Wilmington personal injury lawyersWorkers in manufacturing and construction are at the greatest risk of suffering from serious injuries due to on-the-job accidents. It has long been apparent that working in construction or in manufacturing can be dangerous, as the jobs are physically demanding and require the careful use of heavy equipment. Recently, however, a new report from Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has demonstrated the extent of the risk for workers in these sectors.

Employers and employees both need to know about the outsized risk of some of the most serious workplace injuries within construction and manufacturing. Steps should be taken to identify hazards, follow OSHA safety rules, and do everything possible to minimize the danger so there will not be so many reports of serious injuries next year.

OSHA’s New Reports Shows Serious Injury Risks OSHA was able to prepare its new report shedding light on the risks of serious work injuries because new reporting requirements were created and went into effect in January of 2015. More than a year later, data collected shows the troubling extent of workplace injuries.

The data actually underestimates risks both because it only includes information from states under OSHA’s purview and not states administering their own safety rules, and also because many employers do not report injuries despite being required to.

OHSA estimates as many as 50 percent of serious work-site injuries that should be reported are not. A simple lack of knowledge on the part of many small and midsize owners may be the reason for noncompliance, and OSHA has plans for educational outreach. However, some employers don’t report work injuries because they feel the cost of not doing so is low and outweighs the potential consequences if the injury is reported and investigated.

Regardless of why the injuries aren’t being reported and why the data is limited, it still creates cause for concern because the number of serious injuries is already very high. On average, 30 workers daily suffered a severe work-related injury. There were 10,388 total severe work-related injuries reported over 2015 under OSHA’s new reporting mandates. Of the reports, 2,644 came in due to workers experiencing amputation and 7,636 came in because workers got hurt and required an inpatient admission to a hospital to get care.

The number one industry where hospitalizations occurred and amputations occurred was manufacturing. Of the workers who had to be hospitalized due to a work injury, 26 percent had worked in manufacturing when the incident happened. This was the highest number of workers who had to be admitted to the hospital for work injuries across any industry. Construction was also dangerous, with 19 percent of inpatient hospital stays among the workers occurring when construction workers got hurt.

For amputation, 57 percent of the people who lost a body part because of job tasks were working in the manufacturing sector at the time of loss. When it comes to the workplace, 10 percent of amputees were in the construction sector.

Amputees and others who were seriously hurt at work should get their bills covered and may be entitled to additional damages, including disability compensation, through a workers’ compensation claim.