The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-11-16
BUILDING INDUSTRY
MACHINE ACCIDENTS
Effectiveness Of All Efforts to Reduce the
Number Is Handicapped by Cen
eral Lack of Informa-
ton.

During the past few years there has
been widespread interest In the subject
of industrial accidents and their proven
ton, and important safety campaigns
have been carried on by many employer.
and by many private and public organ,
izations. No doubt these efforts have
been successful in reducing the huge toll
of death and suffering which modern in
dustry levies upon its workers. But the
effectiveness of all such efforts has been
seriously handicapped by the general
lack of information regarding the preva-
lence, causes, and effects of accidents in
the industries of the country
A recent report bulletin 2l8) of the
bureau of labor statistics of the u. S.
department of labor entitled Accidents
and Accident Prevention in Machine
| Building" supplies this detailed infor-
nation for a large group of plants en-
gagged in the building of different kinds
| of machines. The character Of the ma
chimes built by these plants varied great
". from mammoth locomotives and ships
to delicate electrical apparatus but it is
of interest to note that they are all of a
type for which the war has made enor-
nous demands Therefore, although the
present study was made prior to the
war, the information regarding accident
hazards in the industry is now of partic.
ular pertinence.
notable feature of the report is the
measurement of accidents according TO
their severity. Previous studies have
been chiefly concerned with the frequen-
CIV of accident occurrence, and have
counted all accidents as of the same
value. A broken finger and a broken
back have been counted alike in comput-
ing accident rates, although clearly the
latter is immeasurably more serious.
The method offered in this report is to
measure each accident according to the
resulting amount of time lost To do
this it is necessary, of course to express
fatal and permanent injuries as well as
temporary disabilities, in terms of work
days lost. This is done by valuing a fla
tai injury, on the basis of life insurance
experience, as equivalent to the loss of
80 years of a mans working life, while
total permanent disability was rated at
80 years. Other injuries are credited
with lower time losses in proportion TO
their probable effect upon earning capa
city
Applying this method to the accident
data for the machine building industry, |
some very interesting results are OBJ
tanned. Thus, in the 1914 plants covered
by the investigation the number OF acct |
dents occurring in 1912 was 1851, re
sulting in 81 deaths, All permanent in
iuries, and IL, 100 temporary disabilities, |
This is equivalent to an accident frequen |
cy rate of lis per ! 900 full.time 600 |
day. workers and severity rate Of SO |
days lost per worker. These rates may |
be contrasted with the experience Of a |
steel plant during the
same year, for which the frequency rate
was l54 and the severity rate IA days
lost Accidents in the steel plant were
thus only about one third more frequent
than in machine building, but their Sc
verify was two and one-half times as
great.
The accident hazards Of the machine
building plants vary greatly with the
character of their products. Those en-
gagged in the making of locomotives have
he highest severity rate-ll days lost
Der worker the builders of ships
nave the next highest eight days lost
Der worker.
Classifying the combined plants by de
)artmental divisions, boiler shops and
fard labor show by far the greatest haz
lrds Boiler shops have frequency rate
II PA cases per | 900 full-time t300day) :
workers and severity rate Of y days
ost per 300-day worker. while yard la
,or has a frequency rate of 22l and a I
eyerity rate Of % days lost. The high
ates of the boiler shops are primarily, ,
he result of insecure trestles and scat I
gliding. For the excessive rates in the
ard department responsibility rests
pon the general neglect of safe location .
nd construction of the transportation
ystems Of many plants, coupled with