Fatal work injuries totaled 23 in 2016 for the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the number of work-related fatalities in the Pittsburgh area decreased by two from the previous year. Fatal occupational injuries in the Pittsburgh area have ranged from a high of 45 in 2008 to a low of 18 in 2014. (See chart 1.)

Nationwide, a total of 5,190 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2016, a 7-percent increase from the 4,836 fatal injuries reported in 2015, according to the results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program. This was the third consecutive increase in annual workplace fatalities and the first time more than 5,000 fatalities have been recorded since 2008.

Type of incident

In the Pittsburgh area, falls, slips, or trips resulted in eight fatal work injuries and exposure to harmful substances or environments accounted for five fatalities. These two major categories accounted for 57 percent of all workplace fatalities in the Pittsburgh area. (See table 1.) The number of worker deaths from falls, slips, or trips increased by two fatalities over the year. All of the fatalities in exposure to harmful substances or environments were unintentional overdoses from the non-medical use of drugs or alcohol at work.

Violence and other injuries by persons or animals and transportation incidents were tied as the third-most frequent fatal work events with four fatalities each. The number of worker deaths from violence and other injuries by persons or animals decreased by two over the year and worker fatalities due to transportation incidents decreased by four.

Nationally, transportation incidents remained the most frequent fatal workplace event in 2016, accounting for 40 percent of fatal work injuries. (See chart 2.) Violence and other injuries by persons or animals was the second-most frequent type of event, with 17 percent of work-related fatalities, followed by falls, slips, or trips (16 percent) and contact with objects and equipment (15 percent).

Industry

Government had the largest number of fatalities in the Pittsburgh area with six, compared to four in the previous year. (See table 2.) Four of the 6 fatal injuries in government were to workers in local justice, public order, and safety activities.

The private construction industry sector had five workplace fatalities and the private transportation and warehousing sector had four. Residential building construction accounted for 3 of the 5 fatal injuries in the private construction industry, while general freight trucking accounted for 3 of the 4 workplace deaths in the private transportation and warehousing sector.

Occupation

Construction and extraction occupations and transportation and material moving occupations both had the highest number of workplace fatalities with five each. (See table 3.) The majority of the fatalities within the construction and extraction group were construction trades workers, with four worker deaths. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers accounted for 3 of the 5 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers.

Contracted Workers

A contracted worker is defined as a worker employed by one firm but working at the behest of another firm that exercises overall responsibility for the operations at the site of the fatal injury. In 2016, the Pittsburgh area had three fatally-injured workers identified as fitting the contracted worker criteria.

Additional highlights

• White, non-Hispanic workers accounted for all of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 67 percent of work-related deaths. The most frequent event in the Pittsburgh area for white, non-Hispanics was falls, slips, or trips with eight fatalities.
• Men accounted for 91 percent of the work-related fatalities in the Pittsburgh area, slightly lower than the national share of 93 percent. (See table 4.) Falls, slips, or trips made up 38 percent of the fatalities for men in the Pittsburgh area.
• In the Pittsburgh area, the single age group with the largest number of fatal injuries was 55-64 years old with 39 percent of the area’s total in 2016, compared to 22 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
• Of the 23 fatally-injured workers in the Pittsburgh area, 91 percent worked for wages and salaries. The most frequent fatal event for this group of workers was falls, slips, or trips with seven worker deaths.

Technical Note

Background of the program. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the BLS Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, compiles a count of all fatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year. The CFOI program uses diverse state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. This ensures counts are as complete and accurate as possible. Nationwide, for the 2016 data, over 23,300 unique source documents were reviewed as part of the data collection process. For technical information and definitions for CFOI, please go to the BLS Handbook of Methods on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/home.htm.

Federal/State agency coverage. The CFOI includes data for all fatal work injuries, even those that may be outside the scope of other agencies or regulatory coverage. Thus, any comparison between the BLS fatality census counts and those released by other agencies should take into account the different coverage requirements and definitions being used by each agency. More on the scope of CFOI can be found at www.bls.gov/iif/cfoiscope.htm.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Pennsylvania Department of Health 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.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, Bulletin Number 13-01, February 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at https://www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland Counties in Pennsylvania.

Information in this release is available to sensory-impaired individuals. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015-2016

Event or exposure(1)	2015	2016
	Number	Number	Percent
Total	25	23	100
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	6	4	17
Intentional injury by person	6	3	13
Homicides	4	1	4
Shooting by other person--intentional	4	1	4
Injury by person--unintentional or intent unknown	-	1	4
Injury by other person--unintentional or intent unknown	-	1	4
Shooting by other person--unintentional	-	1	4
Transportation incidents	8	4	17
Water vehicle incident	-	1	4
Fall or jump from water vehicle	-	1	4
Roadway incident involving motorized land vehicle	2	-	-
Roadway collision with object other than vehicle	-	1	4
Vehicle struck object or animal on side of roadway	-	1	4
Nonroadway incident involving motorized land vehicle	-	1	4
Nonroadway collision with object other than vehicle	-	1	4
Part of occupant's body caught between vehicle and other object in nonroadway transport incident	-	1	4
Fall, slip, trip	6	8	35
Fall on same level	3	1	4
Fall to lower level	3	7	30
Other fall to lower level	-	7	30
Other fall to lower level 21 to 25 feet	-	1	4
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	-	5	22
Exposure to other harmful substances	-	5	22
Nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol unintentional overdose	-	5	22
Footnotes: (1) Based on the BLS Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System (OIICS) 2.01 implemented for 2011 data forward.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of rounding. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries by industry, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015-2016

Industry(1)	2015	2016
	Number	Number	Percent
Total	25	23	100
Private industry	21	17	74
Goods producing	7	6	26
Natural resources and mining	1	1	4
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting	-	1	4
Animal production and aquaculture	-	1	4
Cattle ranching and farming	-	1	4
Dairy cattle and milk production	-	1	4
Construction	6	5	22
Construction of buildings	-	3	13
Residential building construction	-	3	13
Residential building construction	-	3	13
New single-family housing construction (except for-sale builders)	-	1	4
Specialty trade contractors	-	-	-
Building finishing contractors	-	1	4
Tile and terrazzo contractors	-	1	4
Residential tile and terrazzo contractors	-	1	4
Service providing	14	11	48
Trade, transportation, and utilities	6	5	22
Transportation and warehousing	4	4	17
Water transportation	-	1	4
Inland water transportation	-	1	4
Inland water transportation	-	1	4
Inland water freight transportation	-	1	4
Truck transportation	4	3	13
General freight trucking	2	3	13
Government(2)	4	6	26
Local government	4	6	26
Service providing	3	6	26
Public administration	2	5	22
Justice, public order, and safety activities	2	4	17
Justice, public order, and safety activities	2	4	17
Fire protection	-	2	9
Administration of economic programs	-	1	4
Administration of economic programs	-	1	4
Regulation, licensing, and inspection of miscellaneous commercial sectors	-	1	4
Footnotes: (1) Industry data are based on the North American Industry Classification System, 2012. (2) Includes fatal injuries to workers employed by governmental organizations regardless of industry.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of rounding. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Table 3. Fatal occupational injuries by occupation, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015-2016

Occupation(1)	2015	2016
	Number	Number	Percent
Total	25	23	100
Management, business, science, and arts occupations	-	-	-
Management, business, and financial occupations	-	1	4
Management occupations	-	1	4
Other management occupations	-	1	4
Agricultural managers	-	1	4
Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers	-	1	4
Service occupations	8	9	39
Protective service occupations	3	4	17
Fire fighting and prevention workers	-	2	9
Firefighters	-	2	9
Firefighters	-	2	9
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations	3	3	13
Grounds maintenance workers	1	-	-
Grounds maintenance workers	1	-	-
Landscaping and groundskeeping workers	-	1	4
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations	9	7	30
Construction and extraction occupations	7	5	22
Construction trades workers	6	4	17
Carpenters	-	1	4
Carpenters	-	1	4
Other construction and related workers	1	1	4
Construction and building inspectors	-	1	4
Construction and building inspectors	-	1	4
Production, transportation, and material moving occupations	4	5	22
Transportation and material moving occupations	4	5	22
Motor vehicle operators	4	4	17
Driver/sales workers and truck drivers	4	4	17
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	4	3	13
Water transportation workers	-	1	4
Ship engineers	-	1	4
Ship engineers	-	1	4
Footnotes: (1) Occupation data are based on the Standard Occupational Classification system, 2010.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of rounding. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Table 4. Fatal occupational injuries by worker characteristics, Pittsburgh, PA, 2015-2016

Characteristic	2015	2016
	Number	Number	Percent
Total	25	23	100
Employee status
Wage and salary workers(1)	23	21	91
Gender
Men	22	21	91
Age(2)
16 to 17 years	-	1	4
25 to 34 years	-	6	26
45 to 54 years	7	3	13
55 to 64 years	2	9	39
65 years and over	3	1	4
Race or ethnic origin(3)
White (non-Hispanic)	19	23	100
Footnotes: (1) May include volunteers and workers receiving other types of compensation. (2) Information may not be available for all age groups. (3) Persons identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. The race categories shown exclude Hispanic and Latino workers.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Percentages may not add to totals because of rounding. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.