A new six-year analysis of serious injuries and fatalities (SIF) sustained by workers in Transportation, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Mining and Utilities industries highlights a dangerous upward trend since the Pandemic.

ISN, a global provider of contractor and supplier information management services, released its latest Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) White Paper that reviewed 127,000 recordable incidents from 2017-2022 showing nearly 24,000 SIFs cases, including more than 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,154 amputations and 871 fatalities.

Over the data’s six-year span, an interesting trend was identified with hospitalization cases, the report found.

The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 resulted in elevated hospitalization cases despite the downturn in work activity; but for 2022, ISN’s analysis shows a stabilization of cases with statistics that begin to return to pre-pandemic datasets.

Last year saw the lowest number of amputation cases in the last six years, though the number of fatalities drastically increased.

Sprains, strains and tears returned as top incident category amid an aging workforce after an anomaly in 2021, 2022 data. These injuries were reported by contractors from all industries, replacing fractures and dislocations. The report suggests a correlation between the increase in injuries and an aging workforce.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the employment of workers aged 75 years and older is expected to grow by 96.5 percent over the next decade.

“As older workers are more prone to injuries through falls, tailoring occupational safeguards around this aging workforce demographic will be key to decreasing the number of sprains, strains and tears among workers,” the white paper stated.

Contact with object or equipment was the most common cause of fatalities in 2022.

As workforces ramped back up to pre-pandemic capacity, several factors played into fluctuations in SIF data for 2022, including a stabilization of exposure hours, temporary and new workforces, as well as a re-learning period from significant dips in work activity, the analysis found.

Last year saw a drastic increase in the number of fatalities, with the top three causes including contact with object or equipment (55 percent), trips, slips and falls (21 percent), and overexertion & bodily reaction (13 percent).

ISN’s analysis also considered the connection between company size and the likelihood of a SIF occurrence.

The highest rate of fatalities did not correlate with the largest company size, but rather midsize corporations, the analysis found.

Regardless of company size, SIFs have a significant impact on both the affected individual and the organization.

“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,” said Brian Callahan, president and chief operating officer.

The white paper focused on Transportation, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Mining and Utilities because these proved to be the top industries for total deaths and life altering events.

Highlights from the industry-specific analysis include:

Transportation:

Human factors continue to be an overwhelming contributor to transportation related deaths.

Based on job titles, drivers were the second most likely group to experience a SIF event.

Transportation averaged the second highest average days away from work in 2022 at 95 days per case.

Oil and Gas:

Oil and Gas operations can be classified into sectors with varying tasks and hazards in each.

The Upstream-Onshore sector had the highest industry fatality rate at 9.5 (per 100,000 workers).

ISN also analyzed job titles commonly associated with reported SIF cases in Oil and Gas and identified that technicians, laborers and floormen consistently make up the top categories year after year.

Manufacturing:

Even with the wide variety of hazards and risks in the Manufacturing industry, ISN’s analysis shows that overall SIF rates have been below average compared to other industries. Also in contrast to other industries, the most affected body part in the Manufacturing industry was Lower Extremities.

Mining:

89 percent of all SIF cases for Mining in 2022 were classified as days away from work.

Each of these cases has an average of 88 days (about 3 months) away from the job, resulting in a significant number of injured workers not actively performing work, the data showed.

Utilities:

The Utilities industry has moved the needle in the health and safety space regarding implementation of leading indicators and high-hazard work analysis.

It consistently accounts for less than 1 percent of total SIFs reported month over month.

While serious events are occurring, it is at a lower rate than many other industries.

To download a copy of the SIFs White Paper and view the complete findings, please visit https://www.isnetworld.com/en/newsroom/publications/1868.