Principally because of the drastic changes in American driving habits during 1942, the nation's total fatal accident experience for 1942 was more favorable than for the previous year, when 101,513 people were accidentally killed in the United States. In 1942 there were 93,000, a reduction of 8 per cent.
In addition to the fatalities, 9,300,000 people were disabled by accidental injury, 320,000 of them suffering permanent bodily impairment.
The financial loss caused by these accidents is estimated as $3,700,000,000. Perhaps more serious in time of war were the 460,000,000 man-days of productive power* lost by workers, on and off the job. (* Including standard time charges for permanent disabilities and deaths.)
The 30 per cent decrease in motor vehicle fatalitiesindicates a reduction in almost exact proportion to the decrease in the mileage driven by the American public. But for the efforts made to control especially hazardous conditions in and about war production areas, many of them containing new plants, the motor vehicle toll might have been greater than it was.
The full effect of gasoline and rubber shortages and controls was not felt in 1942; consequently the results of these conditions are not yet fully reflected in the accident experience of public transportation.
In the homes of the nation, 30,500 men, women and children lost their lives accidentally. This number represents no change over the year before.
Non-fatal home injuries numbered approximately 4,500,000. Thus on the average every tenth home suffered injury or accidental death during 1942. Falls as usual accounted for the majority of fatal home accidents. Persons 65 years of age or over suffered over half of all home accidents. The 1942 cost of lost wages, medical expenses and other costs resulting from home accidents is estimated as $600,000,000, or an average of $17.00 per home.
A twelve-month increase of three per cent in occupational deaths and a slightly greater increase in permanent and partial disabilities resulted from conditions relating largely to the war effort. Many hundreds of thousands of women never before employed entered industry. As the armed services took able-bodied workers, boys and older men, 'white collar' people and others went into occupations with whose hazards they were not familiar.
Accident problems were created by the use of new materials, new processes, new types of machinery, and by the use of less experienced and less well-trained supervisors and foremen. These problems were especially acute in the smaller sub-contracting plants, where large-plant facilities of control and supervision were not so generally available.
Industrial units reporting 11-month accident results to community safety councils in 1942 showed an average frequency rate (number of accidents per million man-hours worked) of 12.23, a nine per cent increase over 1941. National Safety Council members in their sectional contests reported an average of 9.05 per cent, a seven per cent increase over the year before.
Railroad fatality totals for the first 11 months of 1942 were 4,809, four per cent more than for a comparable period in 1941. However, the railroads during 1942 operated on an estimated 14 per cent greater number of man-hours than in 1941. The coal mining industry reported a total of 1,286 fatalities, a 13 per cent increase.
Deaths suffered by the general public through drowning, falls, firearms, common carrier accidents, recreational and other types of accidents totaled 15,500. This experience undoubtedly was affected by restricted travel opportunities, and may show further change as private automobiles are used less and less.
Among age groups, persons 65 years of age and over suffered the greatest accidental death rate, a rate of 266.0 per hundred thousand. The age group 5 to 14 years suffered the lowest accidental death rate, with 28.0 accidental deaths per hundred thousand.
The Boston Night Club fire of Nov. 28, in which some 500 persons were fatally injured, was the greatest single disaster to the civilian population of the year 1942. Severe tornadoes in the spring took nearly 250 lives in the south central states. The deaths of ship personnel caused by submarine activity are not considered accidental; for that and for reasons of national security they do not come within the purview of this article.
Efforts to reduce our annual losses of manpower, wealth and materials through accidents have been greatly intensified since the United States entered the war. The highly successful accident prevention programs of our larger industries and transportation systems have been continued and their techniques applied with satisfactory results to many of the larger war plants built during 1942.
The Air Service Command, employing some 250,000 civilians, 30 per cent of them women, has instituted a safety program protecting these employees against injuries incidental to their employment. A similar program has been organized by the Maritime Commission in an effort to control accident experience in the shipyards of the country.
In collaboration with the United States Department of Labor, the United States Office of Education has instituted a nationwide program of courses for the training of foremen, supervisors and employees in war production plants. These courses were designed to help such people to reduce accident losses on their own jobs and in their own plants. More than 26,000 persons were enrolled in such courses during the year of 1942.
Insurance companies, government agencies other than those mentioned, local safety councils, home, farm and school groups have undertaken accident prevention efforts in the effort to conserve the nation's resources for war.
The National Safety Council, following President Roosevelt's proclamation of August 1941, for an intensified campaign against our accident losses, organized the War Production Fund to Conserve Manpower to assist in financing such a campaign.
This campaign, under the direction of the National Safety Council, is now under way. By radio, newspapers, magazines, public addresses, films and other materials, the Council is extending its technical and educational services to industrial plants in all parts of the nation, with special attention being given to areas in which war production is concentrated.
Since two-thirds of the accidents which take war production workers from their jobs happen to them on the streets, at home and elsewhere except at their places of work, particular stress is laid on off-the-job safety. Films, pamphlets and posters have been prepared for the use of employers, local safety organizations, and employee groups to educate workers and the general public to the significance of our accident losses in relation to the war effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment