Integrating autonomous vehicle policies into your fleet safety management systems; a restaurant manager dies from a toxic mix of cleaning chemicals and no U.S. mine earns Pattern of Violation status. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

In 2008, a worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart died after being trampled in a Black Friday stampede. According to news reports, an "out-of-control" mob of frenzied shoppers smashed through the store's front doors, knocking several employees to the ground and prompting others to climb atop vending machines for their own safety.

A new report from USA Today on Tesla’s “gargantuan” four-year-old battery factory in Nevada finds that worker injuries at the Gigafactory occur “on a routine basis: at least three a month.” OSHA inspectors were on-site more than 90 times in the facility’s first three years of operation.

They’re powerful, easy to operate and allow workers to perform tasks taster. They’re also a leading cause of injury among residential carpenters. Of the 37,000 emergency room visits each year related to nail gun injuries, 60% are occupationally-related. While puncture wounds to the hands and fingers are the most common, nail guns are also responsible for serious injuries – and even fatalities.

Investigating a worksite incident— a fatality, injury, illness, or close call— provides employers and workers the opportunity to identify hazards in their operations and shortcomings in their safety and health programs. Most important, it enables employers and workers to identify and implement the corrective actions necessary to prevent future incidents.

For the first time since 2012, the national injury rate for U.S. workplaces did not decline in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2018, unchanged from 2017. In both years the total recordable injury case rate (TRC) per 100 full-time workers was 2.8 cases.

The National Safety Council (NSC) is concerned with the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing no change in the number of workplace injuries and illnesses between 2017 and 2018. This marks the first year since 2012 that the total recordable cases rate for workplace injuries and illnesses did not decline. Every employee deserves a safe work environment and to return home safely at the end of each work day.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s recent report on its investigation into a crash between a train and a “light rail vehicle” near Sacramento, California provides a fascinating glimpse into what goes on behind-the scenes of railroad industry operations. The incident, which occurred at 9:38 p.m. on August 22, occurred when a northbound Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) Blue Line passenger train collided head on with a southbound SacRT maintenance Light Rail Vehicle (LRV) that was stopped.

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Loren Sweatt spoke at the Pennsylvania Governor's Safety and Health Conference on October 28, 2019.

A report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) shows a strong correlation between hazardous jobs and opiate addiction and overdoses in that state. The 21-page study titled Opioid-related Overdose Deaths in Massachusetts by Industry and Occupation, 2011-2015 found that there were a total of 5,580 opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts from 2011 through 2015. Of the 4,284 worker death certificates deemed comprehensive enough to study, 1,096 were found to be employed in construction/extraction.