Top 10 most costly U.S. workplace injuries

10. Repetitive motions involving micro-tasks

This category represents 2.9 percent of the total and amounts to $1.82 billion.

Some of these tasks may include a word processor who looks from the computer monitor to a document and back several times a day or the cashier at the local grocery store who is scanning and bagging groceries for several hours at a time.

9. Struck against object or equipment

This category of workplace injury applies to workers who are hurt by forcible contact or impact, for example, an office worker who bumps into a filing cabinet or an assembly line worker who stubs a toe on stacked parts.

These injuries account for 3 percent of the total and $1.85 billion.

8. Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects

Amounting to 3.2 percent, or $1.97 billion, these workplace injuries result from workers being caught in equipment or machinery that’s still running as well as in rolling, shifting or sliding objects.

Picture the scene in a movie in which wine barrels topple over, catching the bad guy beneath them, only in this case, it’s the employee whose job it may be to stack the barrels. Perhaps it’s the experienced worker who removes a machine guard to dislodge material that’s stuck and gets a finger caught when the machine starts moving again.

7. Slip or trip without fall

Occasionally, workers do slip or trip without hitting the ground. Think of the employee entering the workplace who slips on icy stairs but is able to grab the handrail to prevent hitting the ground. But the action of grabbing the handrail may cause the employee to injure his shoulder or wrench her knee.

Injuries in this category are 3.8 percent of the total and cost $2.35 billion.

6. Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle

Accounting for 4.8 percent of injuries at a cost of $2.96 billion are motor vehicle accidents.

The worker may be the driver, a passenger or a pedestrian, but the cause of the injury is an automobile, truck or motorcycle.

5. Other exertions or bodily reactions

These motions include bending, crawling, reaching, twisting, climbing or stepping, according to the BLS.

Consider, for example, a roofing contractor’s employees who are continually climbing up and down ladders.
These injuries are 6.7 percent of the total, amounting to $4.15 billion.

4. Struck by object or equipment

This category covers a range of possible injuries, from being struck by an object dropped by a fellow worker to being caught in a swinging door or gate. Picture the construction worker on a scaffold dropping a hammer on the worker below.

These injuries account for $5.31 billion in costs, 8.6 percent of the total.

3. Falls to lower level

The roofer could fall to the ground from the roof or ladder, or an office worker standing on a stepstool, reaching for a heavy file box, could fall to the floor.

These injuries are 8.7 percent of the total, costing employers $5.40 billion.

2. Falls on same level

The second most costly workplace injury, surprisingly, is a fall on the same level. Picture the employee who is walking through the office and falls over an uneven floor surface or someone leaning too far back in an office chair and toppling over.

These injuries, costing $10.17 billion, are 16.4 percent of the total.

1. Overexertion involving an outside source

According to the data, this category ranked at the top of the leading causes of disabling injury, with costs reaching $15.08 billion, and almost a quarter of the total (24.4 percent).

The BLS explains that overexertion occurs when the physical effort of a worker who lifts, pulls, pushes, holds, carries, wields or throws an object results in an injury.

The object being handled is often heavier than the weight that a worker should be handling or the object is handled improperly. For example, lifting from a shelf that’s too high, or in a space that’s cramped.

Within the broad category of sprains, strains, and tears caused by overexertion, most incidents resulted specifically from overexertion in lifting.

Risk managers should work with their carriers and workplace safety specialists to minimize injuries, lost work days and workers’ compensation costs.

With a little effort, employers can understand more about the causes of accidents and injuries in their organizations, identify the appropriate actions to reduce the number of injuries and minimize employee disabilities from workplace accidents.

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