In recent years, private businesses have had about 1,000,000 reported incidents per year where workers have lost time to injury or illness. That doesn’t include government workers, and it doesn’t include cases where a worker ended up using general sick or leave time. Whether reported or not, these accidents have one thing in common: they happened on the job, and the workers were entitled to appropriate compensation.
One of the biggest factors in determining that compensation is how the accident happened and if the employer took steps to prevent it. Here’s a look at some of the most common causes of accidents that employers should be well aware of:
- Truck accidents cost the worker involved a median of 16 days of missed work and cost employers 3 days away from work per every 10,000 employees.
- Injuries on ladders were close behind with 14 days lost per injured worker and 2 days lost per 10,000 workers.
- Injuries caused by another worker’s injury or illness accounted for 13 days lost per injured worker and 18 days lost per 10,000 workers.
In terms of the type of accident, overexertion or bodily reactions accounted for over a third of injuries. Falls, slips, and trips made up a quarter. Contact with objects or equipment was close behind at 23 percent.
Stats may provide some interesting insights, but they don’t tell the full story of how an injury happened and if the worker in a particular case is entitled to compensation. In fact, the biggest relevance they might have to your injury claim is by showing how much experience employers and insurance companies have defending against claims. If you’ve been injured at work, contact a workers’ compensation attorney today.