Fatal work injuries totaled 207 in 2019 for Georgia, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Georgia was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 249 in 1994 to a low of 101 in 2012.

Nationwide, a total of 5,333 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2019, a 2-percent increase from the 5,250 in 2018, according to the results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program. The 5,333 fatal occupational injuries in 2019 represents the largest annual number since 2007.

Fatal event or exposure

In Georgia, transportation incidents resulted in 81 fatal work injuries and violence and other injuries by persons or animals accounted for 36 fatalities. These two major categories accounted for 57 percent of all workplace fatalities in the state. (See table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were down from 90 over the year and worker fatalities due to violence and other injuries by persons or animals were down from 40.

Exposure to harmful substances or environments was the third-most frequent fatal work event with 30 fatalities, followed by falls, slips, and trips with 29.

Nationally, transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal workplace event in 2019, accounting for 40 percent of fatal work injuries. (See chart 2.) Falls, slips, and trips was the second-most common fatal event (17 percent), followed by violence and other injuries by persons or animals (16 percent).

Industry

The private construction industry had the highest number of fatalities in Georgia with 47. (See table 2.) Transportation incidents resulted in 10 of the 47 fatalities in the industry.

The private administrative and support and waste management and remediation services industry had 29 workplace fatalities, followed by the private transportation and warehousing sector with 25 work-related fatilities. The administrative and support services subsector accounted for 26, or 90 percent, of the fatal injuries for the private administrative and support and waste management and remediation services industry. The general freight trucking industry group accounted for 17, or 68 percent, of the fatal injuries for the private transportation and warehousing industry.

Occupation

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of workplace fatalities with 54. (See table 3.) Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers accounted for 27 of the 54 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second highest number of workplace fatalities with 47, followed by building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations with 21. Construction laborers suffered 16 of the work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group. Grounds maintenance workers accounted for 18 of the 21 building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupational fatalities.

Additional highlights

• Men accounted for 87 percent of the work-related fatalities in Georgia, compared to 92 percent nationwide. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 38 percent of the fatalities for men in Georgia.

• White non-Hispanics accounted for 44 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 62 percent of work-related deaths.

• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 61 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2019, compared to 55 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

• Of the 207 fatal work injuries in Georgia, 75 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. Transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers and for self-employed workers.

Technical Note

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 fatal work 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 2019 national data, over 25,100 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 on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/home.htm and the CFOI definitions at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm.

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 www.bls.gov/iif/cfoiscope.htm and www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/concepts.htm.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner 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.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

Table 1. Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure, Georgia, 2018–19

Event or exposure (1)	2018	2019
	Number	Number	Percent
Total	186	207	100
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	40	36	17
Intentional injury by person	39	32	15
Intentional injury by other person	25	20	10
Self-inflicted injury--intentional	14	12	6
Injury by person--unintentional or intent unknown	--	2	1
Injury by other person--unintentional or intent unknown	--	1	0
Self-inflicted injury--unintentional or intent unknown	--	1	0
Transportation incidents	90	81	39
Aircraft incidents	16	6	3
Rail vehicle incidents	4	1	0
Pedestrian vehicular incident	22	16	8
Water vehicle incidents	--	1	0
Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle	39	51	25
Nonroadway incident involving motorized land vehicles	9	6	3
Fires and explosions	3	1	0
Falls, slips, trips	22	29	14
Falls on same level	3	3	1
Falls to lower level	18	26	13
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	30	14
Exposure to electricity	5	9	4
Exposure to temperature extremes	1	3	1
Exposure to other harmful substances	8	16	8
Contact with objects and equipment	16	28	14
Struck by object or equipment	11	21	10
Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects	3	5	2
Overexertion and bodily reaction	--	--	--
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. For complete information on how the data are coded and presented see our definitions page at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries by industry, Georgia, 2019

Industry (1)	Number	Percent
Total	207	100
Private industry (2)	185	89
Goods producing	--	--
Natural resources and mining	12	6
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting	11	5
Construction	47	23
Manufacturing	--	--
Service providing (3)	--	--
Trade, transportation, and utilities	42	20
Wholesale trade	8	4
Retail trade	9	4
Transportation and warehousing	25	12
Truck transportation	21	10
General freight trucking	17	8
Information	--	--
Financial activities	4	2
Professional and business services	30	14
Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services	29	14
Administrative and support services	26	13
Educational and health services	5	2
Health care and social assistance	4	2
Leisure and hospitality	11	5
Accommodation and food services	11	5
Other services, except public administration	6	3
Government (4)	22	11
Federal government	11	5
State government	--	--
Local government	11	5
Footnotes: (1) CFOI has used several versions of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) since 2003 to define industry. For complete information on the version of NAICS used in this year, see our definitions page at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm. (2) Cases where ownership is unknown are included in private industry counts. (3) Cases where industry is unknown are included in the service sector counts. (4) Includes fatal injuries to workers employed by governmental organizations regardless of industry. Cases classified as foreign government and other government are included in all government counts, but not displayed separately.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. For complete information on how the data are coded and presented see our definitions page at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Table 3. Fatal occupational injuries by occupation, Georgia, 2019

Occupation (1)	Number	Percent
Total	207	100
Management occupations	11	5
Business and financial operations occupations	--	--
Computer and mathematical occupations	--	--
Architecture and engineering occupations	--	--
Life, physical, and social science occupations	--	--
Community and social service occupations	--	--
Legal occupations	--	--
Educational instruction and library occupations	--	--
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations	1	0
Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations	1	0
Healthcare support occupations	--	--
Protective service occupations	10	5
Firefighting and prevention workers	--	--
Law enforcement workers	4	2
Food preparation and serving related occupations	4	2
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations	21	10
Grounds maintenance workers	18	9
Personal care and service occupations	3	1
Sales and related occupations	4	2
Office and administrative support occupations	7	3
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations	7	3
Construction and extraction occupations	47	23
Supervisors of construction and extraction workers	5	2
Construction trades workers	37	18
Construction laborers	16	8
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations	13	6
Production occupations	12	6
Transportation and material moving occupations	54	26
Air transportation workers	3	1
Motor vehicle operators	38	18
Driver/sales workers and truck drivers	35	17
Driver/sales workers	3	1
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers	27	13
Light truck drivers	5	2
Material moving workers	12	6
Military specific occupations (2)	8	4
Footnotes: (1) CFOI has used several versions of the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC) system since 2003 to define occupation. For complete information on the version of SOC used in this year, see our definitions page at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm. Cases where occupation is unknown are included in the total. (2) Includes fatal injuries to persons identified as resident armed forces regardless of individual occupation listed.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. For complete information on how the data are coded and presented see our definitions page at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.

Table 4. Fatal occupational injuries by selected demographic characteristics, Georgia, 2018–19

Worker characteristics	2018	2019
	Number	Number	Percent
Total	186	207	100
Employee status
Wage and salary workers (1)	146	156	75
Self-employed (2)	40	51	25
Gender
Men	176	180	87
Women	10	27	13
Age (3)
Under 16 years	--	1	0
20 to 24 years	19	17	8
25 to 34 years	29	35	17
35 to 44 years	47	49	24
45 to 54 years	39	43	21
55 to 64 years	32	39	19
65 years and over	19	21	10
Race or ethnic origin (4)
White, non-Hispanic	106	91	44
Black or African-American, non-Hispanic	43	74	36
Hispanic or Latino	24	37	18
Asian, non-Hispanic	12	5	2
Footnotes: (1) May include volunteers and workers receiving other types of compensation. Cases where employment status is unknown are included in the counts of wage and salary workers. (2) Includes self-employed workers, owners of unincorporated businesses and farms, paid and unpaid family workers, and may include some owners of incorporated businesses or members of partnerships. (3) Information may not be available for all age groups. (4) Persons identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. The race categories shown exclude data for Hispanics and Latinos. Cases where ethnicity is unknown are included in counts of non-Hispanic workers.
NOTE: Data for all years are final. Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. For complete information on how the data are coded and presented see our definitions page at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfdef.htm. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. CFOI fatal injury counts exclude illness-related deaths unless precipitated by an injury event.