Abstract
Data from a wide array of sources were utilized to produce a comprehensive view of workplace injury and worker injury off the job. The numbers of nonfatal traumatic injuries, lost workday injuries, fatal injuries, compensable injuries, noncompensable injuries, hospitalized and nonhospitalized injuries, and workplace injuries in motor vehicle crashes were analyzed. Injury rates, counts of work crashes, and the number of nonwork fatalities and hospitalized nonwork injuries were calculated. Of the one in five injuries which occurred while the victim was working, 11,600 were deaths, 614,000 were hospitalizations, and 1.7 million were nonhospitalized compensable injuries. The injury severity fell as frequency rose. About 1.85 million new workers' compensation claims were paid in 1989. Work related highway crashes caused almost 30% of workplace deaths and 5% of compensable injuries, but less than 3% of nonlost workday injuries. Property damage only crashes were much more common than injury crashes. About 20% of work related crashes injured workers. Injury rates and injury crash rates were higher during personal travel than during work related travel. Crashes caused one in five injuries involving time away from work. Crash injuries accounted for only 3.3% of lost workday injuries on the job, while they caused 38% of time away from work injuries outside of work. The average worker sustained more injuries off the job than while working. Each dependent under the worker's insurance averaged as many injuries outside of work as the worker. It was suggested that these methods can be used to estimate a time series that shows whether the problem of the size of the workplace injury is strictly one of rising costs per disability claim.
