Surveillance of traffic incident management–related occupational fatalities in Kentucky, 2005–2016

ABSTRACT

Objective: Traffic incidents occurring on roadways require the coordinated effort of multiple responder and recovery entities, including communications, law enforcement, fire and rescue, emergency medical services, hazardous materials, transportation agencies, and towing and recovery. The objectives of this study were to (1) identify and characterize transportation incident management (TIM)-related occupational fatalities; (2) assess concordance of surveillance data sources in identifying TIM occupations, driver vs. pedestrian status, and occupational fatality incident location; and (3) determine and compare U.S. occupational fatality rates for TIM industries.

Methods: The Kentucky Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program analyzed 2005–2016 TIM occupational fatality data using multiple data sources: death certificate data, Collision Report Analysis for Safer Highways (CRASH) data, and media reports, among others. Literal text analysis was performed on FACE data, and a multiple linear regression model and SAS proc sgpanel were used to estimate and visualize the U.S. TIM occupational mortality trend lines and confidence bounds.

Results: There were 29 TIM fatalities from 2005 to 2015 in Kentucky; 41% of decedents were in the police protection occupation, and 21% each were in the fire protection and motor vehicle towing industries. Over one half of the TIM decedents were performing work activities as pedestrians when they died. Media reports identified the majority of the occupational fatalities as TIM related (28 of 29 TIM-related deaths); the use of death certificates as the sole surveillance data source only identified 17 of the 29 deaths as TIM related, and the use of CRASH data only identified 4 of the 29 deaths as TIM related. Injury scenario text analysis showed that law enforcement vehicle pursuit, towing and recovery vehicle loading, and disabled vehicle response were particular high-risk activities that led to TIM deaths. Using U.S. data, the motor vehicle towing industry had a significantly higher risk for occupational mortality compared to the fire protection and police protection industries.

Conclusions: Multiple data sources are needed to comprehensively identify TIM fatalities and to examine the circumstances surrounding TIM fatalities, because no one data source in itself was adequate and undercounted the total number of TIM fatalities. The motor vehicle towing industry, in particular, is at elevated risk for occupational mortality, and targeted mandatory TIM training for the motor vehicle towing industry should be considered. In addition, enhanced law enforcement roadside safety training during vehicle pursuit and apprehension of suspects is recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Traffic incident
• occupational fatality rate
• motor vehicle towing
• fire protection
• police protection
• pedestrian

Compliance with ethical standards

This article has not been published or submitted elsewhere. All authors declare no conflicts of interest. All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Kentucky research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All subjects in the study were deceased so informed consent was not necessary. This study was approved by the University of Kentucky Institutional Review Board.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Kentucky State Police for the provision of electronic CRASH records, the Kentucky Department for Public Health for the provision of electronic death certificate records, the Kentucky Office of Workers' Claims for the provision of electronic workers' claims records, and Kentucky coroners for the provision of coroner investigation reports. This study was undertaken by the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center as the bona fide agent for the Kentucky Department for Public Health.

Author contributions

Terry Bunn implemented the methods and prepared the article. Terry Bunn developed the methods and co-wrote the article. Nancy Hanner collected the worker fatality data and performed quality control checks. Svetla Slavova and Michael Singleton provided surveillance data quality analysis, as well as statistical analysis expertise. Mark Chandler provided information on the fatality narratives and contributed to the tables and figures. All authors have reviewed the submitted article and approve the article for submission.

Additional information

Funding

Grant sponsor: NIOSH; Grant number: 5U60OH008483-13. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIOSH. NIOSH had no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.