Negligence and Ignorance: Which is Deadlier?

According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, there were a few positive things to point out regarding incidence rates of injuries over the past year.

• There was no increase in the rate of injuries and illnesses for the private industry sector.
• Without illnesses, the incidence rate of injuries declined from 3.3 per 100 fulltime employees in 2011 to 3.2 cases in 2012 in the private sector.
• Safety is a much bigger problem in the public sector, which had 5.6 cases per 100 fulltime employees. The positive side of this is that statistic is the same as the previous year.

While these statistics are somewhat helpful, it is hard to determine how helpful. I would venture to say that a large percentage of workplace injuries in both sectors go unreported. While I hate being a Debbie downer, a drop from 3.3 to 3.2 is really not something to celebrate. A statistic I would definitely be interested in knowing is what percentage of the workplace incidents/injuries could have been avoided? How many of them were due to lack of knowledge or training, and how many of them were due to pure laziness? I recently read an article about a fatal building collapse in Philadelphia that was due to negligence. It could have been completely prevented and avoided, yet instead, 6 people lost their lives. I cannot even imagine being the people who cut corners and, in turn, cut others’ lives short. I wonder what is deadlier in terms of workplace accidents: negligence or ignorance.  Luckily, ignorance is something that can easily be fixed through proper training and courses. Negligence, on the other hand, might not be such an easy fix. If we are too lazy to be safe, I fear for the future.