NSC Reveals Major Injury and Fatality Events Related to OSHA Top 10 Safety Citations

ORLANDO, Florida – On the heels of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announcing its Top 10 most frequently cited safety standards for fiscal year 2024, the National Safety Council, America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate, uncovered the primary injury and fatality events associated with these workplace compliance issues. 

Unveiled during the 2024 NSC Safety Congress & Expo, Fall Protection – General Requirements remained at the top of OSHA’s list for the 14th year in a row, followed by Hazard Communication and Ladders. Recognizing the severity of these persistent trends, NSC examined the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) injury and fatality data to further explore safety outcomes behind the citations. 

“While OSHA has revealed a list of the top 10 safety citations for many years, it is critical to also highlight the factors associated with these workplace issues,” said Lorraine Martin, NSC president and CEO. “By examining injury, illness and fatality data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in tandem with OSHA’s findings, we can better understand safety outcomes and ultimately find impactful solutions to keep workers safe.”

The following are some of the top incidents related to the most frequently cited workplace safety standards based on 2022 BLS data:

• Falls, which account for four of the top 10 citations (1. Fall Protection – General Requirements, 3. Ladders, 7. Fall Protection – Training Requirements, and 8. Scaffolds) resulted in 865 deaths in 2022.  
• Respiratory Illnesses (4. Respiratory Protection) over 22,100 respiratory illnesses cases were reported in manufacturing and another 2,000 in construction in 2022.
• Hazardous Energy (5. Control of Hazardous Energy – Lockout/Tagout) the injury event caught in running equipment or machinery during maintenance or cleaning led to 54 deaths in 2022 and nearly 18,000 days away, restricted or transferred, or DART, in 2021-2022. Exposure to electricity led to 145 deaths in 2022 and nearly 4,000 DART cases in 2021-2022. 
• Forklift, Order Picker, Platform Truck – Powered (6. Powered Industrial Trucks) was the primary source of 73 deaths in 2022, while DART cases were almost 25,000 in 2021-2022. 
• Eye and Face Injuries (9. Personal Protective and Lifesaving Equipment – Eye and Face Protection) nearly 90,000 DART cases were reported in 2021-2022 involving face and eye injuries. 
• Caught in Running Equipment (10. Machine Guarding) caught in running equipment or machinery during regular operation resulted in 35 deaths in 2022 and almost 27,000 DART cases in 2021-2022. 

NSC also noted some of the other top fatality events in 2022 outside of OSHA’s Top 10 safety citations, including:

• Transportation incidents, which represent the top cause of death across industries in the U.S., led to nearly 2,100 deaths, including almost 1,400 from roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles and 325 from pedestrian vehicular incidents.
• Workplace violence yielded 865 fatalities, including 791 by intentional injury by a person. 
• Overexertion and bodily reaction generated more than 1 million DART events in 2021-2022, including nearly 700,000 DART cases from overexertion involving outside sources. 

To learn more about OSHA’s Top 10 citations for 2024, a more in-depth analysis will be published in the December edition of Safety+Health magazine, a National Safety Council publication. To learn more about the major injury and death events behind these workplace compliance issues, visit nsc.org.

About the National Safety Council 
The National Safety Council is America’s leading nonprofit safety advocate – and has been for 110 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace and roadways. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.