1996 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries — 1997-08-07

Largely as a result of reductions in job-related homicides and electrocutions, the number of fatal work injuries fell in 1996 to 6,112, the lowest level in the five-year history of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. The downward trend in the past two years reversed the increases reported in 1993 and 1994. (See table 1.) Job-related electrocutions dropped 20 percent, and homicides fell 12 percent from 1995 to 1996. In contrast, fatalities from falls to lower levels continued to rise, reaching a five-year high. Half of the fatal falls occurred in the construction industry. This release profiles these and other fatal work injuries by type of event, occupation, industry, demographic characteristics of the worker, and state where injury occurred. Highway traffic incidents and homicides continued to lead all other events that resulted in fatal work injuries in 1996.