Traumatic Injury Prevention Program

The Traumatic Injury Prevention Program is committed to the development of practical solutions to address the complex problems that cause traumatic injuries and deaths among workers. To do this, the Program’s research is focused on:

• Preventing injuries and deaths from falls at work, on-the-job motor vehicle crashes, workplace violence, and the use of machines and industrial vehicles to perform work duties.
• Recommending strategies and solutions to reduce risks associated with work-related injury and death from falls, motor vehicle crashes, workplace violence, and machines.
• Identifying and evaluating ways to reduce traumatic injuries among high-risk jobs and vulnerable worker groups.

The Traumatic Injury Prevention Program supports its aim to reduce worker injury and death through three key research activities:

• Surveillance to identify and track traumatic injury problems in specific worker populations, prioritize research needs, target prevention efforts, and monitor work-related injury and death trends.
• Field research to determine the causes and risk factors for work-related injuries and evaluate the efficacy of interventions, best practice solutions, and emerging technologies.
• Lab research to examine everything from workplace equipment to human behavior and decision making skills in a safe, and controlled environment. Learn more about our traumatic occupational injury research labs.

Partnerships with industry, labor, trade associations, professional organizations, other government agencies, and academia are the cornerstone of the Traumatic Injury Prevention Program. It truly is a win-win relationship when we work together to tackle the difficult challenges facing today’s workforce. Our partners contribute to building a safer workforce by providing:

• valuable input for setting research priorities through the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA)
• specialized expertise to support the research, analysis, interpretation, and communication of results
• a means to putting information into every day practice at the workplace

We believe the research we conduct and the contributions our partners provide are vital to the implementation of effective, practical prevention measures in the workplace. As a result, each Traumatic Injury Prevention Program project includes a research to practice strategy to promote the transfer and translation of findings into practices, products, and technologies that keep workers safe on the job.