Machinery-related fatalities in the construction industry in the United States, 1980-1989.
Authors
Pratt-SG; Kisner-SM; Moore-PH
Source
American Public Health Association 123rd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, San Diego, CA, October 29 - November 2, 1995. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association, 1995 Oct; :19
Abstract
Machinery-related incidents were the second leading cause of occupational injury death in the United States between 1980 and 1989; 1560 (14%) of these occured in the constuction industry (2.3 deaths per 100,000 workers. Narrative death certificate data from the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities (NTOF) surveillance system of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were used to identify specific machine and event types. Over 99% of the victims were male. Over 85% were employed as craftsmen, transport workers, or laborers. Machines most frequently associated with construction industry fatalities were cranes (17%), excavators (15%), tractors (15%), loaders (9%), and pavers (7%). The most common event types included being struck, run over, or pinned by a vehicle or mobile equipment (30%); overturn of a vehicle of mobile equipment (18%); and fall-related incidents involving machinery (11%). Tractor overturns and being struck, run over, or pinned by an excavating machine or crane together accounted for nearly 20% of the fatalities. Workers aged 65 and older had nearly 4 times the fatality rate of workers aged 16-64 (8.7 vs. 2.2), and were at particularly high risk for fall-related machinery incidents, overturns, and being struck, run over, or pinned. Results of this analysis support development of construction industry interventions to prevent specific fatal event types among persons working around particular machines.
Keywords
Construction-workers; Construction-industry; Construction; Traumatic-injuries; Injuries; Machine-operators; Machine-operation; Age-factors; Road-construction; Accident-statistics; Accident-rates; Statistical-analysis; Epidemiology; Construction-equipment; Equipment-operators; Equipment-design
Document Type
Conference/Symposia Proceedings; Abstract
Source Name
American Public Health Association 123rd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, San Diego, CA, October 29 - November 2, 1995
