New Report Reveals Contact with Objects and Equipment Was the Most Common Cause of Workplace Fatalities in 2022
ISN’s report uncovers trends in industries such as transportation, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining and utilities.
- By Robert Yaniz Jr.
- Dec 21, 2023
ISN, a global leader in contractor and supplier information management, has released its latest Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) White Paper. This comprehensive report, encompassing data from 2017 to 2022, sheds light on the risks workers face in key industries such as transportation, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining and utilities.
According to a release, the analysis is based on over 127,000 recorded incidents. It reveals nearly 24,000 cases classified as SIFs, including over 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,154 amputations and 871 fatalities. Hospitalizations spiked during the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, despite a decrease in overall work activity, and the report noted a return to pre-pandemic numbers in 2022.
In addition, ISN’s report highlights the re-emergence of sprains, strains and tears as the leading type of incident in 2022, largely attributed to an aging workforce. Contact with objects or equipment was the most common cause of fatalities in 2022, followed by trips, slips and falls and overexertion and bodily reactions. Mid-size corporations reported the highest rates of fatalities, suggesting a correlation between company size and the likelihood of SIF occurrences.
“As reducing SIFs remains a focus across industries, ISN is committed to developing avenues for organizations to meet their safety goals and ensuring they have access to the latest tools and best practices to improve hazard recognition,” ISN President/COO Brian Callahan said in a statement. “From the company level down to the individual, organizations can intimately scrutinize the competency of contractors to safely perform work through ISN’s suite of tools. By enabling organizations to anchor their safety initiatives in real-time data trends, we aim to support the most important goal: ensuring that employees return home safely to their families each day.”
Industry-specific insights include the high rate of transportation-related deaths due to human factors. The oil and gas sector's highest fatality rate lies in the upstream-onshore sector, and the manufacturing industry has lower-than-average overall SIF rates. In mining, 89 percent of SIF cases were classified as Days Away from Work. And the utilities industry has shown progress in implementing safety measures, accounting for less than 1 percent of total SIFs reported.
About the Author
Robert Yaniz Jr. is the Content Editor of Occupational Health & Safety.