New Dashboard Allows Users to Search Federal OSHA Severe Injury Data

On Sept. 4, the Department of Labor launched its new Severe Injury Report dashboard, a free online tool that allows users to search OSHA’s database of severe injuries, defined as injuries resulting in inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss. The database includes all severe injuries reported by employers covered under federal OSHA since 2015. It is updated monthly with an intentional six-month delay. According to an OSHA press release, the agency “encourages workers and employers to use the dashboard to learn how severe injuries happen in their industries and use the agency's available resources to help prevent workplace injuries.”

OSHA has released a five-minute video tutorial providing instructions on using the dashboard. Users can filter data by year, industry, state, establishment name, and Occupational Injury and Illness Classification System codes, as well as download the full database. The tool allows users to view, for example, the most frequent causes of severe injuries in specific industries and states covered by federal OSHA.

Injuries reported to state OSHA plans are not included in federal OSHA’s database and therefore may not be accessed through the dashboard. According to the OSHA tutorial video, “absence of data from state plan states does not indicate that no severe injuries occurred in these states.”

More information on the Severe Injury Report dashboard may be found in OSHA’s press release.