Deaths and Injuries Involving Elevators or Escalators in Construction and the General Population

• Published in: Policy File 2018
• Main Authors: Dong, Xiuwen Sue, Wang, Xuanwen, Katz, Rebecca
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: Centre for Conflict Resolution; Health care policy; Industry

Elevators and escalators are potential sources of serious injuries and deaths to the general public and workers installing, repairing, and maintaining them. Workers are also at risk when cleaning elevator shafts, conducting emergency evacuations of stalled elevators, or performing construction work near open shafts. This Quarterly Data Report provides updated statistics on elevator- and escalator-related fatal and nonfatal injuries using the most recent data and information on injury prevention from multiple sources. Fatality data are from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), and nonfatal injury data are from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). Both datasets were collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). To calculate injury rates, denominators were obtained from the Current Population Survey. The number of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections and corresponding penalties were also estimated. Additionally, the number of elevator- (product code 1889) or escalator- (product code 1890) related injuries (including non-work-related) treated at hospitals in the general population from 2007 to 2017 was calculated using the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) maintained by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).