Fatal And Major Injuries To Offshore Workers

Provisional statistics relate to offshore incidents reported so far to Offshore Safety Division and may change when final figures are available.

Figure 1: Fatal and major injuries - 1997/1998 – 2005/2006p

Figure 2: Combined Fatal and Major Injury Rate - 1997/1998 – 2005/06p

Based on provisional figures for 2005/06:

• There were two fatalities this year, compared with none in 2004/05 and three in 2003/04;
• There were 50 major injuries reported during the period - which is a 4.2% increase on 2004/05 (48);
• There were an estimated 23,072 offshore workers in 2005/06, an increase of 21.8% on the 2004/05 estimate of 18,940 workers. These figures were obtained from an industry-based data source^[1]
• The combined fatal and major injury rate decreased by 11% to 225.4 per 100,000 workers in 2005/06 compared to 253.4 in 2004/2005.
• The decreasing trend in the combined fatal and major injury rate has thus been maintained for a third consecutive year.

Types of accident

Based on provisional figures for 2005/2006:

• the main cause of major and fatal injuries was being trapped, struck by or striking against equipment, accounting for 19 of the 52 (37% of the combined total);
• 17 major injuries (33 % of combined total) were to the upper limb^[2]
• 29 major injuries and 1 fatality (58% of combined total) were due to fracture.^[3]

Over- 3- Day Injuries To Offshore Workers

Figure 3: Over- 3- day injuries - 1997/1998 – 2005/2006p

Figure 4: Over-3-day injury rate - 1997/1998 – 2005/2006p

Based on provisional figures for 2005/2006:

• The number of reported over-3-day injuries has increased this year by 21 to 125 (20.2%)
• Based on the increased workforce figure of 23,072 workers, the over-3-day injury rate shows a 1.3% decrease on that recorded for 2004/05, 541.8 per 100,000 workers compared to 549.1
• The over-3-day injury rate has shown a slight decreasing trend since 2002/03.

Types of accident

Based on provisional figures for 2005/2006:

• the main cause of over-3-day injuries was being trapped, struck by or striking against equipment, accounting for 45 of the 125 total (36% of all over-3-day injuries);
• 54 over-3-day injuries (43.2%) resulted in injury to the upper limb^[4];
• 48 over-3-day injuries (38.4%) were sprains and strains.

Incidence Of Ill Health To Workers Offshore

Based on provisional figures for 2005/2006:

• The total number of cases of offshore ill health reported was 18, an increase of 7 on the previous year;
• The most common diseases reported were chickenpox with 6 incidents (down 2 on last year) and mumps also with 6 incidents (up 5 on last year).

Dangerous Occurrences Offshore

Figure 5: Dangerous Occurrences - 1997/1998 – 2005/2006p

Based on provisional figures for 2005/2006:

• 491 dangerous occurrences were reported, which is 60 less than in 2004/2005, representing a decrease of 10.9%;
• Main types of dangerous occurrences reported were Hydrocarbon releases (39.7%); failure offshore due to dropped objects, weather and/or buoyancy problems (23.8%); well failure (8.5%); and failure of lifting equipment (8.3%).

A further breakdown of the headline figures contained in this Bulletin will be provided later this year in the annual Offshore Injury and Incident Statistics Report, produced as part of the HID Statistics Report (HSR) series of publications.

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[1] Provisional data extracted from Vantage system via STEPChange in Safety.

[2] Upper limb includes finger/thumbs, hand, wrist and rest of upper limb.

[3] Fractures to fingers, thumbs or toes are classed as over-3-day injuries and not as major injuries.

[4] Upper limb includes finger/thumbs, hand, wrist and rest of upper limb.