IN 566 – Definition of injury frequency rates
- Information Note
- Published on 1 November 2002
- 3 minute read
This year, the US Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) introduced a new form for the reporting of accident statistics. This form uses a different multiplier to the ratio of injuries to hours worked than is currently used by IMCA when compiling annual safety statistics (see their website at www.osha.gov).
IADC publishes figures using both OSHA Incidence Rate and the Frequency Rate used by IMCA and widely used by other trade associations and regulatory bodies around the world.
OGP is not currently using the OSHA format, but has advised that most of its US-based members will be applying the OSHA format to their world-wide operations.
We do not yet know whether other associations and organisations will follow OSHA, but it will make a different to comparisons of relevant statistics.
No. of Fatalities – the total number of employees and others who died as a result of an accident (natural deaths are not included)
Fatal Accident Rate – number of fatalities per 100,000,000 hours worked
Hours Worked – for onshore operations – ‘actual’ hours worked, including overtime hours; for offshore operations – the hours worked, based on a 12-hour exposure day
Lost Time Injury (LTI) – comprises all accidental injuries (including fatalities and lost work day cases but excluding restricted work day cases), where:
- A lost work day case is any work related accidental injury other than a fatal injury which results in a person being unfit for work on the next shift/day; and
- A restricted workday case is any work related injury other than a fatality or lost work day case which results in a person being unfit for full performance of a regular job on the shift/day after the injury. Work might be:
- an assignment to a temporary job
- working in the regular job but not performing all the usual duties of the job.
- an assignment to a temporary job
Note: Where no meaningful restricted work is being performed, the injury should be recorded as a lost work day case.
The OSHA definitions are essentially different in that they use the term ‘Incidence Rate’ as opposed to ‘Frequency Rate’. An ‘incidence’ in the OSHA definitions includes an occupational death resulting from injury, regardless of the length of time between the injury and the death. The multiplier for the OSHA Incidence Rate is 200,000 – representing the number of hours 100 employees would work on a basis of 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year.
There does not seem to be a separate published rate regarding fatalities only, but this is being checked with OSHA.
In summary, when examining accident statistics, it is now even more necessary to examine the basic calculation system used by the compiler.