Reporting a Fatality or Severe Injury to OSHA

When an employee dies or is seriously hurt because of a work-related incident, OSHA's recordkeeping rule requires you to tell OSHA quickly. The rule covers four events: a fatality, an in-patient hospitalization, an amputation, and the loss of an eye. It sets short deadlines, limits how you can make the report, and lists the information you must give.

Who it applies to

All employers covered by the OSH Act must report these events (1904.1(a)(1)).

This includes employers that do not have to keep OSHA injury and illness records:

• Small employers. If your company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, you do not need to keep OSHA injury and illness records unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics informs you in writing that you must, but you must still report under 1904.39 (1904.1(a)(1)).
• Partially exempt industries. If your establishment is classified in an industry group listed in appendix A to subpart B of part 1904, you do not need to keep OSHA injury and illness records unless the government asks you to keep them, but you must still report (1904.2(a)(1)).

What the standard requires

Reporting deadlines

• Fatality: within 8 hours after the death of any employee as a result of a work-related incident, you must report the fatality to OSHA (1904.39(a)(1)).
• In-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye: within 24 hours after the in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees, an employee's amputation, or an employee's loss of an eye, as a result of a work-related incident, you must report it to OSHA (1904.39(a)(2)).

How to report

You must use one of these methods (1904.39(a)(3)):

• By telephone or in person to the OSHA Area Office nearest to the site of the incident (1904.39(a)(3)(i)).
• By telephone to OSHA's toll-free central number, 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742) (1904.39(a)(3)(ii)).
• By electronic submission using the reporting application on OSHA's public website at www.osha.gov (1904.39(a)(3)(iii)).

If the Area Office is closed, you may not report by leaving a message on its answering machine, faxing it, or sending an email. You must use either the 800 number or the online reporting application (1904.39(b)(1)).

Time windows that limit what is reportable

Sometimes the death or injury outcome comes well after the incident. You must only report:

• A fatality that occurs within 30 days of the work-related incident (1904.39(b)(6)).
• An in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye that occurs within 24 hours of the work-related incident (1904.39(b)(6)).

When you learn late

• If you do not learn about a reportable event when it takes place, the clock starts when the event is reported to you or to any of your agents: 8 hours for a fatality, 24 hours for the other events (1904.39(b)(7)).
• If you do not learn right away that the event was the result of a work-related incident, the clock starts when you or any of your agents learn that it was: 8 hours for a fatality, 24 hours for the other events (1904.39(b)(8)).

Vehicle and transportation incidents

• Motor vehicle accidents. If the accident occurred on a public street or highway, but not in a construction work zone, you do not have to report it to OSHA. If it occurred in a construction work zone, you must report it (1904.39(b)(3)).
• Commercial or public transportation. You do not have to report an event that occurred on a commercial or public transportation system, such as an airplane, train, subway, or bus (1904.39(b)(4)).

Heart attacks

You must report a work-related fatality or in-patient hospitalization caused by a heart attack. The local OSHA Area Office director decides whether to investigate, depending on the circumstances of the heart attack (1904.39(b)(5)).

Key definitions

• In-patient hospitalization is a formal admission to the in-patient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment (1904.39(b)(9)). You do not have to report an in-patient hospitalization that involves only observation or diagnostic testing (1904.39(b)(10)).
• Amputation is the traumatic loss of a limb or other external body part. It includes a part that has been severed, cut off, or amputated, either completely or partially; fingertip amputations with or without bone loss; medical amputations resulting from irreparable damage; and amputations of body parts that have since been reattached. It does not include avulsions, enucleations, deglovings, scalpings, severed ears, or broken or chipped teeth (1904.39(b)(11)).

What to have ready when you call

For each fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye, you must give OSHA (1904.39(b)(2)):

• The establishment name
• The location of the work-related incident
• The time of the work-related incident
• The type of reportable event
• The number of employees who suffered the event
• The names of those employees
• Your contact person and his or her phone number
• A brief description of the work-related incident

Records

Reporting and recordkeeping are separate duties. An event that you do not have to report because of the motor vehicle rule, the public transportation rule, or the time windows must still be recorded on your OSHA injury and illness records, if you are required to keep such records (1904.39(b)(3), (b)(4), (b)(6)).

Easy-to-miss requirements

• The hospitalization of a single employee is reportable. The rule covers the in-patient hospitalization of "one or more employees" (1904.39(a)(2)).
• A voicemail, fax, or email to a closed Area Office is not one of the allowed methods (1904.39(b)(1)).
• Being exempt from keeping injury and illness records does not exempt you from reporting (1904.1(a)(1), 1904.2(a)(1)).
• A fingertip amputation counts even without bone loss, and so does an amputated part that was later reattached (1904.39(b)(11)).
• The late-notice clock starts when the event is reported to any of your agents, not only to you (1904.39(b)(7)).

Related guides

• OSHA inspections
• First aid
• Emergency action plans

Source

This guide is based on the text of 29 CFR 1904.39 as published on osha.gov. The regulation itself always controls. States that run their own OSHA-approved State Plans may have additional or stricter rules.