The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-03-26
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
COST AND PREVENTION


We are being constantly remind
ed by the ablest safety engineers
that practically 75oe of the serious
injuries and accidental deaths that
occur annually in our extra hazard
Gus industries can be completely
eliminated. Years of study into the
trade hazards and the common
causes that create heavy accident
experience records for our indus
trial establishments, have brought
into existence very efficient safe
ty movement through which the
sacrifice of human life and limb
can be materially conserved.
Before proceeding with our plan
of safety organization to combat
the hazards Of the various indus
tries in the State, it might Ire ap-
propriate to give a resume of the
economic and financial waste that
is being borne by the workmen,
the employers and the consuming
public, due to the occurrence of
avoidable accidents.
According to the regular month
ly contributions to the State Med
ical Aid Fund, there appears to be
employed something like 10000
workmen in the various industries
that come within the scope of the
Industrial Insurance Law. The rec
ords also show that for the year
1919, there were produced II ,S07
compensatable accidents in both
of the groups commonly known as
Temporary Total and Permanent
Partial Disability, representing
423,626 actual work days lost to
the workmen. By dividing the
number of men employed into the
work days lost through Temporary
Total and Permanent Partial is
ability, we find that the industries
of our State were obliged to bear a
burden that was equivalent to a
complete suspension of y days of
operation, thus producing an eXor-
bitant economic loss to the en-
ployers and the consuming public,
which to my mind cannot be justly
measured in dollars and cents.
Next Comes the workman, who,
of the three interested parties,
namely, the employer, the public
and himself, bears by far the great
er portion Of the accident cost.
Aside from his physical suffering
during a period of disability, his
dependents are compelled to en-
dure enforced privations through
the impairment of the earning
power during a period when the
bread winner of the family is to-
tally incapacitated.
Notwithstanding the strenuous
appeals that are made daily to the
industries to enlist their services
in accident prevention work from
the humane standpoint, | am of the
opinion that the following table
will bring more forcibly to the
minds of both the employer and
workman, the seriousness of the
situation, together with the imper-
ative need of combating the worlds
greatest monster, called "Acci-
dents" which for many years has
been boldly invading our establish
ments and casting its shadow over
every field of endeavor and thus eX-
acting a toll in human flesh greater
in comparison than that which has
been given up on the field of bat
tie through the horrors of the re-
cent world war,
The first summary in this table
represents what is known as tenn
porary total disability period,
which takes in that group of work
men who through their sustained
injuries were totally incapacitated
for a certain period of time, but as
a rule, on their recovery, return to
either their former or other similar
occupation without impairment of
their future earning power
The second group is that portion
of the injured workmen who have
sustained the loss of a member or
the functional activity of any part
of the body. and speaking from an
occupational standpoint, most Of
whom never return to the occupa-
ton at which they were working