6 Most Common Workplace Accidents

You were hurt at work: a back strained lifting boxes, a fall on a wet floor, a hand caught in a machine. If you’re worried about the medical bills and your paycheck at the same time, that’s normal.

Here’s the short answer. Most injuries that keep workers off the job come from three causes: overexertion, such as lifting; falls, slips and trips; and being struck by or caught in objects and equipment. Transportation incidents, such as vehicle crashes, kill the most workers. Whatever happened, workers’ compensation usually pays your medical care and part of your lost wages, and you don’t have to prove anyone was at fault. If someone other than your employer caused the injury, such as another driver or the maker of a defective machine, you may also have a claim against them.

The hard part is usually the claims process: the insurer handles claims every day, and the deadlines fall on you. Michigan’s rules are in the boxes marked “In Michigan.”

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What are the most common workplace injuries?

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counts injuries and deaths separately. The cases below are injuries and illnesses that private employers reported for 2023 and 2024 combined that kept someone off work at least one day after the day of the injury; government workers and the self-employed aren’t included. The deaths, for 2024, cover all workers, including the self-employed and government employees.

Source: BLS. A dash means BLS publishes no death count for that cause. The table shows selected causes, so the rows don’t add up to the totals.

Three groups, nearly tied, made up about four in five of those cases: contact incidents, falls, and overexertion counted together with repetitive motion and other bodily strain (492,140 cases). The most common injury was a sprain, strain or tear: 568,150 cases, with a median of 13 days away, against 40 days for fractures. The six kinds of accident below account for about nine in ten of the cases and more than four in five of the 2024 deaths. Most of the other deaths were violent acts, such as homicides (BLS).

Who pays for each kind of workplace accident?

Workers’ comp covers an injury from any of these causes if it arises out of and in the course of your job (in Michigan, MCL 418.301(1)). What changes is whether someone else may also have to pay. Figures below are 2023–24 cases and 2024 deaths (BLS).

1. Overexertion: lifting, pushing, pulling and carrying

Moving or handling things, from boxes to patients, caused 358,920 cases that kept workers off the job, for a median of 14 days, and 257,490 of those injuries were sprains, strains or tears (BLS).

Who pays: usually comp alone, including for an injury that built up over time (in Michigan, MCL 418.301(1)). Someone else may share the blame if equipment failed, such as a defective hoist (product liability).

2. Slips, trips and falls

Falls, slips and trips caused 479,480 cases that kept workers off the job, and they killed 844 workers in 2024. Most of those cases were slips, trips or falls on the same level, but falls to a lower level caused 666 of the deaths (BLS).

Who pays: comp, whether you slipped on a wet floor or fell from a roof. Someone else may also be liable if you fell on a customer’s icy loading dock (premises liability) or because another contractor left an edge unprotected (construction accidents).

3. Struck by or caught in objects and equipment

BLS calls these contact incidents. Objects that fell, flew or swung into workers caused 148,340 cases and 357 deaths. Running machinery that struck, caught or compressed workers caused 53,760 cases, including 6,750 amputations and similar injuries, and 213 deaths, 40 of them workers caught or entangled in it. Collapses and engulfments, such as trench cave-ins, killed 80 (BLS).

Who pays: comp, and someone else may be liable too: the maker of a defective machine or safety device (product liability), or another company whose crew dropped the load.

4. Vehicle crashes and other transportation incidents

Transportation incidents caused the most work deaths in 2024: 1,937, or 38.2%, including 1,146 in roadway incidents, such as crashes, and 369 workers on foot who were struck by a vehicle. They caused 91,690 cases that kept workers off the job, for a median of 16 days (BLS).

Who pays: comp usually covers a crash while you’re driving or riding for work, and if another driver caused it, you can often claim against that driver too.

5. Repetitive strain

Repetitive motion, such as keyboard work or using the same tool all day, caused 32,110 cases that kept workers off the job, with the longest median absence in the table: 21 days. They included 4,980 cases of carpal tunnel syndrome (BLS).

Who pays: usually comp alone. With no single accident, the risk is waiting too long, so report it as soon as you realize work may be the cause.

6. Harmful substances and environments: chemicals, heat and electricity

Exposures caused 196,540 cases that kept workers off the job, but 119,270 of them were COVID-19. They caused 687 deaths in 2024: 410 were drug or alcohol overdoses, and 130 came from electricity. The death count leaves out illnesses that develop over time rather than from a sudden exposure, such as a lung disease from years of breathing dust (BLS).

Who pays: comp covers diseases caused by work, and the companies that made or supplied a chemical may be liable too, for example for failing to warn about a risk the maker knew or should have known about (in Michigan, MCL 600.2948(3)). See toxic exposure lawsuits.

Hurt at work? Do this now

1. Get medical care, and tell every provider you were hurt at work.
2. Report the injury to your employer in writing, and keep a copy. List the date, the place, what happened and every body part that hurts. Michigan allows 90 days, and California’s law generally calls for written notice within 30 (MCL 418.381(1); Cal. Lab. Code § 5400).
3. Document everything: photos of the scene, the equipment and your injuries, witnesses’ names, and your medical records and pay stubs.
4. Make sure a claim is filed. Don’t rely on your employer to do it. For other states, see our complete workers’ compensation guide.

Can you sue your employer or anyone else?

Comp is a trade. You get benefits without proving anyone was negligent, even if you made a mistake yourself, and in return it’s usually your only claim against your employer, even a careless one. The exceptions are narrow and vary by state (National Academy of Social Insurance).

You can often also sue someone else whose carelessness or defective product caused the injury, such as another driver, another contractor, a property owner or an equipment maker, and recover what comp doesn’t pay, including pain and suffering, if you prove fault. See when you can sue after a workplace injury and workers’ comp compared with a personal injury claim.

Not sure whether someone besides your employer is responsible? Get a free case review. Four quick questions, no cost, no obligation.

Can you be fired for reporting a work injury?

Not for that reason. Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, it’s illegal to retaliate against a worker for reporting a work-related injury or illness, and a complaint to OSHA is due within 30 days after you’re notified of the firing or other retaliation (OSHA; 29 CFR 1904.35(b)(1)(iv); 29 U.S.C. § 660(c)). See what to do if you’re fired or punished for claiming workers’ comp.

What safety duties does your employer have?

These are the main ones.

Does a safety violation help your claim?

For comp, you don’t need one: comp is paid without proof that anyone was negligent, even when the injury came from your own negligence (National Academy of Social Insurance). In Michigan, you get no benefits for an injury caused by your own “intentional and wilful misconduct” (MCL 418.305).

A violation also doesn’t, by itself, let you sue your employer. Some states allow that when an employer violates a safety regulation in a reckless manner (National Academy of Social Insurance), but Michigan requires an intentional tort. In Travis v Dreis & Krump Manufacturing Co (1996), a worker lost both little fingers to a press her supervisor had refused advice to shut down, and the Michigan Supreme Court’s lead opinion said her employer “may have negligently permitted an unsafe work environment to exist,” but “no intentional tort was committed.”

A violation can matter more in a lawsuit against another company. The federal safety law doesn’t change comp laws or the legal rights and duties of employers and employees over work injuries (29 U.S.C. § 653(b)(4)). But Michigan jurors can be told that a defendant’s violation of a regulation a state agency adopted under a statute, such as a MIOSHA standard, is “evidence of negligence” to weigh “together with all the other evidence.” That instruction is for rules meant to protect people in your position from the kind of injury you had (M Civ JI 12.03 and 12.05, Notes on Use).

What to do next

1. Keep your comp claim on track. Keep every appointment. In Michigan, the insurer must send you Form WC-701 after its first payment, or Form WC-107 if it disputes your claim (Mich Admin Code R 408.31a(6), 408.33(1)). Check the amount against how workers’ comp is calculated.
2. Write down everyone else involved, including the make, model and serial number of any machine.
3. Don’t sign anything from another company’s insurer before you’ve had advice.
4. Get a free case review. A lawyer can check your deadlines, your benefits and whether someone else should also pay. Get a free case review, or, if you were hurt in Michigan, compare Michigan injury lawyers.

What waiting can cost

• Your claim. In Michigan, a claim made after the two-year limit isn’t valid, and benefits generally can’t be paid for any period more than two years before you apply for a hearing (MCL 418.381(1), (2)).
• Control of a lawsuit against someone else. In Michigan, if you haven’t sued within a year of the injury, your employer or its insurer can sue in your name (MCL 418.827(1)).
• Evidence. Machines get repaired, video gets recorded over and coworkers move on.

For every Michigan deadline in one place, see Michigan personal injury deadlines.

What a good outcome looks like

Your medical bills go to the comp insurer, not to you, and your weekly checks arrive on time while you heal. If a driver, another contractor or an equipment maker caused the accident, they pay for what comp doesn’t cover. From wondering who pays for an injury at work to knowing your deadlines, your benefits and who else may be responsible.

For more on injuries at work, browse the workplace injury guides, or read Michigan personal injury law in plain English.

Updated September 29, 2026

This guide is general information, not legal advice, and laws change. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state. Reading this page or contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.