research >>workplace injuries

The Traffic Safety Center is addressing the issue of workplace injuries among California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) employees with the overarching goal of assisting the Department with reducing employee accidents and injuries. About 2000 Caltrans workers are injured annually, resulting not only in suffering among workers, but also in a large burden to the Department. Nationally, the transportation industry bore the second highest share of fatal work-related injuries, with 17% of the total from 1985 to 1995. Because employee safety is a high priority at Caltrans, the agency has set goals to increase employee safety. Reduced injuries among Caltrans workers would benefit Caltrans itself as well as further workplace injury prevention efforts by the state and federal governments.

The TSC research team is working with Caltrans Division of Research and Innovation (DRI), Caltrans safety personnel, and Caltrans district offices in order to promote workplace safety efforts at Caltrans. This task requires the introduction of an efficient process to analyze injury data and arrive at the most promising prevention approaches to reducing injuries and cost.

With the oversight of an Advisory Board from these Caltrans divisions, the research team will produce reports of (i) current “best practices” in injury prevention; (ii) current and relevant research literature; (iii) causes of accidents and injuries within Caltrans; (iv) cost/benefit analyses of injuries and a list of the most “preventable” injuries, and (v) an evaluation of the Safety Information Management System (SIMS).

The TSC will also develop a Safety Management Protocol, which will allow Caltrans to conduct ongoing, systematic internal analysis of departmental injuries and their related costs. This protocol will contain instructions for determining highest costs injuries within the department and a summary for identifying best practices in prevention, and the research team will provide training and implementation assistance to Caltrans. We see implementation of this project as an important effort preventing tragedies that hurt the workforce and drain budgets.