The distribution industry sees a steady stream of workplace incidents. Between trucking and warehousing the injury rates are among the highest in the commercial world. According to OSHA, heavy and tractor trailer truck drivers had the third highest rate of nonfatal injury compared with all other occupations. In the warehouse, around 100 employees are killed and tens of thousands are injured every year in forklift accidents alone.
We’ve seen examples of these types of workplace incidents with our customers:
- Vehicular incidents – everything from fatal crashes to backing into fence posts
- Back injuries from improper lifting or overexertion
- Impact injuries – being hit by a vehicle or falling item
- “Pinch” injuries when moving heavy materials and using conveyors
- “Hazardous energy” incidents (lockout/tagout issues)
Other common injury incidents include:
- Forklift roll-overs
- Chemical burns from hazardous material spills
- Burns from fires and explosions at charging stations
- Respiratory issues – inhalation
It’s a potentially dangerous work environment, often leading to muscle strains, sprains, and tears, rotator cuff injuries, repetitive stress injuries, bruised and broken bones, nerve injuries, concussions, and sometimes even fatalities.
There’s a lot of effort put into safety programs to anticipate and eliminate these sources of injuries, but some incidents will still occur. Small wonder that a search for “worker’s compensation warehouse” returns more than 12 million results – most of them from law firms.
How does incidentli help? We provide Point-of-occurrence workplace incident recording. So the people on the scene can document the incident. Capture pictures, video, and witness testimonials while memories of the event are fresh. Then pull the data together and automatically generate and file the required documents for OSHA, state agencies, and yes, worker’s compensation insurance.
Our customers reduce the time from incident to claim filing from weeks to hours. And because the incident is well documented, you’re less likely to have claims denied, and less likely to face revisions months after the fact. incidentli users also routinely record Near-Misses and Safety Observations, both important tools in injury prevention.
So your claims are handled faster and with less manual intervention, records are accurate, and you are protected against fraud, while promoting overall safety.