Any part of your body may be injured at work, and depending on your job you may be injured in a number of ways. You may sprain your ankle, cut your hand, or break a bone if you fall.
The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (VWC) breaks down the parts of the body that were injured. The numbers are from 2017, which is the most recent year data is available at the time of this writing.
From top to bottom, the injuries are:
• 11% Head Injury
• 2% Neck Injury
• 35% Upper Extremity Injury (arms, wrists, and hands)
• 17% Trunk Injury (abdomen, chest, and back)
• 22% Lower Extremity Injury (legs, knees, and feet)
• 13% Multiple Body Part Injury
Putting the injured locations in order by the most frequently injured, arms/wrists/hands are the most commonly injured, followed by legs/knees/feet, abdomen/chest/back, multiple body parts, head, and finally neck.
Thinking of how you use your body, the order of injuries makes sense: hands and arms are often grabbing and reaching for things and are the body parts actually using dangerous equipment, so for upper extremity injuries to account for over one third (1/3) of injuries is not odd.
The types of injury, from most common to least common, are:
• 23% Strain
• 22% Fall, slip, or trip
• 17% Struck by an object
• 11% Cut, puncture, or scrape
• 10% Miscellaneous
• 5% Striking against or stepping on
• 4% Motor vehicle
• 4% Caught in, under, or between
• 4% Burn or scald
Similarly to thinking of how you use your body, thinking about the types of jobs that exist, someone may strain a body part, trip and fall, or be hit by an object (such as something falling off a shelf) at any job, but many fewer jobs will have heated equipment that would allow someone to receive a burn or scald. A receptionist could strain her wrist trying to move a box of paper, trip and fall on an electrical cord left out, or have a box of folders fall on her head when she opens a cabinet, but she would not have opportunity to be burned in the same way that a welder or someone in food service would have.
According to the VWC, the average number of days that a worker was out in 2017 for an injury at work was four (4) days. Your workers’ compensation claim can get the employer’s insurance company to pay for your medical treatment and, if you’re out for a longer period, give you benefits while you’re temporarily unable to work.
Regardless of the location of your injury or type of injury, HammondTownsend will work for you to get you the deal you deserve. Call us at 888-580-9048 for a free consultation.