Fatal work injuries totaled 153 in 2022 for Ohio, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Ohio was down from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 222 in 1999 to a low of 117 in 2020. Nationwide, a total of 5,486 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2022, a 5.7-percent increase from 5,190 in 2021, according to the results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).

  

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Chart 1. Number of fatal occupational injuries by employee status, Ohio, 2013–22

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	149	115	34
2014	185	131	54
2015	202	152	50
2016	164	124	40
2017	174	148	26
2018	158	124	34
2019	166	134	32
2020	117	97	20
2021	171	139	32
2022	153	128	25

In Ohio, transportation incidents resulted in 60 fatal work injuries, accounting for 39 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were down from 67 over the year.

Falls, slips, and trips as well as contact with objects and equipment accounted for 26 fatalities each. Worker fatalities due to falls, slips, and trips were down from 34 over the year, while contact with objects or equipment work-related deaths were up from 25 in 2021.

Nationally, transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event in 2022, accounting for 38 percent of fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips were the second-most common fatal event (16 percent), followed by violence and other injuries by persons or animals along with exposure to harmful substances or environments (15 percent each).

  

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Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Ohio, 2022

Event	United States	Ohio
Transportation incidents	38	39
Falls, slips, trips	16	17
Contact with objects and equipment	14	17
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	14
All other	18	13

The private transportation and warehousing industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Ohio with 26, down from 28 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Transportation incidents resulted in 17 of the 26 fatalities in the industry. The truck transportation subsector accounted for 21 of the 26 fatal workplace injuries in the transportation and warehousing industry.

The private manufacturing industry sector had 25 fatal workplace injuries, down from 30 in the previous year. Contact with objects or equipment resulted in 10 of the 25 fatalities in the manufacturing industry.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 45. (See table 3.) Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers accounted for 29 of the 45 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 23, followed by installation, maintenance, and repair occupations with 20. General maintenance and repair workers suffered five work-related deaths within the installation, maintenance, and repair occupational group.

• Men accounted for 93 percent of the work-related fatalities in Ohio, similar to the national share. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 40 percent of the fatalities for men in Ohio.
• White non-Hispanics accounted for 76 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 58 percent of work-related deaths.
• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 57 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, the same as the national share.
• Of the 153 fatal work injuries in Ohio, 84 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers was transportation incidents; contact with objects and equipment was the most frequent fatal event for self-employed workers.

Background of the program. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, is a count of all fatalities resulting from workplace injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year. The CFOI uses a variety of state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. This ensures counts are as complete and accurate as possible. For the 2022 national data, over 27,200 unique source documents were reviewed as part of the data collection process. For technical information and definitions for the CFOI, see the BLS Handbook of Methods and the CFOI definitions.

Federal/State agency coverage. The CFOI includes data for all fatal work injuries, some of which may be outside the scope of other agencies or regulatory coverage. Comparisons between CFOI counts and those released by other agencies should account for the different coverage requirements and definitions used by each agency. For more information on the scope of CFOI, see Scope of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries: Concepts.

Latency Cases. Latent fatal occupational injury cases occur when the date of injury differs from the date of death. In some cases, the death occurs in a different year than the occupational injury and are known as cross-year latent cases. In 2022, there were 186 cases nationally where this occurred, and 157 of these latent cases occurred more than 30 days prior to the start of 2022. For more information on latent cases, see Understanding latency in fatal occupational injuries.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. CFOI reports fatal workplace injuries only. These may include fatal workplace injuries complicated by an illness such as COVID-19. Fatal workplace illnesses not precipitated by an injury are not in scope for CFOI. CFOI does not report any illness related information, including COVID-19. Additional information is available on the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, Compensation, Occupational Requirements, and Work Stoppages Statistics.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Ohio BWC Division of Safety and Hygiene for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. BLS also appreciates the efforts of all federal, state, local, and private sector entities that provided source documents used to identify fatal work injuries. Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (Federal Employees' Compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation divisions); the Federal Railroad Administration; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; state vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; state departments of health, labor, and industrial relations and workers' compensation agencies; state and local police departments; and state farm bureaus.

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