Statistical Analysis of Workplace Accidents in Polish Mining Industry

Abstract

The publication presents a statistical analysis of workplace accidents in Polish mining in 2009-2017. Collecting and studying information on accidents at work is essential element necessary to improve the organization of work and to introduce preventive activities that will reduce the probability of the workplace accident. The analysis was based on the data of the Statistics Poland and the State Mining Authority. Based on the collected data, it has been shown that the number of workplace accidents and persons injured in these accidents in the studied years decreased and amount to 30% (according to the Statistics Poland) less in 2017 than in 2009. Whereas, the incidence rate of accidents at work (defined as the number of injured people per 1000 persons employed) in Polish mining ranges from 13.97 (in 2013) to 17.82 (in 2010) and is twice higher than the incidence rate of workplace accidents for all industries in Poland. The accidents at workplace in the mining industry in the analysed period occured on average every 137.88-223.43 thousand Mg of mined minerals. Additionally, the causes of workplace accidents and the number of persons injured were analysed depending on the age of the persons injured, length of work seniority, specific physical activities performed by the persons injured at the moment of workplace accident and the type of injuries. The highest number of accidents at workplace is related to inappropriate behaviour of a person at work and workplace accidents were most often suffered by persons injured aged 20-49 years (89.47%), who performed different activities at the moment of an accident at workplace: movement (31.46% persons injured), handling of objects (20.22% persons injured), carrying by hand (19.91% persons injured) and working with hand-held tools (13.26% persons injured). The most frequent types of injuries suffered by persons injured at the moment of accident are wounds and wounds and superficial injuries (34.05%), fractures of bones (30.12%) and dislocations, sprains and strains (20.91%).