FATALITIES

Figure 17 shows the DOE fatality rate for 1985 through 1994. The 1994 fatality rate of 6.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers is the highest since data has been collected, and is 117 percent above the DOE 5-year average rate of 3.0.

A total of 12 fatalities were experienced during the DOE operations in 1994. The first fatality occurred at the Western Area Power Administration. A lineman electrician was trimming a tree away from a power line when the tree limb made contact with a conductor and fell into the truck bucket with the employee. The second fatality occurred during a training exercise when a Protection Technologies Los Alamos employee incurred a fatal gun shot wound when a rifle was inadvertently loaded with a magazine containing live ammunition. Nine fatalities were the result of the U.S. Air Flight 427 plane crash in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in September 1994. Four of these fatalities were Morgantown Energy Technology Center employees, and five were Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center employees. The last fatality occured at Johnson Controls, Inc. in Los Alamos when a pipefitter fell from a ladder while installing an air line.

From 1985 through 1990, no aircraft-related fatalities occurred; however, since 1991, 66 percent of all fatalities have been aircraft-related. Table 12 displays the ratio of aircraft-related fatalities to other fatalities from 1991 to 1994.