Abstract

OBJECTIVES
To know the present conditions of industrial accidents in automobile factories in Korea and make the basic materials essential to prevention of industrial accidents METHODS: We reviewed and analyzed the records of industrial accidents occurred in an automobile factory in 1997 by time of occurrence, job categories(fixed production, skilled trades, mechanical material handling, and clerical 8r technical), type of injury, kind of accident, and location of injury.
RESULTS
1. By age groups, the accident rate was the highest in age 45-49(1.6 %o) followed by age 35-39(1.3 %), 40-44(0.9 %), 30-34(0.9 %), 25-29(0.6 %), and 20-24(0.4 %) and by working duration, it was highest in group of experience over 25 years, and so we could see that the more age or working duration increases the more accident rate increases. 2. By work time, the accident rate was the highest in 10-11 a.m. (21.4 %) followed by 2-3 p.m. (17.9%). By the day of the week, it was as follows, Friday(20.5%) Wednesday (17. 9%), Monday (16. 2 %), Thesday (15. 4 %), Saturday (12. 0 %), Thursday(11.1 %), Sunday(6.8 %) in order. By the month, it was high in May(17.9 %), March(11.1 %), and April(11.1 %) followed by August(10.3 %) and January(9.4 %), so we could see it was high in spring. 3. The most frequent injury was in the back by 41.0 % followed by 17 cases in fingers(14.5 %), legs(9.4 %), hands(7.7 %), head(6.0 %) in order. And by the type of injuries, the sprain was most frequent by 38. 5% followed by fracture(22. 2 %, lumbar HNP(11.1 %), and contusion(9.4 %) in order. The causes of accident were handling heavy materials(34.2 %), upset(17.1 %), stenosis(16.2 %), and falling(6.8 %) in order.
CONCLUSIONS
By the above results, to prevent the industrial accidents in automobile factories in Korea, preventive activities for handling heavy materials and back injury, and continuous industrial education are necessary.

• Keywords: Automobile factory;Industrial accidents;Accident rate