FACTS

1. The most serious struck-by injuries occur when a worker is stuck by a moving vehicle or piece of equipment.
2. Many struck-by injuries occur when a worker is struck by a flying or falling object, such as a nail or piece of falling equipment. It is also common for workers who slip or fall to be struck by the tools or materials in their hands.
3. Struck-by injuries are a cause for concern in all industries. Most of them happen in General Trucking, Homebuilding, Mechanical and Sheet Metal Work, and Lumber and Builders Supply. When a worker is hit by something, the part of the body that’s injured most often is the eyes.
4. Ironworkers experienced the highest rate of caught-in or between fatalities.
5. Older construction workers experienced an elevated fatality risk.
6. Caught-in or between incidents are among OSHA’s “Construction Focus Four” hazards, which also include electrocution, falls and struck-by incidents.

STATS

• Deaths from Line of Fire injuries number into the hundreds. Approximately 27% of work place deaths are related to Line of Fire accidents. 
• According to the 2016 WSIB Statistical Report by Struck By/Caught in Objects accounted for 13% of all workplace fatalities in Ontario over the last ten years (2007–2016). 
• Caught-in or caught-between incidents resulted in 275 construction worker deaths from 2011 to 2015 – the most of any major industry – according to CPWR. 
• About 69 percent of the deaths were attributed to “being caught or crushed in collapsing materials,” a 50 percent increase over the five-year period, the report states.
• In 2015, 68 construction workers died from a caught-in or between incidents. That is a 33 percent increase from 2011, when 51 workers were killed.
• Among other major industries, manufacturing (244 deaths) and agriculture (197) experienced the next highest totals of caught-in or between fatalities from 2011 to 2015.
• The most recent five-year history of accidents and injuries shows workers caused 20 percent of reported injuries by putting themselves (or some part of their body) in the direct pathway of oncoming harm, or the line of fire. While most of these accidents result in crushed fingers and hands or broken toes, the B.L.S. reports that 17 percent of U.S. workplace fatalities are the result of line-of-fire accidents.