Analysis of accident cost and comparison with available research

This project is designed to determine the cost of occupational injury in one case study and to relate it to the cost of occupational injury in the available literature. The main reason for this project is the general lack of knowledge that companies have regarding the actual cost of occupational injuries. Information was gathered for this project through personal interviews with the case study individual, telephone calls to various agencies and hospitals regarding the scenario presented in the case study and compilation of the costs and hours spent with respect to this case study. Through the case study this project attempts to quantify and explain the source and magnitude of the many categories of costs related to occupational injury. Literature was analyzed that dealt with occupational injury costs. The results of this analysis were compared with the case study to determine how the occupational injury analyzed in the case study compares with the costs reported in the literature. One study estimated the average cost to employers for an occupational motor vehicle accident as $23,000* while the National Safety Council suggests that the cost of the average nonfatal disabling motor vehicle injury is $35,000. This case study calculates the cost of one nonfatal disabling motor vehicle injury at nearly $400,000. The difference is probably due to: the severity of the injury, [MCOl ]the [RS2]failure in the literature to provide for many of the direct and indirect costs observed that were caused by the injury and Researchers common practice of estimating costs conservatively. The results of this and similar case studies should be made available to companies to motivate them to improve their policies and practices and thus increase profits