Which types of on-the-job injuries cause employees to miss the most time from work?
Liberty Mutual Insurance has released its annual Workplace Safety Index that identifies the leading causes of the most disabling workplace injuries.
Overall, the estimated direct U.S. workers’ compensation costs for these top ten injuries totaled $48.6 billion in 2006.
These 10 categories account for 87.9% of the cost burden of disabling workplace injuries.
Here’s the breakdown on the top 10:
- Overexertion (injuries caused by excessive lifting, pushing, pulling, holding or throwing): $12.4B, 25.7%
- Fall on the same level (such as slips and trips): $6.4B, 13.3%
- Fall to lower level: $5.3B, 10.8%
- Bodily reaction (injuries caused from slipping or tripping without falling): $4.8B, 10.0%
- Struck by object (such as a tool falling on a worker from above): $4.3B, 8.9%
- Struck against object (such as a worker walking into a door): $2.5B, 5.1%
- Highway incident: $2.4B, 4.9%
- Caught in/compressed by: $2.1B, 4.4%
- Repetitive motion (injuries due to repeated stress or strain): $2.0B, 4.0%, and
- Assaults/violent acts: $0.4B, 0.9%.
Between 1998 and 2006, the costs of repetitive motion injuries declined the most: 35.3%. The costs of fall on the same level and fall to lower level each showed the largest increase: 17.9%.
Have you had success recently in reducing any of these types of injuries? If so, let us know about it in the Comments Box below.
