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Accident Rate |
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Sixteen Percent of Guenther Employees had an Industrial
Accident During 2000 |
| While Guenther Mechanical has about 110
employees; at least eighteen of those employees, or about one out of six
Guenther employees, suffered a reportable injury during the calendar year
2000. The accident rate data for the year 2001 has not been issued yet.
Guenther Mechanical’s 18 accidents among its 110 employees translate into a
reportable accident rate of 16.4 per hundred workers for the year 2000. A
company of this size, on average, should expect only about 8 or 9 accidents
per year. Some especially safe companies of this size may go an entire year
without any accidents.
Guenther Mechanical’s accidents records for the year 2000 came to light
as the result of Freedom of Information request conducted by LASER. LASER
had asked for the OSHA records regarding two serious violations and a $1,625
fine proposed against Guenther Mechanical for violations at a Strongsville,
Ohio job site.
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From 1995 to 2000, there has been a 3000% increase in
Guenther’s numbers of lost workdays due to injuries, while its work
force has actually fallen by almost 30%. |
The OSHA records showed that during 2000, nine of the eighteen injured
workers suffered lost workdays because of on the job accidents. At least 34
days of work were lost for Guenther Mechanical because of injuries, and
another eight days of work were reduced to restricted activities.
Injuries suffered by Guenther Mechanical employees’ included an amputated
finger, four back sprains, four eye injuries, a lacerated finger and wrist,
a sprained wrist, a concussion, a sprained ankle, and a strained shoulder.
The injured workers’ occupations included plumbers, welders, sheet metal
workers and warehouse workers.
Guenther Mechanical’s Accident Rate Peaks at Double the Average for the
Construction Industry
OSHA records reveal that the accident rate of Guenther Mechanical, a
piping contractor based in Ashland, Ohio, is close to double the expected
accident rate for construction companies. Consequently Guenther’s rate of
lost workdays due to accidents has skyrocketed since 1995.
Guenther Mechanical’s Numbers of Lost Workdays due to Accidents has Risen
Guenther Mechanical’s injury rate has skyrocketed, compared to earlier
years, according to the released OSHA records. While Guenther Mechanical’s
work force has fallen from 150 to 110 over the last few years, the numbers
of accidents has actually risen. In other words, even though there are fewer
workers, those workers are having more accidents.From the period 1993 to
1995, Guenther Mechanical showed a modest decrease in the severity of its
accidents. But that improvement was abruptly reversed in the year 2000, when
18 of Guenther Mechanical’s 110 workers were injured with 34 lost workdays.
In comparison, only 17 out of 150 workers at Guenther Mechanical were
injured in 1995. The most important statistic is that Guenther Mechanical
experienced only one day of lost work due to injuries in 1995. From 1995 to
2000, there has been a 3000% increase in Guenther’s numbers of lost workdays
due to injuries, while its work force has actually fallen by almost 30%.
In fact, from 1993 through 1995, Guenther Mechanical’s accident rate
remained fairly steady. Guenther Mechanical’s workers suffered 17 accidents
in 1995, only 9 accidents in 1994, and 16 accidents in 1993. Guenther’s lost
work days had been showing a steady improvement, from 15 lost work days in
1993, to 12 lost work days in 1994, down to a single lost work day during
1995. But by the year 2000, Guenther was suffering more than double the
amount of lost workdays it had in 1993, and a 30-fold increase in lost
workdays since 1995, even while their numbers of employees had fallen. |
   
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