FACTS

1. Half of all accidental deaths in the home are caused by a fall. Most fall injuries in the home happen at ground level, not from an elevation.
2. Slips and falls do not constitute a primary cause of fatal occupational injuries, but represent the primary cause of lost days from work.
3. The three leading causes of work-related injuries treated in an emergency department were contact with objects and equipment, overexertion and bodily reaction, and falls, slips and trips without a fall.
4. Falls occur in virtually all manufacturing and service sectors. Fatal falls however are in construction, mining and certain maintenance activities.
5. According to the American Trucking Association, slips and falls are the leading cause of compensable injury in the trucking industry.
6. Falls are the most common cause of traumatic brain injuries.
7. Incidence of falls goes up with each decade of life.

STATS

• 27% of the 900,380 nonfatal work injuries resulting in days away from work in 2018 were related to slips, trips, and falls.
• falls on the same level is the second leading preventable workplace injury event resulting in cases with days away from work. In 2019, 146 workers died and 153,140 were injured.
• Each year there are about 17,000 lost-time injuries due to falls in the workplace.
• 65% of all fall-related injuries are from “same level”.
• One in five lost-time injuries result from falls.
• Every year about 20 people die in Ontario because of workplace falls.
• 80 workers are injured every day because of a fall – that’s one every 20 minutes.
• An average WSIB claim is $11,771; factor in other costs like lost productivity and staff replacement, and the cost can be as much as four times more – approximately $59,000 per injury.
• with a profit margin of 5%, sales/services required to cover the total cost of one injury equals about $1.2 million.