COSS - Certified Occupational Safety Specialist Incident Rate Calculations Questions and Answers

Question 1

A manufacturing company with 150 full-time employees, each working 2,000 hours per year, experienced 7 OSHA recordable incidents. What is the company's Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)?

Accepted Answer

4.67

Answer

3.5

Answer

2.33

Answer

7.0

Question 2

When calculating incident rates like TRIR or DART, what does the 200,000 figure in the formula represent?

Accepted Answer

The equivalent hours worked by 100 full-time employees in a calendar year.

Answer

The maximum number of hours any single employee is legally allowed to work per year.

Answer

The total number of hours worked by an average small business with 50 employees.

Answer

The national average number of work-related injuries and illnesses reported annually.

Question 3

A construction company logged 525,000 hours worked in a year. During this period, they had 3 incidents that resulted in days away from work and 2 incidents that required job restrictions. What is the company's DART rate?

Accepted Answer

1.90

Answer

1.14

Answer

0.76

Answer

2.66

Question 4

Which of the following incidents would be included when calculating a company's DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) rate?

Accepted Answer

An employee is assigned to light-duty tasks for one week while recovering from a work-related back strain.

Answer

An employee receives stitches at a clinic but returns to their regular duties the next day.

Answer

A supervisor cleans a small cut with a bandage from a first-aid kit.

Answer

An employee is sent home for the remainder of their shift for observation after a minor incident but returns to full duty the next day.

Question 5

A safety manager is calculating the company's annual TRIR. Which of the following data points should be EXCLUDED from the 'Total Hours Worked' calculation?

Accepted Answer

Paid vacation and sick leave hours for all employees.

Answer

Hours worked by temporary employees from a staffing agency.

Answer

Scheduled overtime hours worked by full-time employees.

Answer

Hours worked by salaried, office-based personnel.

Question 6

An organization has a TRIR of 3.0 and a DART rate of 1.5 for the same period. What does the difference between these two rates indicate?

Accepted Answer

Half of the company's recordable incidents were severe enough to result in days away, restriction, or transfer.

Answer

The company has poor recordkeeping practices.

Answer

All of the company's recordable incidents were minor first-aid cases.

Answer

The DART rate was calculated incorrectly, as it must be higher than the TRIR.