ISN Report Highlights Rising Fatalities in Key Industries

A new report from International Suppliers Networld unveils alarming trends in serious injuries and fatalities across key industries, highlighting the urgent need for enhanced safety measures.
By: | December 19, 2023
A worker in coveralls and a hardhat stands on crutches

The latest Serious Injuries and Fatalities Insights (SIFs) report from International Suppliers Networld reveals an alarming increase in fatalities in 2022, despite a decline in hospitalizations and amputations, with mid-size corporations experiencing the highest rates of fatalities. The report also emphasizes the need for better safety measures for an aging workforce, according to ISN.

The report provides a comprehensive six-year analysis of SIFs across five industries: transportation, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining and utilities. The report examined over 127,000 recordable incidents from 2017 to 2022, revealing nearly 24,000 SIF cases, including more than 20,000 hospitalizations, 3,154 amputations and 871 fatalities.

The data shows a leveling off of hospitalization cases in 2022, ushering in a return to pre-pandemic levels, and the number of amputation cases was the lowest in the past six years. The number of fatalities, however, drastically increased. The report also highlighted that midsize corporations experienced the highest rates of fatalities, indicating that SIFs significantly impact both the affected individual and the organization, regardless of company size.

The report identified sprains, strains and tears as the number one incident reported by contractors from all industries in 2022, which correlates with an aging workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the employment of workers aged 75 years and older to nearly double over the next decade. As older workers are more prone to injuries through falls, the need for occupational safeguards tailored to this demographic is crucial.

The most common cause of fatalities in 2022 was contact with object or equipment, which accounted for 55% of recorded deaths. This increase in fatalities coincided with workforces’ return to pre-pandemic capacity, the stabilization of exposure hours and the reintroduction of new and temporary workforces.

The report also provided industry-specific analysis indicating that human factors continue to be a significant contributor to transportation-related deaths, and that the upstream-onshore sector had the highest industry fatality rate in the oil and gas industry. Despite the variety of hazards and risks in the manufacturing industry, SIF rates were below average compared to other industries. In mining, 89% of all SIF cases in 2022 led to days away from work — the highest across all industries studied, averaging 88 days — while the utilities industry consistently accounted for less than 1% of total SIFs reported month over month.

Brian Callahan, president and COO at ISN, remarked that “by enabling organizations to anchor their safety initiatives in real-time data trends, [ISN] aims to support the most important goal: ensuring that employees return home safely to their families each day.” &

The R&I Editorial Team can be reached at [email protected].

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