Evaluation of occupational accidents in forestry in terms of incidence, frequency, and severity rates in Turkey

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to analyze the forestry sector and the total work-related occupational accidents in Turkey in terms of incidence rate (IR), frequency rate (FR) and severity rate (SR) between 2008 and 2018 to compare those rates with some other sectors (mining, construction, metal and textile). According to the evaluation results, the IR and FR in the forestry sector are 41.1% and 40.8%, respectively, of all sector values in Turkey, while there is a negligible difference between the SR. The forestry sector, in terms of fatal occupational accidents, for both IR and FR showed a similar tendency across Turkey; non-fatal accident rates had lower values across the country. Moreover, it has been concluded that the forestry sector has generally better values than the metal, mining, and construction sectors and worse than the textile sector. In order to ensure safer performance in occupational accidents in the forestry sector, it is important to establish policies to increase awareness of occupational health and safety, since forest workers are exposed to different climate, topography, and vegetation types in terms of working conditions. In future studies, long-term evaluation of the data sets will increase the accuracy of occupational accidents evaluation models.