As I was looking through the OSHA.gov website this morning I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Fatal Occupational Injuries dropped for 2008.

There were 5,657 work related fatalities in 2007 and a new report that this number fell to 5,071 fatalities in 2008. This is a great improvement which equals over 10% improvement from one year to the next. However it still has a sobering effect on the way we think about the American worker.

We also had a dramatic drop in highway fatalities in 2008, as a matter of fact the lowest since 1961. The number of fatalities on the highway was 39,700.

Why these numbers dropped so dramatically for both these can be debated by many people in the know, but WOW think about it, 5,071 deaths at the workplace and 39,700 deaths on the highway, these are still huge numbers.

I am very thankful for the decrease in both these numbers, but until you become personally involved in one of these numbers you will never feel the pain that is caused by each of these deaths.

It is a horrible thing in my mind that we become statistics instead of people. Most of us look at this and all we see is numbers but the pain and suffering goes way past the person that is killed in one of these accidents.

There loved ones who are left behind are devastated and will never be the same again. They have lost a brother, sister, father, mother, daughter, son, husband or wife and their lives are impacted forever.

Why can’t we as human beings be more sensitive to the pain and hurt of others so we can see that we should be safer workers and safer drivers.

The fact is that we can’t until we feel that pain, that heartbreak, that load of responsibility we received when we get when this happens to US.

So I leave you with this thought.

When you are doing an unsafe job or driving on our nations highways think about how your loved ones will be affected by your death and don’t become a statistic.

Joe Russell