Ohio Work Place Injuries: Report Shows Work Place Injuries Occur Every 7 Seconds

  • Post category:July 2016

Ohio Work Place Injury News: An Analysis Of Workers’ Compensation Claims Found Many Injuries Happen In The First Year Of Employment.

Construction-Accident-Fatalities-Wright-and-Schulte

Ohio Work Place Injuries: When it comes to being injured in the workplace, the American worker runs a risk of getting hurt every day. In fact, a worker is injured on the job every seven seconds, according to the National Safety Council, and our state is not immune to Ohio work place injuries. That translates into 12,900 workers day, 90,400 a week, and 4.7 million a year in work place injuries.
[nsc.org/JSEWorkplaceDocuments/Infographic-Injuries-bythe-Numbers.pdf. NSC, 2016]

While Ohio work related injuries are high, Ohio workers in the public and private sector had fewer injuries than their national counterparts. According to the BWC’s survey data, there were an estimated 2.9 non-fatal Ohio work related injury cases per 100 full-time workers compared to the national rate of 3.4 cases per 100 full-time workers. There were 121,300 reportable Ohio on the job injuries, but in the majority of those cases (48.5%), there was no loss time from work, while 30.6% involved one or more days away from work.

The 160,000 jobs created in April and May places more Americans at risk of getting hurt since more than one-quarter of on the job injuries happen during a worker’s first year, according to a report by Travelers Insurance, one of the nation’s largest workers’ compensation insurers. Travelers recently released an Injury Impact Report which analyzed compensation claims of 1.5 million workers from 2010 through 2014. Workers’ compensation claims provide insight into the types of injuries and accidents workers suffer and how they occur in the workplace.

According to the report, nearly one-third of all injuries reported by workers involved strains, sprains, bruises or inflammation from lifting, lowering, filling, emptying or carrying an item. Workers who suffered from inflammation (5%) took off an average of 91 days, which is more than workers who took off an average of 57 days because of strains and sprains (30%). Employees over 55 experience more strains and sprains than their 18- to 34-year-old colleagues. In contrast, younger workers in Ohio experience more strains and sprains than workers over 55, according to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC). The BWC’s Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses for 2014, the latest year available, found 16- to -19-year-old workers had a significantly higher rate of taking days off from work after suffering sprains strains, and tears.
[cbsnews.com/news/what-happens-every-7-seconds-a-workplace-injury/, CBS News, May 18, 2016]

Nationally, slips, trips and falls accounted for 16 percent of injuries reported; and not surprisingly, retail and construction workers had the highest rate of falls. In Ohio, workers over 65 had the highest incidence rates for slips, trips and falls of all age categories Additionally, an unexpected discovery in the Travelers report was oil and gas being the only industry where motor vehicle accidents were among its top five most common injuries.

[bwc.ohio.gov/downloads/blankpdf/SOII/SummaryReportOhio%20-%202014.pdf, BLS, 2014]
Rich Ives, vice president of workers’ compensation for Travelers Insurance, told CBS News that the frequency of claims the company writes has declined. However, Travelers is bracing itself for a rise in medical-related compensations costs, from the current 60 percent to 70 percent by 2019.

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