Wyoming Workplace Deaths Tied to ‘Ornery’ Culture

A federal official who’s been studying Wyoming’s high rate of workplace fatalities said the state needs to foster an environment where workers regard following safety procedures as proof of their professionalism, not as a sign of weakness.

Dr. George A. Conway, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Alaska, said getting workers to understand the importance of workplace safety is particularly important “in ornery cultures like Alaska and Wyoming.”

In 2007, worker fatalities in Wyoming were more than 17 deaths per 100,000 workers – more than three times the national average. Gov. Dave Freudenthal has created a task force to address workplace safety.

Gary Hartman, who is heading the task force, called on federal officials from Alaska to lend expertise because that state has seen sharp reductions in fatalities in its hazardous commercial fishing and helicopter logging industries. One successful program used veteran ship captains who had credibility among younger workers to stress the importance of safety procedures, Conway said.

Dr. Paul Anderson, also of Alaska’s safety office, said he looked at job deaths in Wyoming and found fatal accidents typically occur on rural interstate highways in clear weather while the driver is speeding, distracted or fatigued and not wearing a seat belt.

In fatalities on oil and gas sites and on construction projects in Wyoming, nearly half are killed by coming into contact with equipment and 17 percent are killed in falls.

In job site fatalities, Anderson said safety procedures were in place on 70 percent of the jobs, but weren’t followed 98 percent of the time. Hartman said that the data show that in most fatal accidents workers hadn’t been following established safety procedures.