Citation

Yong Jeong B. Int. J. Ind. Ergonomics 1999; 23(5-6): 565-572.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

This study concerns with the comparisons of variables between fatal and nonfatal accidents in Korean manufacturing industries. The national industrial accident statistics for the years 1991-1994 were extracted from the annual publications of Ministry of Labor. These data were used to compare the distributions of fatal and nonfatal injuries in terms of company size, injured person's age, work experience, accident time, activity at time of accident, accident type, injury type, injured body part, and accident agency. Results show that the distributions of the fatal injuries are statistically different from those of the nonfatal injuries: (1) nonfatal injuries occur more frequently in the younger workers, while deaths occur more frequently in the older workers; (2) the proportion of death occurring in night shift is greater than that of nonfatal injuries; (3) 'caught in and between objects' is the most common type of accident, but the second common type of accident is 'awkward or sudden movement' in the nonfatal injuries, instead of 'falls from a height' in deaths; and (4) 'fracture' is the leading caused injury and death, but the second leading type of injury is 'contusion or bruise' in the nonfatal injuries and 'cerebral concussion' in deaths.Relevance to industryStrategies for accident prevention should be in reasonable agreement with significant variables of occupational accidents. These results can be used to develop more effective accidental occupational death and injury prevention programs for manufacturing industry.