Table 5. Job-related fatalities by selected characteristics, 1995

‘atalities Highway fatalities
Characteristics Fe .
Number Percent Number Percent
Total ..... 6.210 100 1,329 100
5,024 81 1,182 88
1,186 19 147 abl
5,676 91 1,197 90
534 9 132 10
40 - 7 1
128 1 3 2
484 8 123 3
1,395 22 295 22
1,555 ry 316 24
1,242 20 272 20
811 13 188 14
514 8 88 7
26 - 7 1
5,061 82 1,095 82
689 "1 146 Ww
Asian or Pacific Islander 161 3 10 1
Other or unspecified 299 4 78 6
Hispanic origin?
Hispanic .. 610 10 14 9
‘ Includes paid and unpaid family workers, and may in- NOTE: Percentages may not add due to rounding.
clude owners of incorporated businesses, or members of Dashes indicate no data reported or that data do not meet
partnerships. publication criteria.
2 Hispanics may be of any race.
—Endnote—

For more information, see National Census of Fatal Occupational In-
juries, 1995 00 pp. 34-45 of this issue.

61 Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996



‘Table 4. Job-related highway fatalities by industry, 1995

Industry’ ‘Number

i

8

Local and interurban passenger transit ..
Trucking and warehousing ..
Trucking and courier services, except air .

&
BBwBroavonnnnarhS

Groceries and related products
Automotive dealers and service stations .
Eating and drinking places
Miscellaneous retail .....

3 8
NPVVAEARNNYNNONOONTA

z

49

&
Noad

97

‘ Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1987. ries not shown separately. Percentages may not add to
NOTE: Totals for major categories include subcatego- _ totals because of rounding.

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 60



Highway Fatalities

Among the Leading

Causes of Work-
place Deaths

BY JANICE WINDAU AND TRACY JACK”

Highway fatalities accounted for 1 in every 5 of the 6,210
job-related deaths during 1995, and were the leading cause
of fatal work injuries. This article summarizes the charac-
teristics of the 1,329 workers who were fatally injured in
highway traffic incidents, the occupations and industries in
which they worked, and the types of highway incidents re-
sponsible.

About half of the highway fatalities resulted from colli-
sions between two or more vehicles. (See table 1.) One-
fifth of the fatalities resulted from a crash with an object
other than a vehicle, such as a tree, bridge abutment, or
utility pole, and another fifth occurred when the vehicle
jackknifed or overturned. Patterns varied somewhat ac-
cording to the type of vehicle involved. Collisions with
other vehicles, crashes with objects on the side of the road,
and jackknifings and overturnings contributed about equally
(roughly 30 percent) to the 359 deaths of those riding in
tractor trailers. For workers killed while riding in other
types of highway vehicles, collisions between vehicles ac-
counted for slightly over half of the fatalities.

Trucks played a large role in the incidence of job-related
highway fatalities. Over half of the highway fatality vic-
tims had been driving or riding in a truck at the time of the
incident, half of which were tractor trailer rigs. (See chart
1.) And in one-fourth of the job-related highway fatalities,
a truck collided with the vehicle in which the victim was
riding.

Table 2 shows the role vehicles played in highway inci-
dents. For example, there were 344 incidents in which the
deceased was driving or riding in an automobile. However,

Janice Windau is an epidemiologist and Tracy Jack is an economist in the
Office of Safety, Health and Working Conditions. Telephone (202) 606-6175.

57 Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996

there were 162 incidents in which automobiles were identi-
fied as the vehicles with which the deceased's vehicle col-
lided.

Fatalities by occupation and industry. About two-fifths of
the decedents were truckdrivers; the rest worked in a vari-
ety of other occupations, including sales, farming, police,
and executive and managerial jobs. (See table 3.) The
manner in which truckdrivers were fatally injured in high-
way incidents is shown in chart 2. One-fourth of the work-
ers fatally injured in highway incidents worked in the truck-
ing and courier service industry. The remaining fatalities
were widely dispersed among other industries. (See table
4)

Chart 1. Types of vehicles In which highway fatality
victims were riding, 1995.

Other or unspecified 13%
(n=162)



Chart 2. Job-related fatalities among truckdrivers by type of highway Incident, 1995

Collision between vehicles
Noncoliision incident

Struck stationary object off roadway
Struck stationary object In roadway

Unspecitied

Oncoming

—d
A
_

oO

50 100 150 200

Number
Total =508

Demographic characteristics. Workers who were killed
were operating the vehicle 88 percent of the time; the re-
mainder were passengers. About 90 percent of the victims
of fatal highway incidents were men, and most of them were
white. About 10 percent of the job-related highway fatali-
ties were self-employed or working in the family business,
compared with almost 20 percent of all victims of job-re-
lated fatalities. (See table 5.)

Background

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, (CFOD, part
of the BLS safety and health statistics program, provides the
most complete count of fatal work injuries available. The
census began in 1992 and is conducted in all 50 States and
the District of Columbia. The BLS fatality census is a Fed-
eral/State cooperative venture in which costs are shared

Table 1. Job-related highway fatalities by event, 1995

equally.

CFOI uses diverse data sources to identify, verify, and
profile fatal work injuries. Key information about each
workplace fatality (occupation and other worker character-
istics, equipment being used, circumstances of the event,
etc.) is obtained by cross-referencing sources to assure an-
nual job-related fatality counts are as complete and accu-
rate as possible. These sources include death certificates
and workers’ compensation, police motor vehicle accident,
and other reports compiled by various governmental agen-
cies, as well as information from private sources.

For more information on these data or on the Census of
Fatal Occupational Injuries, contact Janice Windau or Tracy
Jack, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Safety, Health
and Working Conditions, Room 3180, 2 Massachusetts Av-
enue, NE, Washington, DC 20212. Telephone: (202) 606-
6175; E-mail: Windau_J@bls.gov or Jack_T@bls.gov

Type of highway incident * Number Percent
1,329 100
634 48
244 18
125 9
7 7
Moving and standing vehicle-in roadway .. 31 2
Moving and standing vehicie—side of road. 13 1
Re-entrant coliision . 9 1
Noncollision incident. 350 2
Jackknifed or overtumned-no collision 260 20
Ran off highway-no collision 57 4
Vehicle struck object or equipmer 249 19
Vehicle struck object or equipment in roadway 19 1

"Includes job-related fatalities that occurred on a public
roadway, shoulder, or surrounding area. Excludes off-road
(e.g., parking lot, farm, etc.), train, and pedestrian fatalities.

NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcategories not
agen separately Percentages meyy not addtoteale becaune of runt

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 58



Table 2. Vehicles Involved In highway fatalities, 1995,

i
28888 i i

8
aannn sasa8ans8h888
Per ee VB

Secondary
Number

1,328
653
644
361
185
67
4
18
162
22
3
92
3
3
3

, logging, and mining
Road grading and surfacing machinery

1 Kdentifies the vehicle in which the fatally injured worker deceased's vehicle collided. Secondary source was coded
was an occupant. for 986 highway fatalities.
? |dentifies the vehicle or other object with which the

Table 3. Job-related highway fatalities by occupation, 1995

Occupation Number Percent

1,329 100

72 13

102 8

70 5

23 2

152 W

pal 94 7

‘Supervisors and proprietors, ‘sales occupat 28 2

Sales representatives, commodities ernent retail. 23 2

Sales workers, retail and personal services 31 2

Administrative support occupations, including ‘clerical 4 3

Service occupations .... 107 8

69 5

4 3

38 3

84 6

34 3

24 2

45 3

28 2

108 8

4 3

20 2

49 4

663 50

580 44

559 42

Handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers .. 72 5

Construction laborers... 30 2

28 2

Military .. 31 2

Other or unspecified 12 1
* Based on the 1990 Occupational Classification Sys- NOTE: Totals for major categories may include sub-
tem developed by the Bureau of the Census. categories not shown separately. Percentages may not

add to totals because of rounding.

59 Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996