New U.S. Labor Department figures show the number of deaths in trucking last year accounted for about 10% of all fatal work injuries.
by Staff
September 11, 2014
1 min to read
New U.S. Labor Department figures show the number of deaths in trucking last year accounted for about 10% of all fatal work injuries.
There were 461 deaths in what the department labels the truck transportation sector, 8% lower than in 2012, with 67% of these incidents occurring on the roadway. This includes deaths to vehicle occupants resulting from traffic incidents that occur on public roadways, shoulders or surrounding areas, but excludes those occurring entirely off the roadway, such as in parking lots and on farms as well as incidents involving trains.
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Nine percent of the trucking deaths were due to being struck by an object or equipment, 5% were caused by falls and 1% was due to homicides.
Of the wider transportation and warehousing sector there were 687 deaths, accounting for about 16% of all the 4,405 on the job deaths in 2013, down from 4,628 in 2012. While a smaller share of these happened on the roadway, 53%, a level similar to trucking involved being stuck by an object or equipment as well as falls. However, a greater portion, 5%, was attributed to homicides.
Total U.S. transportation deaths were 1,740, or 40% of all work fatalities, a decline from 1,923 in 2012. Just over 990 of these fatalities happened on roadways.
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