The South Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for surveying a sample of private industries, as well as state and local governments, to gather statistics regarding workplace injuries and illnesses in South Carolina.
The 2014 statistics for non-fatal injuries in private industry state that for every 100 employees, there were 2.8 cases of workplace injury or illness during the year. About one-third of those cases involved loss of some portion of a work day.
The data shows for 2014 both the numbers of and incidence rate per 100 full-time workers. There were 6,200 cases of workplace injury in manufacturing and 10,200 cases in trade, transportation, and utility services.
Though the absolute numbers were lower, some of the highest incidence rates of injuries occurred in the health care services industry. Hospitals and nursing homes saw incidence rates of approximately six incidents per year per 100 full time equivalent employees. Police saw incidents of 6.7 per year per 100 full time equivalent employees.
Manufacturing, beverage and tobacco product manufacturing were among the more dangerous jobs, with 6.1 incidents per 100 full time equivalent employees. Animal slaughter and processing saw injury rates of 3.5 per 100 full time equivalent employees.
Ship and boat building were also among the leaders in incidence of injury, with 7.4 injuries per year per 100 full time employee equivalents.
The most dangerous job in 2014, though, was landscaping, with 8.3 injuries per year per 100 full time employee equivalents.
All told, tens of thousands of South Carolinians were injured in 2014 while doing their job.
Of course, people were also killed in the line of work in 2014. Fatal injuries in South Carolina totalled 62 in 2014 according to the survey. The following shows the occupations with the largest number of fatal worker injuries:
- Driver/sales worker and truck drivers – nine fatalities;
- First-line supervisors of construction trades and extraction workers -three fatalities;
- First-line supervisors of sales workers – three fatalities;
- Painters and paperhangers – three fatalities; and
- Stock clerks and order fillers – one fatality.
Amazingly, of all of the workplace fatalities considered in the survey, only two victims were women.
Understanding Workers’ Compensation Benefits
The South Carolina workers’ compensation system is supposed to provide an equitable and timely system of benefits to injured workers. But, injured workers should be cautious about dealing with the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission without the assistance of an experienced attorney.
Failure to follow the rules, file the right forms, and failure to understand legal rights to compensation for your injury can cause an injured worker to lose their right to full compensation.
If you or a loved one have been injured on the job, report the injury to your employer immediately. Seek out medical treatment from an authorized medical facility. Then, call the experienced workers’ compensation attorneys at Double Aught Injury Lawyers for a free case review.