred to here as highway crashes, but
includes non-collision incidents as well) accounted for more on-the-job
fatalities than any other event in both South Dakota and the nation.
The number of fatal injuries from highway crashes in the State in 2006,
which was the same as in 2005, was the highest recorded for this event
since the census' inception. A low of 4 fatal work injuries from this
event occurred in 1994. (See table A.) Work-related deaths due to
highway crashes accounted for 30 percent of the fatalities in South
Dakota compared to 23 percent of the national total in 2006.
Nonhighway incidents such as on a farm or industrial premises, was
the second leading cause of work-related deaths in the State. The six
fatalities accounted for 16 percent of all South Dakota's fatally
injured on the job in 2006. Nonhighway incidents accounted for 6
percent of fatalities nationwide.
The five workplace fatalities resulting from being struck by an
object accounted for 14 percent of the State's fatality count.
Nationwide, this event accounted for 10 percent of the total in 2006.
Other work-related fatalities in South Dakota included caught in
or compressed by equipment or objects (4) and assaults by animals (3).
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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 South Dakota by
selected event groups, 1992-2006
-------------------------------------------------------------
| Total | Highway | Nonhighway | Struck
Year |fatali- | crashes | incidents | by object
| ties |--------------------------------------------
| |Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent
-------------------------------------------------------------
1992 28 9 32 -- -- 5 18
1993 28 5 18 -- -- 4 14
1994 31 4 13 4 13 -- --
1995 26 5 19 -- -- -- --
1996 32 9 28 5 16 -- --
1997 23 8 35 -- -- 6 26
1998 28 9 32 -- -- 3 11
1999 46 9 20 5 11 3 7
2000 35 7 20 6 17 5 14
2001 35 6 17 6 17 -- --
2002 36 5 14 5 14 3 8
2003 28 5 18 4 14 6 21
2004 24 7 29 3 13 -- --
2005 31 11 35 3 10 4 13
2006 37 11 30 6 16 5 14
-------------------------------------------------------------
-- Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet
publication criteria.
Nationwide, 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 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 South Dakota in 2006:
- Men accounted for 89 percent of the work-related fatalities in the
State with 33 deaths. Transportation incidents, which include highway,
nonhighway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail, accounted for almost one-
half of these fatal injuries and contact with objects and equipment
accounted for over one-fourth. (See table 2.)
- In South Dakota, 92 percent of those who died from a workplace
injury were white non-Hispanics.
- Workers 25-54 years old-the prime working age group-accounted for
49 percent of the State's work-related fatalities in 2006; 46 percent
were 55 years or older. Nationally, those 25 to 54 years accounted for
64 percent of the fatally injured and those 55 years and older, 27
percent.
- Fifty-one percent of workers killed on the job in South Dakota
worked for wages and salaries; the rest were self-employed.
- The agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industry sector had
the largest number of fatalities (17) followed by transportation and
warehousing (5), and construction (4). Contact with objects and
equipment and transportation incidents were the most frequent types of
fatal events in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
industry. Transportation incidents accounted for all of the fatalities
in transportation and warehousing. (See table 3.)
- The occupational group with the highest number of fatalities was
management with 15 work-related deaths. Managers of farms and ranches
accounted for 14 of the 15 fatally injured. Transportation and
material moving occupations had six work-related deaths and
construction and extraction jobs, five. Transportation incidents were
the most frequent event resulting in death in all three of these
occupational groups. (See table 4.)
Table B. Fatal occupational injuries in the United States by
selected event groups, 1992-2006
-------------------------------------------------------------
| Total | Highway | Struck | Nonhighway
Year |fatali- | crashes | by object | incidents
| ties |--------------------------------------------
| |Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent
-------------------------------------------------------------
1992 6,217 1,158 19 557 9 436 7
1993 6,331 1,242 20 565 9 392 6
1994 6,632 1,343 20 591 9 409 6
1995 6,275 1,346 21 547 9 387 6
1996 6,202 1,346 22 582 9 374 6
1997 6,238 1,393 22 579 9 377 6
1998 6,055 1,442 24 520 9 388 6
1999 6,054 1,496 25 585 10 352 6
2000 5,920 1,365 23 571 10 399 7
2001 1/ 5,915 1,409 24 553 9 326 6
2002 5,534 1,373 25 505 9 323 6
2003 5,575 1,353 24 531 10 347 6
2004 5,764 1,398 24 602 10 338 6
2005 2/ 5,734 1,437 25 607 11 340 6
2006 5,703 1,329 23 583 10 342 6
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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.
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 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 23, 2007
