What Does
Accident Rate Mean?
The accident rate is a measure of how many accidents have occurred in a workplace over a given period of time, relative to the size of its workforce. It is one indicator of an organization's safety performance and can be used to measure how well workers in that organization are protected from work-related hazards.
Accident rate data is used by governmental bodies and corporate stakeholders to formulate polices and programs aimed at preventing occupational injuries, illness, and fatalities. It can be used to monitor the level of compliance and safety program implementation in a particular industry, across an occupation, or in a defined location.
An accident rate is also known as incidence rate.
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Safeopedia Explains Accident Rate
Accident rates are lagging indicators of safety, meaning they represent an organization's past safety performance but may not always be useful in predicting future safety performance.
Smaller companies with elevated numbers of safety incidents will have corresponding high accident rates. These accident rates will also be prone to noticeable fluctuations. Because of this, these calculations are more helpful and can provide more insightful results when applied to larger organizations.
How to Calculate the Accident Rate
OSHA's accident rate calculation is performed by multiplying the number of recorded incidents by 200,000, then dividing the result by the number of hours worked in the organization. The formula is:
Accident Rate = (Number of accidents X 200,000) / Employee hours worked
The number of accidents are multiplied by 200,000 since that represents the number of hours 100 employees would work over the course of a year, assuming that they have a 40-hour work week and each work for 50 weeks.
Other Notable Safety-Related Rates
Not all workplace accidents are equal in type or severity. Incidents range from near misses (where a risky event occurred but did not contribute to any injuries) to fatal accidents (which result in the loss of life).
Workplace safety is also complex and multifaceted. No single metric can capture the various factors that contribute to hazards or keep workers safe. As such, it is important for employers, safety professionals, and auditors to assess safety performance by using a variety of data and formulas.
In addition to the accident rate, here are five major incident rates that should be tracked and calculated to get a more comprehensive picture of safety within an organization:
- Days Away/Restricted or Transfer Rate (DART): the number of recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time employees that resulted in days away from work, restricted work duties, or a transfer to a different job
- Lost Workday Rate: the number of lost workdays per 100 full-time employees in a given time frame
- Lost Time Injury Incident Rate: the number of accidents resulting in lost time per 100 full-time employees in a given time frame
- Severity Rate: the number of lost days as compared to the number of incidents experienced by the organization
- Total Incident Rate: the number of recordable incidents experienced by a company per 100 full-time employees in a given time frame