FACTS
- Rushed Task Start-Up: Beginning work without a hazard assessment increases the chance of overlooking unsafe conditions, equipment defects, or environmental hazards.
- Changing Work Conditions: Weather, traffic, equipment status, and worksite layouts can change rapidly, making previous assessments outdated.
- Hazard Recognition Failure: Workers under time pressure may focus on task completion rather than identifying risks before work begins.
- Uncontrolled Energy Sources: Skipping assessments can leave electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, or stored-energy hazards unidentified and unisolated.
- Assumption-Based Decisions: Relying on familiarity instead of evaluating current conditions increases the likelihood of incidents and near misses.
- Communication Gaps: Failure to discuss hazards with team members can result in inconsistent understanding of risks and controls.
- Shortcuts Under Pressure: Tight schedules often encourage workers to bypass inspections and assessments that could prevent serious injuries.
STATS
- There were 5,283 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2023, a rate of 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Safety and Health Administration
- In 2023, a worker in the United States died every 99 minutes from a work-related injury, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
- Over the 2023–2024 period, there were 1.8 million cases involving days away from work in private industry in the United States, at an annualized incidence rate of 86.6 cases per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S.
- The leading cause of days away from work, job restriction, or transfer (DART) cases in the U.S. during 2023–2024 was overexertion, repetitive motion, and bodily conditions, accounting for 946,290 cases — hazards directly linked to tasks where physical demands were not assessed before work began. U.S.
- The U.S. private sector experienced 937,620 musculoskeletal disorder DART cases, including 484,620 days-away-from-work cases, during the 2023–2024 period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- In Canada, a total of 348,747 lost-time injury claims were filed and 993 workplace fatalities were recorded in 2022, according to data from the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada.