Fatal work injuries totaled 173 in 2022 for Tennessee, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Victoria G. Lee noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Tennessee was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 179 in 1995 to a low of 95 in 2013. 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, Tennessee, 2013–22

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	95	71	24
2014	127	96	31
2015	112	94	18
2016	122	94	28
2017	128	101	27
2018	122	93	29
2019	124	95	29
2020	142	123	19
2021	132	112	20
2022	173	138	35

In Tennessee, transportation incidents resulted in 63 fatal work injuries. Violence and other injuries by persons or animals accounted for 38 fatalities. These two major categories accounted for 58 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were up from 54 over the year, and worker fatalities due to violence and other injuries by persons or animals were up from 21.

Exposure to harmful substances or environments was the third-most frequent fatal work event with 29 fatalities, up from 20 in the prior year. Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 25 work-related deaths, up from 23.

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 Tennessee, 2022

Event	United States	Tennessee
Transportation incidents	38	36
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	15	22
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	17
Falls, slips, trips	16	14
All other	16	10

The private construction industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Tennessee with 43, up from 21 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Falls, slips, and trips resulted in 13 of the 43 fatalities in the industry; transportation incidents accounted for another 12 fatalities. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 33, or 77 percent, of the 43 fatal workplace injuries in the construction industry.

The transportation and warehousing industry sector had 31 fatal workplace injuries, up from 21 in the prior year. The long-distance general freight trucking industry accounted for 15, or 48 percent, of the fatal injuries in this industry.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 49. (See table 3.) Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers accounted for 26 of the 49 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 35. Construction laborers suffered 11 of the work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group.

• Men accounted for 90 percent of the work-related fatalities in Tennessee, compared to 92 percent nationwide. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 37 percent of the fatalities for men in Tennessee.
• White non-Hispanics accounted for 67 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 62 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
• Of the 173 fatal work injuries in Tennessee, 80 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers was transportation incidents.

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 Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development 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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