According to the 2004 Colorado Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the number of work-related deaths in Colorado increased from 102 in 2003 to 117 in 2004.The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released the report, which concluded that transportation fatalities, primarily highway accidents, were the major cause of work-related deaths.Also among the top-three causes of 2004 work-related deaths: assaults and violent acts in the workplace and contact with objects and equipment.Debra Tuenge, the coordinator of the Colorado Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, said there were about five deaths in Colorado for every 100,000 workers in the state’s work force in 2004.”Fatal injuries in 2004 were most likely to occur on a Wednesday, with a total of 23 deaths,” Tuenge said. “The time of day at which the most fatal injuries occurred was between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., with a total of 14 fatalities during those hours in 2004.”The statistics:
- Transportation deaths accounted for 51 percent of the state’s 117 occupational fatalities during 2004.
- Assaults and violent acts resulted in 25 deaths, including 11 suicides and eight homicides. Six of the 25 deaths involved firearms. Five deaths involved falling off an animal or being attacked by an animal.
- Nine workers were struck by an object, and six were caught in or compressed by equipment or objects.
- Men accounted for 106 of the 117 worker deaths in 2004.
- White workers accounted for 89 deaths; 25 were Hispanic and three were black.
- Workers 45- to 54-years old accounted for 27 deaths.
- Nineteen deaths were attributed to the transportation and warehousing industry; 17 to construction and 11 to the professional and business services industry.
