Fatal On-Job Injuries Drop to 5-Year Low

A decline in workplace homicides last year helped push down the overall number of fatal on-the-job injuries in 1996 to the lowest level in at least five years, the federal government reported Thursday.

The decrease was regarded as a reflection of improving job safety conditions and of a reduction in violent crime throughout society.

The improved figures, coming despite brisk growth in the labor force, also coincide with recent years’ reports showing a decline in nonfatal injuries and illnesses in the workplace. Along with homicides, electrocutions also dropped off substantially last year.

Still, the good news was tempered by an upturn in certain kinds of deadly industrial accidents, including workers’ being crushed by machinery.

“There still are some major problem areas,” said Peg Seminario, the labor official who directs the AFL-CIO Department of Occupational Safety and Health in Washington.

The statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 6,112 workers died from on-the-job injuries last year, down 2.6% from 1995. It is the lowest total since the agency began tracking workplace fatalities comprehensively in 1992, when the nation posted its previous low of 6,215 on-the-job deaths.

Highway driving accidents, as usual, accounted for the largest share of the fatalities. That total fell 1.6% to 1,324. Next came homicides, which declined by 12% to 912.

“The trend in society of decreasing violence is also being reflected in the workplace,” said David Alexander, a spokesman for the National Safety Council, an employer-backed nonprofit group.

Still, Alexander said, the continuing high rates of traffic deaths and other industrial accidents show that “the issues that have been around for years are still giving us problems.”

He contended that employers could significantly reduce on-the-job deaths simply by requiring workers to buckle their seat belts.

More puzzling is the increase in workers killed in industrial settings--where they were caught or crushed by machines or by falling objects or materials. That broad category of deaths climbed 9.7% to 1,005.

It could not be determined to what extent people who are new entrants to the work force, attracted by the booming job market, were involved in the fatal accidents. Among job-safety experts, one rule of thumb is that newcomers, because of their inexperience, are more apt to be injured on the job.

In California, the figures for workplace fatalities also declined, falling 7.3% to 599 last year, from 646 in 1995.

Guy Toscano, the BLS official in charge of the workplace fatalities report, said he was particularly encouraged by the nationwide decline in the number of taxi drivers to become homicide victims on the job. He expressed hope that the improvement, to 46 last year from 69 in 1995, stems from efforts in the industry to alert drivers to the hazards.

Nationally, the safest industry was the finance, insurance and real estate sector, which posted a rate of 1.5 fatalities for every 100,000 workers.

The most hazardous industry was mining, with a rate of 26.8 fatalities for every 100,000 workers.

Among job categories, fishermen posted the highest rate of fatalities, followed by timber cutters and airplane pilots.