On average, 17 workers were fatally injured each day during 1999, according to a recent report issued by the AFL-CIO. Eighty-three percent of fatally injured workers died the day of the incident. There were 235 multiple-fatality incidents, which resulted in 617 job-related deaths.
Transportation incidents, in particular highway crashes, continue to be the leading cause of workplace deaths, responsible for 2,613 or 43 percent of all fatalities in 1999. Highway crashes account for one-fourth of the fatal work injury total (1,491) and are at the highest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics fatality census began in 1992.