OSHA recordable vs reportable
Published 2026-09-04 · 8 min read · sources checked 2026-09-04
Every year someone writes an amputation on the 300 log, files it, and hears from OSHA anyway — because the log was never the obligation. Recordable is paperwork you keep. Reportable is a phone call you make, on a clock, whether or not you keep records at all.
The difference in one line
Recordable means it goes on your OSHA 300 log, under the six criteria of 1904.7. Reportable means you contact OSHA directly, under 1904.39, within a fixed number of hours.
The trap is the exemptions. 1904.2 says it in as many words: employers partially exempt from recordkeeping must still report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in an employee’s fatality, in-patient hospitalisation, amputation or loss of an eye. There is no size below which the phone call stops applying.
The two clocks
| Event | Deadline | Time limit from the incident |
|---|---|---|
| Fatality | 8 hours | reportable if death occurs within 30 days |
| In-patient hospitalisation | 24 hours | within 24 hours of the incident |
| Amputation | 24 hours | within 24 hours of the incident |
| Loss of an eye | 24 hours | within 24 hours of the incident |
Read from 29 CFR 1904.39 on 2026-09-04.
Report by telephone or in person to the nearest OSHA Area Office during normal business hours, by the toll-free central number 1-800-321-6742, or through the reporting application on OSHA’s public website. If the Area Office is closed, the standard is explicit that a voicemail, fax or email will not do — it is the 800 number or the online form.
Danger
The edge cases that decide it
- In-patient hospitalisation means a formal admission to the in-patient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment. An emergency-room visit that ends in discharge is not an admission, and observation status is worth asking about explicitly.
- Motor vehicle accidents on a public street or highway are not reportable — unless the accident occurred in a construction work zone, in which case they are. That exception is the one that matters most on this site.
- Commercial or public transportation — an airplane, train, subway or bus — is not reportable. It is still recordable if you keep records.
- Heart attacks. A work-related fatality or in-patient hospitalisation caused by a heart attack is reportable; the Area Office director decides whether to investigate.
When a case is both
Usually. Every reportable event is also recordable if you are an employer required to keep records — the standard repeats that point after each exception it grants. So the practical sequence on a bad morning is: make the call first, log it second.
Capture the facts while they are fresh on the incident report form; the case classification decision then flows into the 300 log and out through the TRIR calculator.
The events that were nearly both are worth their own paper. That is what the near miss report form is for — no OSHA form exists for it, which is exactly why most crews never write one.
