Division of Labor and Industry

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The Maryland Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program collects and publishes statistics on all fatal occupationally related injuries that occur in the State of Maryland. CFOI is conducted within the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, Division of Labor and Industry in cooperation with the U.S Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Preliminary results for the CFOI program, Maryland, 2013

Fatal work injuries in Maryland totaled 78, according to the preliminary results. This count represented an 8 percent increase from 2012's final tally of 72. A number of these fatal events, however, were not under MOSH's jurisdiction, including cases of workplace homicide, accounting for 12 percent of the total and transportation roadway incidents, accounting for 9 percent. Fatal occupational injuries in Maryland have ranged from a high of 106 cases reported in 2006 to a low of 60 cases reported in 2008. Final fatality numbers for Maryland, as well as the nation, will be released in April 2015.

Highlights from the Maryland Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2013

• With 22 workplace fatalities, representing 28 percent of the total count, transportation related incidents were the leading cause of death to workers in the State of Maryland in 2013, as they have been every year since 1996.
   
• Half of the transportation incidents (11 cases) were pedestrian-vehicular events where the worker was struck by a vehicle either in, or on the side of the roadway. Four of these cases occurred within a construction work zone. Seven of the transportation incidents involved highway crashes between vehicles such as a when a truck driver loses control of his vehicle and crosses the line into oncoming traffic.
   
• Both falls, slips or trips, and violence and other injuries by persons or animals, were the second most frequently occurring events, each with 17 reported cases. Of the fatal injuries due to falls, 14 of the cases involved falls to a lower level.
   
• The government sector, which includes federal, state, and local government employment experienced the most fatalities in the State with 19 reported cases. Ten of the cases involved federal workers, while 8 occurred in local government and one in State government.
   
• Of the 8 local government fatalities, 3 workers were killed after being struck by an object or piece of equipment; two firefighters were killed, one from fire, another in a pedestrian-vehicle accident. Two officers in police protection lost their lives, one from homicide, and one from suicide. The remaining case did not meet publication criteria.
   
• Slightly over three-quarters of the fatalities, (59 cases) occurred in private industry with service-providing industries accounting for 59 percent (35 cases) and goods-producing industries accounting for 41 percent (24 cases). Based on Maryland DLLR employment data, goods-producing industries accounted for roughly 13 percent of the State's private sector employment in 2013.
   
• The construction sector, with 18 reported cases, had the highest fatality count in the private sector. With 146,000 employees, construction represented 7 percent of private sector employment.
   
• Within the construction sector, specialty trade contractors (NAICS 238) accounted for 10 of the work-related deaths, and of these, 7 occurred with foundation, structure, and building exterior contractors (NAICS 2381).
   
• Similarly with the 2013 national results, falls, slips and trips was the primary cause of death in the construction sector with 6 reported cases in Maryland; one fewer than the 7 reported in 2012.
   
• Men accounted for all 18 of Maryland's construction fatalities and half involved Hispanic or Latino workers.
   
• Fatalities in the transportation and warehousing sector (NAICS 48-49) declined by more than half from 12 reported cases in 2012 down to 5 fatalities in 2013. General freight trucking, long distance (NAICS 48412) accounted for 3 of the 5 cases. Transportation and warehousing reported 11 deaths in 2011 and 9 in 2010.
   
• Six workers were killed while employed in the accommodation and food services sector (NAICS 72). Of these, 5 worked in food services and drinking places (NAICS 722).
   
• White, non-Hispanic workers accounted for 55 percent of the fatalities in Maryland, while nationally this group accounted for 68 percent; black, non-Hispanic workers accounted for just under one-quarter of the deaths in the State, while blacks accounted for 9 percent of the nation's total. Hispanic or Latino workers accounted for 18 percent of the deaths in Maryland as well as the nation.
   
• Workers born in the United States accounted for 73 percent (57 cases) of Maryland's fatality count. Of the 21 workers of foreign-born descent, 43 percent came from El Salvador.
  
• Men accounted for 95 percent of the State's fatality count. Their proportion of the total was up from 91 percent in 2012. The primary manner in which the fatal injury occurred for men was a transportation incident with 22 cases, while violence and other injuries by persons or animals and falls, slips or trips accounted for 16 cases each.
   
• Based on employment status, just under 80 percent of the decedents (62 cases) worked for wages or salaries while the remaining 16 were self-employed. The most frequent manner in which a wage and salary worker was killed was a transportation incident (20 cases) while falls, slips or trips (6 cases) was the most frequent fatal event for the self-employed.
   
• The construction and extraction occupations had the highest number of fatalities with 17 cases. Over one-third of these fatal events were the result of falls, slips, or trips.
   
• Transportation and material moving occupations had the next highest count with 14 cases. Eight of these cases involved either vehicle highway crashes or workers struck by vehicles alongside, or in the road. Some of the more detailed occupations in this category were bus drivers, driver/sales workers, tractor-trailer drivers and taxi drivers.

The Baltimore-Towson, Maryland Metropolitan Statistical Area

• Representing 45 percent of the State's total fatality count, 35 fatalities occurred in the Baltimore-Towson, Maryland Metropolitan Statistical Area which includes Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, and Queen Anne's Counties, as well as Baltimore City.
  
• Transportation incidents and violence and other injuries by persons or animals, were the two most frequent events in the Baltimore-Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2013, each with 9 reported cases. Together these two events accounted for 51 percent of the total.
   
• Of the 9 transportation related events, 5 cases involved pedestrian-vehicle incidents with 2 of the workers killed in construction work-zones.
   
• Contact with objects and equipment and falls, slips and trips were the next most frequently occurring events, both recording 6 six cases each. Contact with objects and equipment included one worker killed in an excavation or trenching cave-in; another employee caught between a rolling powered vehicle and another object; and one employee caught in running machinery during regular operation.

Chart 3, Total fatal occupational injuries, Baltimore-Towson Metro Statistical Area, 2004-2013

Scope and Program Technical Notes

The Maryland CFOI program compiles a complete accounting of all fatal work injures occurring in Maryland during the calendar year. The program uses diverse data sources from a variety of federal, state and local government administrative records in order to substantiate and then profile fatal work injuries. CFOI includes data for all workplace fatalities regardless of whether the fatality was under the regulatory authority of the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health agency or other federal and state agencies. Therefore, any comparison between the CFOI program's census counts and those released by other agencies or sources should take into account the different scopes of coverage and definitions being used.

For a fatality to be included in the census, the decedent must have been employed (that is working for pay, compensation, or profit) at the time of the event, engaged in a legal work activity, or present at the site of the incident as a requirement of his or her job. Fatalities to volunteers and unpaid family workers who perform the same duties and functions as paid workers are also included in the count. These criteria are generally broader than those used by State and federal agencies administering specific laws and regulations. (Fatalities that occur during a person's normal commute to or from work are excluded from the census counts.) 
Data presented in this release include deaths occurring in 2013 that resulted from traumatic occupational injuries. An injury is defined as any wound or damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to energy, such as heat, electricity, or impact from a crash or fall, or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen, caused by a specific event or incident within a single workday or shift. Included are open wounds, intracranial and internal injuries, heatstroke, hypothermia, asphyxiation, acute poisonings resulting from short-term exposures limited to the worker's shift, suicides and homicides, and work injuries listed as underlying or contributory causes of death.

See the Word document for the following tables:

• Table 1. Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure, Maryland, 2012-2013
• Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries by selected* industry, Maryland, 2012-2013
• Table 3. Fatal occupational injuries by selected* occupation, Maryland, 2012-2013
• Table 4. Fatal occupational injuries by worker characteristics, Maryland, 2012-2013