WCB Accepted Occupational Fatalities

A WCB (Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta) accepted occupational fatality is defined as the death of a worker, resulting from a work-related incident or exposure, which has been accepted by the WCB for compensation. Since some fatalities accepted in a particular year may actually have occurred in previous years, the numbers of fatalities based on the year of acceptance are different from those based on the year of occurrence.

WCB accepted occupational fatalities are categorized by three main types. Further analysis over the last ten years are available in the statistics section of the OHS website.

• Occupational Disease Fatalities Summaries
  Occupational disease fatalities consist mostly of recognized occupational disease, meaning disease known to be primarily or exclusively work-related; e.g. asbestosis, black lung disease. Occupational disease also includes heart attacks suffered on the job.

• Workplace Incidents Fatalities Summaries
  Workplace incident fatalities are cases where a worker dies at a work site, or as a result of injuries sustained at a work site.

• Work-related Motor Vehicle Fatalities Summaries
  Motor vehicle fatalities typically involve non-industrial vehicles operating on public roads, where the fatally injured worker was either the driver or a passenger. This type of occupational fatality also incudes cases involving aircraft crashes, train crashes, helicopter crashes and water vehicle crashes.