How to Report a Fatality or Severe Injury to OSHA (8 & 24-Hour Rule)

Reporting Is Not Recording

Two different duties get confused constantly. Recording puts a qualifying injury on your OSHA 300 log within 7 calendar days (1904.29(b)(3)). Reporting is a fast phone call or online report to OSHA when someone dies or is severely injured (1904.39). The clocks are far shorter, and missing them is its own citation. In fiscal year 2025, federal OSHA cited 1904.39 181 times in inspections of construction employers: 146 times under (a)(2), the 24-hour report, and 35 times under (a)(1), the 8-hour fatality report (HazComFast count from U.S. Department of Labor enforcement data, citations issued October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025, federal inspections of NAICS 23 employers, deleted citations excluded).

At a glance: Report a work-related fatality within 8 hours and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours (1904.39(a)). Report by calling 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742), calling the nearest area office, or filing online at osha.gov/report. A fatality is reportable only if death occurs within 30 days of the incident; the 24-hour events only if they occur within 24 hours of the incident (1904.39(b)(6)). You must report a work-related death to OSHA within eight hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within twenty-four hours, by phone at 1-800-321-6742 or online at osha.gov slash report.

---

The Two Clocks

The clock runs from the death or the severe-injury event, not from the incident that caused it. If you don't learn of a reportable event when it happens, you report within 8 hours (fatality) or 24 hours (the others) of the moment it is reported to you or to any of your agents (1904.39(b)(7)). If you learn only later that the event was work-related, the same 8 or 24 hours run from the moment you or one of your agents learn that (1904.39(b)(8)). In the 2014 rule, OSHA dropped a proposed wording that would have started the clock as soon as any employee knew.

The clock in practice

The preamble to the 2014 rule (79 FR 56130) walks through the timing with these examples:

Apply the same rules to a jobsite. A laborer's hand is caught in a mixer at 4:00 p.m. Monday; he goes home and is admitted to the hospital for surgery at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday. The admission comes within 24 hours of the incident, so it is reportable. The report is due by 9:00 a.m. Wednesday if you know of the admission when it happens, or 24 hours after it is reported to you or one of your agents if that comes later (1904.39(a)(2), (b)(7)). Had he been admitted on Thursday instead, the hospitalization would no longer be reportable (1904.39(b)(6)), but the case would still go on the 300 log.

What counts as a hospitalization or an amputation

• In-patient hospitalization means a formal admission to the in-patient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment (1904.39(b)(9)). An admission for observation or diagnostic testing only is not reportable (1904.39(b)(10)), and OSHA's reporting page adds that treatment in an emergency room only is not reportable.
• Amputation is the traumatic loss of a limb or other external body part, completely or partially, including fingertip amputations with or without bone loss, medical amputations resulting from irreparable damage, and body parts that have since been reattached. Avulsions, enucleations, deglovings, scalpings, severed ears, and broken or chipped teeth are not amputations (1904.39(b)(11)).
• Heart attacks are not an exception: a work-related fatality or in-patient hospitalization caused by a heart attack is reported, and the local Area Director decides whether to investigate (1904.39(b)(5)).

---

Who Must Report

• Every employer under OSHA jurisdiction. OSHA's reporting page says the duty applies "even [to] employers who are exempt from routinely keeping OSHA records due to company size or industry." A contractor with ten employees and no 300 log still makes the call.
• For a temporary worker, the employer that supervises the work day to day. OSHA's FAQ 39-9 applies the same test as recording under 1904.31: the employer that provides the day-to-day supervision reports the fatality, hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. On most sites that is the host, not the staffing agency. See who records and who trains temporary workers.
• In a State Plan state, check the state's rule. OSHA notes that reporting requirements may vary by state, and that all states must have, or be developing, requirements at least as effective as OSHA's. The State Plan pages cover each state's program.

---

How to Report: Three Channels

Under 1904.39(a)(3), you may use any one of these:

1. The OSHA Area Office nearest to the site of the incident, by telephone or in person.
2. Call 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742), the toll-free central line, which OSHA runs as a 24-hour hotline. This is the reliable choice after hours.
3. Report online at osha.gov/report, the public electronic reporting application.

If the Area Office is closed, a message on its answering machine, a fax or an email does not satisfy the rule: use the 800 number or the online application (1904.39(b)(1)).

The online tool is for the 8/24-hour severe-event report. It is not the same as the annual electronic submission of injury and illness data through the Injury Tracking Application under 1904.41. Two different systems, two different purposes.

---

What OSHA Asks For

Have this ready before you call; it's the information the standard requires you to provide (1904.39(b)(2)):

• The establishment name
• The location of the work-related incident
• The time of the incident
• The type of reportable event (fatality, hospitalization, amputation, loss of eye)
• The number of employees affected
• The names of the affected employees
• A contact person and their phone number
• A brief description of the incident

---

The Exceptions Worth Knowing

Not every severe event is reportable. Under 1904.39(b):

• Public-road motor-vehicle accidents: a fatality or severe injury from a motor-vehicle accident on a public street or highway is not reportable, except when it happens in a construction work zone, which you must report (1904.39(b)(3)).
• Commercial / public transportation: events on a commercial or public transportation system (airplane, train, subway, or bus) are not reportable (1904.39(b)(4)).
• The 30-day / 24-hour windows: a death that occurs 45 days after the incident is not reportable; a hospitalization 3 days after the incident is not reportable. The event has to fall inside the window (1904.39(b)(6)).

In each of these cases, the fatality or injury must still be recorded on your OSHA injury and illness records if you are required to keep them (1904.39(b)(3), (b)(4) and (b)(6)).

These exceptions are narrow. OSHA's severe injury page puts the rest plainly: "In general, it is better to report an incident than to not report. Failure to do so may result in an OSHA citation."

---

What Happens After You Report

Reporting a severe injury does not automatically mean an inspector arrives. OSHA's 2024 severe injury report describes the triage: "Depending on the type and circumstances of the injury or illness reported, OSHA will either request that employers conduct their own incident investigations and report back on their proposed remedies, or an on-site OSHA inspection will be opened."

• Rapid Response Investigation (RRI). The employer analyzes the incident to identify its causes and presents its findings and proposed abatements to OSHA. The exchange can happen in person or by phone and email, and abatement can be verified with blueprints and photos (OSHA's evaluation of the program's first year, 2016).
• On-site inspection. In that first year, OSHA answered about a third of all reports, and 58% of amputation reports, with an inspection by a compliance officer. It handled 62% of reports, including 69% of hospitalization reports, by asking the employer to investigate.

Construction is the second-largest source of these reports, after manufacturing. Under federal OSHA, construction employers reported 1,468 in-patient hospitalizations and 231 amputations in 2024, a rate of 21.1 incidents per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers, down from a 2015-2023 average of 25.9 (OSHA, 2024 annual report). Cases from State Plan states are not in that dataset; our analysis of the severe injury data goes further.

Either way, treat the incident scene and evidence carefully and start your own investigation immediately. What you document in the first hours is what protects workers next and answers OSHA later.

---

The standard, tools & related reading

• The standard: Reporting fatalities and severe injuries, 29 CFR 1904.39 · OSHA's reporting page · OSHA Recordkeeping hub
• Neighboring sections: 1904.29, the forms and the 7-day rule · 1904.41, electronic submission
• On the job: OSHA 301 Incident Form · OSHA Deadline Calendar · Recordability Decision Tree
• Related reading: When Is an Injury Recordable? · OSHA 300 Log Requirements · Temporary workers: who records and who reports · Severe-injury reports: what the data shows

Reporting is a phone call under pressure: decide the clock now, so no one is reading a regulation while a coworker is in an ambulance.