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June, 1925
Forging- Stamping - Heat Treating
C a u s e s o f A c c i d e n t s in M a t e r i a l
*
H a n d l i n g
Individuals with Organic Weaknesses Should Not Be Placed
Where They Will Endanger Others—Mechanical Appli­
ances Recommended for Handling Heavy Weights
THIS might well be called the Age of Statistics.
We can find statistics telling how much cream
and sugar to use on our baked apple in the morning,
in order to get enough calories to give us the
necessary wallop during the forenoon; statistics on
the number of microbes of various kinds we will absorb
in the subway on our way to the office; a library
full of statistics on how to run our business when
we get there; statistics in the evening papers on the
number of sets of whiskers in Congress ; and we sometimes
long for the good old days before printing
presses, statisticians and other modern inconveniences
were invented.
Perhaps you all remember Mark Twain's little adventure
into the vital statistics issued by the Government;
he found that for every person killed in a railroad
accident 50 died in bed, and decided that what he
needed most was not insurance against railroad accidents
but against beds!
However, in spite of the odd-looking results we
sometimes see from the use (or abuse) of statistical
figures, the fact remains that the engineer couldn't
very well get along without them, and I will give you
a few such figures to indicate how important a part
of the whole accident problem the handling of material
really is.
Statistics on Material Handling.
The report of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident
Board covering all accidents in the state for
the year ending June 30, 1922, shows the following
results:
No. of Lost Time, Days No. of
Accidents Excluding Deaths Deaths
Total for Mass 51,105 2,216,142 306
Handling material.. 14,916—29% 449,469—20% 19—6.2%
Another way of stating this is to say that the lost
time caused by accidents from handling material (ort
the basis of 300 working days per year) is equivalent
to 1,498 men being laid off continuously throughout
the year in one state from this cause alone. If we
figure the 19 fatalities at a total of 6,000 days each,
the rating used by the Massachusetts Industrial Accident
Board, this would add 380 more men to the list,
bringing the total to nearly 2,000.
Both the number and per cent of deaths and other
injuries from handling objects in Massachusetts was
almost identical for the previous year, that is, 14,970.
or 28 per cent of all accidents, and the percentage of
all fatalities was 6.1. (It may be noted in passing that
the per cent of days lost is somewhat lower than the
numerical percentage of accidents, indicating that the
By DAVID S. BEYERf
•Paper delivered at joint session Engineering Section. Na: I once asked a famous archaeologist, who had
tional Safety Council, and American Society of Safety Engi­ spent many years studying Egyptian lore, whether
neers, New York City.
tVice President and Chief Engineer, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Company, Boston, Mass.
he found any record of the accidents that occurred
during the building of the pyramids, for example. He
209
average accident from handling material is somewhat
less severe than the average from other causes; for
example, 37 days per case for handling objects, compared
with 120 for machinery.)
A large volume of accident data tabulated by the
Pennsylvania Compensation Rating and Inspection
Bureau shows 22 per cent of the accidents due to
this cause.
We may accordingly conclude that approximately
one-fourth of all industrial accidents in a typical manufacturing
state are due to handling material, so it is
an important subject to the safety engineer.
Dividing the Massachusetts accidents into further
cause classifications we find the following results:
Per Cent
Cause of Accident Number of Total
Strains 4,499 30
Injured on sharp or rough objects 3,366 23
Objects dropped 2,217 15
Caught between object handled and other
objects 1,455 10
Injured on hand trucks, wheelbarrows, etc.. 1,090 7
Objects falling from load (while loading
or unloading) 614 4
Objects falling from pile (while piling or
unpiling) 118 1
Miscellaneous 1,557 10
Total 14,916 100
These classifications are rather general, but a few
important points stand out:
Strains.
The large number of strains found in this list
suggests immediately the possibility that men are
being called upon to lift loads that are too heavy to
handle with safety.
The Massachusetts data does not show how many
of these strains resulted in hernia but a separate
analysis of several hundred material handling accidents
reported to the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company
shows that hernia resulted in one-third of the
total cases of strains reported, death following in
several cases.
Some of the injuries show the desirability of mechanically
operated hoists, conveyors, trucks and
other devices, for handling the burden that is too
great for the ordinary human mechanism. However,
mechanical devices seem to play a minor part in this
particular field and an outstanding feature of these
accidents is the importance of the human element.
Most of them are a kind that might have happened
to the dusky workmen who hewed King Tut's tomb
out of the rock or fashioned Cleopatra's barge.