Occupational vehicular accident claims: A workers’ compensation analysis of Oregon truck drivers 1990–1997

Abstract

This study used workers’ compensation data from Oregon from 1990 to 1997 to examine workers’ compensation claims from vehicular accidents by truck drivers, and to calculate claim rate estimates using baseline data derived from the US Bureau of Census’ Current Population Surveys. During this period, 1168 valid injury claims due to vehicular accidents were filed representing an accident claim rate of 50.3 (95% CI: 45.1–55.5) per 10,000 truck drivers annually. There were 19 work-related vehicular accident fatalities recorded in the data over the 8-year period. Of all claimants, males constituted the majority (80.7%), most were 35 years of age or younger (51.4%) and had less than 1 year of job tenure (51.0%). Truck driver claim rates due to vehicular accidents were lowest during the 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. period. The average amount of compensable lost work days per injury claim was 57.8 days (S.D. = 124.7) and the median claim time was 16.0 days with the inter-quartile range being 53.5 days. The amount of lost work reported increased with the claimant's age. A total of US$ 11,642,635 was paid in claims for vehicular accidents of truck drivers in Oregon over the time examined, which averaged US$ 9966 per claim, with a median claim amount of US$ 2590 and inter-quartile range of US$ 7670. Claims citing sprains were the most frequently recorded injury experienced from vehicular accidents.

Introduction

Occupational vehicular accidents involving truck drivers represent a serious threat to both work safety and public health. Research has indicated that truck driving is among the most risky occupations for fatal injuries (Leigh, 1995, Cone et al., 1991). Many of the studies which have broadly examined occupational vehicular accidents have usually confined their analyses to fatality assessment (Karlson and Baker, 1978, Loomis, 1991, Jenkins et al., 1993). Other research that has examined the specific job conditions affecting truck drivers have proven valuable because they allowed for the assessment of various factors that impact driving safety. For example, researchers have used work time data from truck drivers to investigate the relationship between amount of hours of worked and fatigue (Arnold et al., 1997), as well differences due to varying ranges of operation between short and long-haul drivers (Hanowski et al., 1998, Hanowski et al., 2003). However, the methods of these previous studies on truck drivers have been confined to surveys, focus groups, and on-board instrumentation, and not conducted on large populations of truck drivers as a whole.

This study extends the literature on occupational vehicular accidents by analyzing all workers’ compensation injury claims due to vehicular accidents filed by truck drivers in Oregon during the years 1990 through 1997. The use of claim data has several advantages. First, important demographic information which is of significant interest to researchers of vehicular accidents, such as age (Jonah, 1986, Massie et al., 1994, Zhang et al., 1998, Claret et al., 2003) and gender (Massie et al., 1994, Li et al., 1998) can be analyzed. Second, additional data of interest such as time of accident (Lenne et al., 1997), day of week of accident (Doherty et al., 1998) and event causing accident are recorded and can be examined. Third, other relevant facts, such as nature of injury, part of body injured, disability time and medical costs can be assessed. Importantly, as understanding the risks and costs associated with workers’ compensation claims is essential for employers and occupational health researchers to establish effective interventions and safety policies for workers, this investigation provides the basis for such action by analyzing the claim data in ways which can be pragmatically applied in the future.