Road Accidents, Violence Emerge as On-Job Killers : Labor: Workplace safety has improved, but less traditional hazards need addressing, experts say.

Murders and traffic accidents increased as causes of on-the-job deaths last year, but the overall level of workplace fatalities was little changed from 1992, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

Experts said the report, while reflecting advances over the years in preventing deaths on the factory floor, underscores a need for authorities to pay more attention to less traditional job hazards such as violence and highway accidents.

The government said 6,271 U.S. workers died on the job in 1993--a slim 0.9% more than the revised total of 6,217 in 1992. Labor Department officials said the 1993 figures are preliminary and will probably be revised upward as more data comes in, but they said they do not expect the final numbers to show a substantial increase.

Still, on-the-job deaths due to traffic accidents--typically involving delivery trucks--climbed 6% to 1,232, making it the leading cause of workplace fatalities. The next-largest category, homicide, rose 5.6% to 1,063 in 1993.

Despite growing concerns about workplace shooting rampages by laid-off employees or stalkers, most workplace homicides occur during robberies or robbery attempts. Experts said the figures show the importance of improving security for cashiers and others who work at night alone or with few others.

The need for beefed-up security appears to be particularly important for women, for whom homicide is the leading cause of death in the workplace.

“The most tragic aspect is not only the loss of life, but also that most of these accidents were preventable,” Labor Secretary Robert Reich said in a telephone interview.

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration lacks specific regulations for preventing workplace violence, but Reich said his aides are exploring initiatives with Justice Department officials.

He also promised that in cases where companies are found to be negligent on security for employees, OSHA will begin taking action under its so-called general duty clause, which provides broad authority to combat workplace safety problems. The state agency overseeing workplace safety, Cal-OSHA, plans to take a similar approach.

Figures for California differed somewhat from the national trend. Deaths in the state fell slightly, to 615 last year from 644 in 1992, although the 1993 total is expected to be revised upward. Homicide was the leading workplace killer in the state, with the total number of deaths from such violence rising to 195 last year from 159 in 1992.

Though they show an increase in the number of homicides, the occupational death figures may also understate the amount of violence spilling into the workplace, authorities say. For instance, the report shows that last year only about 20 women were slain on the job by current or former boyfriends and husbands.

But a separate report released by the Justice Department two weeks ago estimates that current or former boyfriends and husbands commit more than 13,000 nonfatal acts of violence against women every year in the workplace.

In the report released Wednesday--the second annual comprehensive government accounting of how people die at work--the gains in traffic deaths and homicides were offset somewhat by a decline in the number of people killed in non-highway transportation accidents. That category includes such categories as train, parking lot and farm accidents.

Death at Work

Traffic accidents and homocides still accounted for the largest number of workplace deaths last year.

Transportation incidents: 40%

Assaults and violent acts: 21%

Contact with objects and equipment: 17%

Falls: 10%

Exposure to harmful substances or environments: 9%

Fires and explosions: 3%

Other: 1%

Totals exceed 100% due to rounding

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics