The 2014 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index indicates that the 10 most disabling injuries amounted to $59.58 billion a year in direct workers’ compensation costs which is an increase of 7.55% ($55.4 billion) from the last index.
Overexertion and falls accounted for more than $25 billion.
In its 15th year, the annual ranking of top 10 causes of serious, nonfatal workplace injuries is based on the company’s workers’ compensation claims data and data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the National Academy of Social Insurance. They looked at the data from 2012, the most recent year which complete data is available, to determine which events caused employees to miss six or more days of work and then ranked them by total workers’ compensation costs.
The top 10 injury causes and total costs in billions are:
- Overexertion involving outside source (lifting, pushing, pulling, holding, carrying): $15.1
- Falls on same level: $9.19
- Struck by object of equipment: $5.3
- Falls to lower level: $5.12
- Other exertions or bodily reactions (bending, crawling, reaching, twisting, climbing, stepping, kneeling, sitting, standing, walking): $4.27
- Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle: $3.18
- Slip or trip without fall: $2.17
- Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects: $2.1
- Repetitive motions including micro-tasks: $1.84
- Struck against object or equipment: $1.76.