Eight Best Practices to Prevent Workplace Fatalities

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5,333 people in the United States died from workplace injuries in 2019 – an increase from 5,250 in 2018 and the highest number of workplace deaths since 2007. Forty percent of these fatalities were due to transportation incidents and 17 percent resulted from falls.

To help save lives in the workplace:

1. Keep lines of communication open between upper management and employees.
2. Implement a system to track and learn from close calls that could have resulted in a fatal incident.
3. Involve employees in the safety process whenever possible.
4. Perform pre-job risk assessments, especially for non-routine tasks.
5. Provide employee safety training and education that is specific to their job.
6. Observe employees working to ensure they are engaging in safe work practices – especially non-routine work, new employees and high-risk tasks
7. Use leading indicators instead of lagging indicators, such as total recordable rates, to better assess risk for serious injuries and fatalities.
8. Incorporate safety in the engineering and design phase of processes instead of after the fact.

Accident Fund provides resources to assist employers in taking a comprehensive approach to safety and addressing major causes of injuries and fatalities. This includes a Resource Library with information on ladder safety, Slip and Fall Elimination (S.A.F.E.), transportation safety and much more.