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it is necessary to classify accident information in considerable detail.
The field for correlation of accident and compensation data is almost
unlimited. The mention of a few uses that are made of accident and
compensation data may serve to illustrate this point. Employers want
accident information in order to compare their accident experience
with the experience of others engaged in kindred lines. Manufacturers
of machinery want to know the hazards of particular machines so that
new produets may be made with every known safeguard. The Depart-
ment wants to know where accident hazards exist so that proper
protective and preventive regulations may be adopted. Insurance
companies want to know accident hazards for use in rate making.
Manufacturers of safety devices are eager to get accident records for
use in advertising their products. Manufacturers of first-aid equip-
ment want to know about the frequency of infection in accident cases.
Governmental agencies in other states want accident records with which
they may compare their own experience. Illustrations of the nature
of the demand for accident statisties could go on indefinitely. It is
sufficient to say that there is a real demand for accident statistics of the
most detailed character. The Bureau endeavors to supply accident
information in as much detail as possible and tabulates accident data
in a great variety of classifications.
The source of industrial accident information is the reports received
by the Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation of all accidents that cause
a loss of working time of two or more days. These reports must be
made to the Department within 30 days following the accidents. Fatal
accidents as a rule are reported within 24 hours. The Bureau of Work-
men’s Compensation also receives copies and approves all agreements
ander which compensation payments are made; these agreements pro-
vide the information from which tabulations relating to compensation
are prepared. This information is classified, coded and punched on
tabular eards in the Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation, and the cards
are then sent to the Bureau of Statistics for tabulation, analysis, and
the preparation of reports.
A new feature in the work of the Bureau of Statistics was inaugurated
in January, 1929. When plans were being made for the Industrial
Safety Campaign of 1929, it was decided that during the eampaign
the work of the inspectors of the Department should be directed on
the basis of the accident experience of individual employers. The
Bureau of Statistics was instructed to plan to furnish the Inspection
Bureau each month beginning January, 1929, with records showing the
number of accidents reported by each industrial establishment in the
state during the month immediately preceding. This was an impor-
tant development in the statistical work of the Department, as there
are approximately 25,000 manufacturing plants in the state, together
with an indefinite number of construction companies, quarry operators,
mercantile establishments, hotels, restaurants, institutions, ete., the work
of providing a monthly accident record for each of these firms was no
small task. Accident records for coal mining companies, and transpor-
tation and public utility companies, except records for maintenance and
repair shops of the latter groups, were excluded from these tabulations
because safety inspection and accident investigation in coal mines and
public utilities are functions of other state departments. Some modi-
fications of the reporting system were made so that records of estab-