Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries 2020

The Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Epidemiologic Studies, conducts the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) with partial support from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This partnership has been in existence since 1993. The purpose of the Illinois CFOI is to monitor, verify, and record all instances of workplace fatalities. After ascertaining fatality data, CFOI staff works to verify fatalities and collect additional information on fatality circumstances and demographics of the decedent. This report presents data collected through the Illinois CFOI program for calendar year 2020.

The Illinois CFOI collects data from a variety of public and confidential source documents. These documents include, but are not limited to, coroner and medical examiner reports, death certificates, National Transportation Safety Board reports, news media articles and reports, U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration reports, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reports, police reports, and workers’ compensation reports.

For quality control, a minimum of two source documents are usually required for each fatality case. CFOI staffers match source documents with cases using the decedent’s name, place of employment, date and approximate time of death, or any other combination of identifying elements that can help differentiate existing cases from new ones. For some cases, the second source document is a questionnaire completed by the decedent’s employer or another informant. In instances where two source documents are unavailable, BLS and state employees review cases to determine if the data is sufficiently reliable for inclusion. If a fatality does not meet BLS’ criteria, the cases are marked out-of-scope and the data will not appear in the national aggregate data nor this report.

For injury-related fatalities to be included, cases must meet the following criteria: the incident must have occurred in Illinois, the death must have occurred during calendar year 2020, and the injury must be work-related according to the BLS guidelines. The injury must have occurred either on the employer’s premises while the person was there to work, or elsewhere when the person was either there to work or the event/exposure were related to the person’s work or employee status. “Work” is defined by the BLS guidelines as “duties, activities, or tasks that produce a product or result; that are done in exchange for money, goods, services, profit, or benefit; and that are legal activities in the United States.”

The following data tables present some of the data collected during the 2020 CFOI cycle. Columns and rows may not add up to 100%, as not all included cases may be publishable. Data for occupation subcategories that have three or fewer total cases and include cases that lack publicly accessible source documents are not published to protect the deceased’s privacy. Cells with double dash marks (--) are empty, due to unpublishable data or because there was no data collected.

In 2020, there were 4,764 work-related fatalities reported in the United States. This was the lowest annual number of deaths in the United States since 2013. In 2020, Illinois reported 135 fatal occupational injuries, which is a decrease of 14.6 % over the 158 work-related fatalities collected in the 2019 CFOI (Figure 1). When compared with states of similar populations (CA, TX, FL, NY, PA, OH, GA, NC), Illinois reported fewer work-related fatalities than any except Ohio, which reported 117 fatalities in 2020.

This report covered the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. CFOI includes workplace deaths that are results of injury only and, therefore, does not include deaths from COVID-19, even where the disease was thought to have been contracted in the workplace. COVID-19 disease is unlikely to have impacted workplace fatalities. However, from March 20 to May 29, 2020, Illinois was under a stay-at-home order that temporarily closed many businesses, so fewer people were working during that time. This is likely to have reduced the number of workplace deaths during those months.

When documenting fatal occupational injuries, the Illinois CFOI collects data on the demographics of the decedent and the circumstances of the incident. Of the 135 injury-related fatalities in 2020, 109 (80.7%) occurred among wage/salary workers and 26 (19.3%) occurred among the self-employed.

Men made up a significantly larger section of the fatally injured, with 125 (92.6%) injuries compared to the 10 (7.4 %) fatal injuries sustained by women. People in the 55-to-64-years-age group had the highest occurrence of fatal injuries (28.1%). The next highest were those 25 to 34 years old (18.5%) and 35 to 44 years and older (18.5%). The majority of reported fatalities involved White, non-Hispanic workers (71.9%); Hispanic or Latino workers were the second-highest reported fatalities (13.3%). (Table 1)

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes (2017) https://www.census.gov/naics/ identify industry sectors, while the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System (2010) https://www.bls.gov/soc/ classifies occupations. These codes categorize the industry sectors and group occupations below.

Transportation and warehousing (NAICS 48-49) incurred the most work-related fatalities with 27 (20.0% of the total); followed by Construction (NAICS 23) with 21 (15.6% of the total); Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (NAICS 11) with 13 (9.6% of the total); and Manufacturing (NAICS 31-33) with 13 (9.6% of the total). (Table 2 includes fatality counts for these and additional industry sectors)

Most injury-related fatalities occurred among transportation and material handlers (SOC 53) with 39 fatalities (28.9% of the total); followed by construction and extraction occupations (SOC 47) with 30 fatalities (22.2% of the total). Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (SOC 49) were next with 15 fatalities (11.1% of the total). (Table 3 contains information about the occurrence of fatalities in other occupations)

The event or exposure causing the injury-related fatality is another important aspect in describing work-related fatalities. Transportation incidents caused the most injury-related occupational fatalities in 2020 with 55 (40.7% of total) fatalities. Falls, slips, and trips are the second most common type of incident causing 24 fatalities or 17.8% of all fatalities. Violence and other injuries by person or animals (22 fatalities or 16.3% of all fatalities) and contact with objects and equipment (17 or 12.6% of all fatalities) were third and fourth in injury-related fatalities. (Table 4)

When cross tabulating the event or exposure that caused the injury-related fatality with the industry sector in which the fatality occurred, certain industries are more susceptible to certain events. Within industry sectors, transportation incidents were the leading cause of fatalities for transportation and warehousing (70.4%); agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting (61.5%); and wholesale trade (44.4%). Exposure to harmful substances or environments was the leading cause of fatalities in the Construction sector (33.3%). (Table 5)

Total Number of Fatalities: 135

Total Number of Fatalities: 135

Transportation and warehousing - 27 Fatalities (20.0%)

• Truck transportation - 18 Fatalities (13.3%)

Construction - 21 Fatalities (15.6%)

• Specialty trade contractors - 13 Fatalities (9.6%)

Agriculture, Forestry, fishing, and hunting - 13 Fatalities (9.6%)

• Crop production - 11 Fatalities (8.2%)

Manufacturing - 13 Fatalities (9.6%)

• Machine manufacturing - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)

Wholesale trade - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)

• Merchant wholesalers, durable goods - 5 Fatalities (3.7%)

Retail trade - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)

• Food and beverage stores - 4 Fatalities (3.0%)

Administrative/support/waste management/remediation - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)

Professional, scientific, and technical services - 5 Fatalities (3.7%)

• Management, scientific, and technical consulting services - 2 Fatalities (1.5%)

Accommodation and food services - 5 Fatalities (3.7%)

Total Number of Fatalities: 135

Transportation and material handlers occupations - 39 Fatalities (28.9%)

• Motor vehicle operators - 31 Fatalities (23.0%)

Construction and extraction occupations - 20 Fatalities (14.8%)

• Construction trade workers - 17 Fatalities (12.6%)

Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations - 15 Fatalities (11.1%)

• Other installation, maintenance, and repair - 7 Fatalities (5.2%)

Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)

Sales and related occupations - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)

• Supervisors of sales workers - 5 Fatalities (3.7%)

Production occupations - 8 Fatalities (5.9%)

• Metal and plastic workers - 6 Fatalities (4.4%)

Management Occupations - 6 Fatalities (4.4%)

Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations - 6 Fatalities (4.4%)

• Agricultural workers - 5 Fatalities (3.7%)

Total Number of Fatalities: 135

Transportation incidents - 55 Fatalities (40.7%)

• Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle - 30 Fatalities (22.2%)
• Pedestrian vehicular incident - 10 Fatalities (7.4%)
• Non-roadway incident involving motorized land vehicle - 9 Fatalities (6.7%)
• Aircraft incident - 3 Fatalities (2.2%)
• Rail vehicle incident - 3 Fatalities (2.2%)

Falls, slips, trips - 24 Fatalities (17.8%)

• Falls to lower level - 16 Fatalities (11.9%)
• Falls on same level - 6 Fatalities (4.4%)

Violence and other injuries by persons or animals - 22 Fatalities (16.3%)

• Intentional injury by person - 21 Fatalities (15.6%)

Contact with objects and equipment - 17 Fatalities (12.6%)

• Struck by object or equipment - 12 Fatalities (8.9%)
• Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects - 3 Fatalities (2.2%)