Economic News Release

TECHNICAL NOTES

Identification and verification of work-related fatalities

In 2010, there were 20 cases included for which work relationship could not be independently verified; however, the 
information on the initiating source document for these cases was sufficient to determine that the incident was 
likely to be job-related. Data for these fatalities are included in the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries counts. 
An additional 66 fatalities submitted by states were not included because the source documents had insufficient 
information to determine work relationship and could not be verified by either an independent source document or 
a follow-up questionnaire.

States may identify additional fatal work injuries after data collection closeout for a reference year. In addition, 
other fatalities excluded from the published count because of insufficient information to determine work relationship 
may subsequently be verified as work related. States have up to 7 months from this release to update their 
initial published state counts. This procedure ensures that fatality data are disseminated as quickly as possible 
and that legitimate cases are not excluded from the final counts. Thus, each year's initial release of data should 
be considered preliminary. Final data are released in the Spring of the following year; revised counts for 2010 
will be available in 2012.

Over the last 3 years, increases in the published counts based on additional information have averaged 174 fatalities 
per year or about 3 percent of the revised total. The BLS news release issued August 19, 2010 reported a total 
of 4,340 fatal work injuries for 2009. With the May 2011 release of final data, an additional 211 net fatal work 
injuries were added, bringing the total for 2009 to 4,551.

Federal/State agency coverage

The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries includes data for all fatal work injuries, whether the decedent was working 
in a job covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or other federal or state agencies or 
was outside the scope of regulatory coverage. Thus, any comparison between the BLS fatality census counts and 
those released by other agencies should take into account the different coverage requirements and definitions 
being used by each agency.

Acknowledgements

BLS thanks the participating states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, 
and Guam for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. 
BLS also appreciates the efforts of all federal, state, local, and private sector entities that submitted 
source documents used to identify fatal work injuries. Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety 
and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety 
and Health Administration; the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (Federal Employees' Compensation and 
Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation divisions); the Federal Railroad Administration; the National 
Highway Traffic Safety Administration; state vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; 
state departments of health, labor and industries, and workers' compensation agencies; state and local 
police departments; and state farm bureaus.