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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 80a

XXVII. & XXVIII.—Fatal Industrial Accidents

XXVII. & XXVIII.—Fatal Industrial Accidents.

The last two Charts in the exhibit deal with Fatal Industrial Accidents. One shows the relative risk of death from accident in certain occupations, expressed as a death rate per 10,000 of the numbers employed. The occupations shown are:—seafaring, coal mining, quarrying, metal mining, railway service, and the various factory industries. The rates are based on the experience of the five years 1901-1905. The other shows the fluctuations from year to year in the total number of deaths by industrial accidents in the principal occupations covered by legislation, viz., those of seamen from 1885, coal miners, metal miners, railway servants, and factory operatives from 1880, quarry men, and the miscellaneous occupations from 1896.

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It should be remembered that these figures relate to fatal accidents only. Accidents resulting in the total or partial disablement of a workman, or deaths resulting from diseases arising out of the nature of the occupation are not covered by these statistics. The figures for coal miners and metal miners relate to the number of fatal accidents at mines under the Coal Mines Regulation Acts and the Metalliferous Mines Acts respectively, and, as in some districts certain metal mines come under the Coal Mines Regulation Acts, the figures showing the actual number of deaths among coal miners are overstated, and among metal miners are understated on this account throughout the period.

The high death rate from accident amongst seamen is noticeable in this Chart. The least dangerous occupation is shown to be that of textile operatives, in which the death rate from accident per 10,000 employed is shown to be only 0.7 as compared with 58.1 per 10,000 in the case of seamen.

In connection with the decline in the number of deaths of seamen since 1894, in which year the maximum number during the period covered was recorded, it may be of interest to quote the death rates in trading vessels per 10,000 employed for sailing vessels and steam vessels respectively. The figures for 1894-5-6 and 1903-4-5 are as follows:—
Sailing Vessels.
1894 165.7 1903 106.8
1895 163.3 1904 146.9
1890 180.2 1905 133.3
Steam Vessels.
1894 66.1 1903 38.9
1895 49.7 1904 28.9
1896 56.4 1905 35.2

The proportionate decline in the case of steam vessels is seen to have been much greater than in the case of sailing vessels, a fact to which, owing to the greater number of seamen employed on steam vessels, the decrease in the number of deaths in recent years is largely due.

Labour Department, Board of Trade.