Out of the 75,487 incidents, 59,782 victims were treated, 2,844 were permanently disabled and 12,354 are under treatment, the study prepared by the General Organization for Social Insurance said.
The report attributed the large number of accidents to a lack of awareness of safety in the workplace.
Only 4,641 Saudis were victims of accidents while the rest were expatriates, the report said, adding that Saudi workers usually undertook less dangerous work.
In addition, insurance policies for expatriates cost nearly five times as much as those for Saudis.
The report said 27,883 accidents were caused as a result of collisions at work, while 19,803 were due to falls. Workers received scrapes and cuts in 11,387 accidents.
The report observed that 87.7 percent of accidents occurred in construction sites and industrial plants.
Makkah province had the most accidents, accounting for 19.5 percent of total incidents, followed by Riyadh with 15.2 percent and the Eastern Province with 11.1 percent.
“Only very few companies in the construction field insist that their workers adopt necessary safety measures. There is no supervision by any government department to ensure that necessary safety methods are adopted in construction companies,” a contractor in Jeddah said.
Waleed Al-Howaish, member of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s committee for security and safety, said the basics of safety and security must be taught to all workers.
“They should be given periodic training in security measures in order to reduce accidents,” he said.
