Off-The-Job Safety
Section I
Why Everyone Should Be Interested
It's a few years in the future, and a new drug-resistant virus suddenly appears in the United States. It strikes indiscriminately. Newborns and senior citizens are felled. It takes a particularly heavy toll on teenagers and young adults.
About 100,000 die each year, and millions more are disabled, some of them permanently. A person will leave home in the morning, and later in the day a loved one will receive the terrible information that the person is dead or seriously ill.
The disease quickly becomes front-page news. There is no cure, but preventive measures are found and publicized. As these measures are developed, organizations create elaborate plans to inform their employees.
Still the disease rages. It is usually contracted as the result of a failure by the individual to follow the proper preventive measures. Worse, many times a person contracts the disease as a result of failures by others to follow the preventive steps.
Unfortunately we have a similar cause of deaths and injuries in our midst today. It is called off-the-job accidents, but the reaction is very different as compared to our fictional virus.
When the news media report on off-the-job accidents, it is usually in the context of counting the number of deaths during a holiday period, or highlighting a spectacular incident. Most organizations ignore the subject since they don't have to report the results to the government or their shareholders. Most individuals assume these accidents only happen to the other guy, never to them or their family.
Only a few organizations try to raise the level of off-the-job safety awareness, such as the National Safety Council, some consumer groups and publications, and organizations that focus on one particular type of accident such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving or the Coast Guard.
In the face of this indifference to off-the-job accidents, why should you be concerned what employees and their families do away from the work site? The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the many benefits you will receive from a comprehensive off-the-job safety program; to provide an outline to use in organizing the program; and to encourage development of a personal safety program by each employee and family member.
Every organization profits from a comprehensive off-the-job safety program. The evidence is compelling.
Benefits to the Safety Professional
The job descriptions of safety professionals emphasize on-the-job safety. Reducing workers' compensation claims and costs is the number one priority. Most safety professionals feel they are so busy preventing workers' compensation cases that they have no time for off-the-job safety, even if they wanted to. That is a short-sighted impression.
At the work site, virtually every organization has sound safety practices in effect. Safety procedures applicable to each job are well known through investigations of previous accidents, company and industry safety practices developed over the years, and government regulations. The problem is getting employees to follow these procedures. That's where off-the-job safety programs can make a significant difference.
Many organizations approach on-the-job safety as a "switch" to be turned on when the employee comes to work. In fact, safety is a 24-hour attitude, not a "switch" to be turned on when employees arrive. The same safety rules will apply whether you are driving a company car to a meeting or taking the kids to a birthday party.
By developing an effective off-the-job safety program you will improve your on-the-job safety results. Employees have fewer on-the-job accidents when safety becomes part of their value system and lifestyle. An off-the-job safety program will help promote safety as a value.
Another benefit to the safety professional is a reduction in workers' compensation claims that are associated with off-the-job injuries. Some workers' compensation claims may begin as a minor off-the-job injury. These claims can be minimized by preventing off-the-job accidents in the first place.
Also, employees work more safely when they are not distracted by the concerns associated with injuries to family members.
Financial Benefits to the Organization
Each year, many American organizations pay over $700 per employee to cover health care costs and related expenses resulting from off-the-job accidents to employees and their families, most of which could have been prevented.
To estimate your costs, multiply the number of your employees by $700. If you are a for-profit company, divide that amount by your pre-tax profit margin to determine the revenue required to pay for off-the-job accidents. For example, a company with 1,000 employees, and a 10% pre-tax profit margin, needs $7,000,000 in revenue just to pay for off-the-job accidents.
Other Benefits
In addition to the reduction in medical and other costs, additional significant benefits are realized.
- Sixty percent of the accidents that keep employees off the job occur away from work. A successful off-the-job safety program results in on-the-job productivity increases.
- In today's shifting job climate, employees often feel undervalued and expendable. When morale suffers, your organization's product can suffer, too. An off-the-job safety program demonstrates your company cares about the well-being of your employees and their families.
- An off-the-job safety program complements your organization's wellness program, and can be viewed as an extension of your wellness program.
Benefits to the Employee
By providing practical safety tips and promoting safety awareness, off-the-job safety programs prevent deaths and injuries to employees and their families.
Also, only when organizations prosper can they pay competitive wages and benefits. The reduction in costs and the increase in productivity will increase profits.
Let's take a look at the human toll taken by off-the-job accidents.
About 95% of accidental deaths occur off the job. Let's take a look at the human
toll taken by off-the-job accidents.
The lifetime odds of being killed in an off-the-job accident are
approximately 1-in-30 for males, and 1-in-60 for females. As difficult as
that may be to believe, the facts support the statement. Rounding the numbers
for the sake of clarity, here's how the numbers are arrived at:
Each year, approximately 2,000,000 males and 2,000,000 females are born in the
U.S., and over 60,000 males and 30,000 females die in off-the-job accidents. The
number of people killed in each age bracket stays relatively constant every
year, i.e., the number of one-year-olds killed is about the same, as with
two-year-olds, and 55-year-olds.
During a male’s lifetime, over 60,000 of his peers will be killed in some type
of off-the-job accident. Dividing 2,000,000 by 60,000+ gives us the 1-in-30
approximation. For females, dividing 2,000,000 by 30,000+ gives us the 1-in-60
approximation.
Major causes of additional male deaths: Drunk Driving (9,000); Motorcycles
(2,500); Pedestrians (1,700); Drug Overdoses (5,000); Drowning (2,000);
Work-Related (4,000).
Here are annual statistics from the 2003 Injury Facts published by the National
Safety Council.
| Table 1. The Human Costs of Accidents |
| Cause |
Number of Deaths |
| Motor-vehicle |
44,000 |
| Home |
33,300 |
| Poisonings |
12,500 |
| Falls |
8,000 |
| Suffocation by ingested object |
2,300 |
| Fires, flames, and smoke |
2,200 |
| Mechanical suffocation |
1,100 |
| Drowning |
900 |
| Firearms |
500 |
| Natural heat or cold |
400 |
| All other (1) |
5,400 |
| Public |
19,600 |
| Falls |
5,700 |
| Poisoning |
3,100 |
| Drowning |
2,000 |
| Suffocation by ingestion |
1,900 |
| Air transport |
600 |
| Water transport |
600 |
| Mechanical suffocation |
200 |
| All other (2) |
4,900 |
(1) Most important types are: struck by or against objects, machinery, and
electric current.
(2) Most important types are: excessive natural heat or cold, firearms, fires
and flames, and machinery. |
More Reasons to Have a 24-Hour Safety Attitude
- The lifetime odds of being killed in a motor-vehicle accident are about 1-in-100.
- Accidents are the leading cause of death for people from ages 1 to 38.
- Over 16,000,000 people suffer temporary or permanent disabling injuries from off-the-job accidents each year.
-
Accidents rob Americans of more years of life before they reach age 65 than any other cause of death, including cancer, heart disease, homicide, and AIDS.
