The Prevention of Life-Changing Injuries and Fatalities

In the past two years, the Republic of Serbia has seen gains in workplace safety, particularly as regards total reported injuries. In 2020 there is a 22.63% drop in reported injuries compared to 2019, according to the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Social and Veterans Affairs Work Report for 2020 and 2019. Nonetheless, this trend should not overshadow another disturbing trend in the workplace – that the number of life-changing injuries and fatalities has been on a much slower regression. While it is encouraging that the total reported incident rate is decreasing, the next step for safety excellence and the one Serbian Ministry currently strives to achieve, is the elimination of life-changing injuries and fatalities in the workplace. The paper presents an overview of life-changing injury and fatality prevention and how it is addressed by using incident and near miss data. The presented analyses will add benefit to the prevention improvement of life-changing injuries and fatalities.