Someone previously mentioned providing a helpful link for the rest of the forum for education. Please take note of these statistics so none of you become a statistic.
The information below was taken from OISH at the following link (
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/99-110.html).
Number of Workers Killed
No detailed national data are available on the number of workers killed each year by contact with uncontrolled hazardous energy. However, during the period 1982-1997, NIOSH investigated 1,281 fatal incidents as part of their FACE Program. Of these, 152 involved installation, maintenance, service, or repair tasks on or near machines, equipment, processes, or systems. Because the FACE program was active in only 20 States between 1982 and 1997, these fatalities represent only a portion of the U.S. workers who were killed by contact with uncontrolled hazardous energy.
Contributing Factors
Review of these 152 incidents suggests that three related factors contributed to these fatalities:
Failure to completely de-energize, isolate, block, and/or dissipate the energy source (82% of the incidents, or 124 of 152)
Failure to lockout and tagout energy control devices and isolation points after de-energization (11% of the incidents, or 17 of 152)
Failure to verify that the energy source was de-energized before beginning work (7% of the incidents, or 11 of 152)
In a study conducted by the United Auto Workers (UAW), 20% of the fatalities (83of 414) that occurred among their members between 1973 and 1995 were attributed to inadequate hazardous energy control procedures specifically, lockout/tagout procedures. The energy sources involved in these fatalities included kinetic, potential, electrical, and thermal energy [UAW 1997].
