About half the workplace fatalities that occur in Arkansas are transportation related, according to a report released this week by the Arkansas Department of Labor.
Thirty-three of 67 work-related fatal injuries in 2014, the most recent year for which statistics are available, were the results of transportation incidents, the report says. The 2014 fatality count is up from 63 in 2013.
Previously: Safety directors keep an eye on Arkansas construction sites.
Nationwide, 4,679 fatal work injuries were reported in 2014, up from 4,585 in 2013. Arkansas was one of 24 states reporting higher numbers of fatal work injuries.
Major findings of the report include:
- There were 48 deaths involving private-sector wage and salary workers, up from 46 in 2013.
- Fatal occupational injuries among government workers decreased from nine in 2013 to six in 2014.
- Self-employed worker fatalities increased from eight in 2013 to 13 in 2014.
- Men accounted for 60 (90 percent) of the fatal work injuries.
- White non-Hispanic workers accounted for 50 of the fatalities in 2014 (75 percent). Black or African American, non-Hispanic workers accounted for eight (12 percent) and Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for nine (13 percent).
- Transportation incidents increased to 33 in 2014 from 29 in 2013.
- Transportation incidents led all fatality events for the 21st year in a row in Arkansas.
- Transportation fatalities included 15 roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles; four non-roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles; seven pedestrian vehicular incidents; four rail vehicle incidents and one aircraft incident.
- Five of six government worker fatalities were the result of transportation incidents.
- A total of eight workers were fatally injured due to contact with objects or equipment in 2014, down from 10 in 2013. This total includes 4 workers struck by a falling object or equipment and four workers caught in or compressed by equipment or machinery.
- There were four deaths due to exposure to harmful substances or environments in 2014, down from eight in 2013. This includes three deaths from inhalation of a harmful substance.
- Electrocutions were down from five in 2013 to one in 2014.
- A total of seven workers died as a result of violence and other injuries caused by persons or animals, up from two in 2013. This includes five homicides, up from two in 2013.
- Falls resulted in 12 worker fatalities in 2014, up from 11 in 2013. This includes three falls on the same level and nine falls to a lower level.
- Fires or explosions took the lives of three workers in 2014, the same number as in 2013.
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