Zoos · Iowa

Blank Park Zoo

Des Moines, IA · ~125 workers · 7 years of OSHA Injury Tracking Application data.

F
Failing Safety Record
9.5
Avg TCR
3.1
Industry avg
0
Fatalities

The verdict

Blank Park Zoo runs at 307% of its industry's injury rate - far more dangerous than the typical Zoos workplace, earning a grade F.

F
Failing Safety Record
9.5
avg TCR · per 100 workers
3.1
industry benchmark (BLS)
59
recordable injuries tracked

Grade compares Blank Park Zoo's OSHA Total Case Rate of 9.5 to the Zoos BLS benchmark of 3.1 (307% of benchmark) across 7 years of Form 300A filings (2016–2024). <a href="/methodology">See methodology</a> for reporting-limitation caveats.

Injury rate over time

Blank Park Zoo's yearly Total Case Rate, against the 3.1 industry benchmark.

05101520 2016201720192020202120222023 11.53.1 Industry benchmarkBlank Park Zoo TCR
Total Case Rate (recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers), OSHA ITA Form 300A. Industry benchmark: BLS IIF, NAICS 712130.

Where Blank Park Zoo falls in its industry

177 Zoos establishments

Safer than 25% of graded establishments in this industry, whose median TCR is 6.3.

More dangerous than peersSafer than peers

Trend analysis for Blank Park Zoo

Between 2016 and 2023, Blank Park Zoo's Total Case Rate held roughly steady from 11.3 to 11.5 recordable injuries per 100 full-time workers, a 1% increase across 7 years of OSHA reporting.

The safest year on record was 2017, at a TCR of 6.5, while 2021 saw the highest rate, at 14.5, a spread of 8.0 points between the best and worst reporting years. That's a wide swing relative to the establishment's overall rate, worth checking the year-by-year table below for whether a single severe year is driving the average, rather than a sustained trend.

Summed across those 7 reporting years, Blank Park Zoo recorded 59 total injuries and illnesses, with no fatalities reported in any of those years. Readers comparing establishments should weigh the 7-year trend above alongside establishment size, since a larger workforce naturally accumulates more raw incidents even at a lower per-100-worker rate.

Verify This Employer with OSHA

The 59 injuries, 5 illnesses shown on this page for Blank Park Zoo are sourced from its own 7 years of mandatory OSHA Form 300A summaries. Cross-check the underlying establishment record directly against the federal source, name, NAICS classification, recordable case totals, and inspection history are all searchable on OSHA's Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data system.

Verify on OSHA Establishment Search

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Establishment-Specific Injury and Illness Data. NAICS 712130 - Zoos.

DART Rate, Transparent Calculation (2023)

What is the DART rate formula?

DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) is computed by OSHA as incidents × 200,000 ÷ hours worked. The 200,000-hour denominator equals roughly 100 full-time workers, which lets establishments of very different sizes be compared directly.

1 DART incidents × 200,000 ÷ 209,348 hours worked = 0.96 DART

Methodology: 29 CFR 1904, OSHA Form 300A recordkeeping

Cross-Validating Context, Establishment vs Industry vs State

Benchmark TCR Source
Blank Park Zoo (this establishment) 9.51 OSHA ITA Form 300A, 7-year avg
Zoos industry avg 3.10 BLS IIF, NAICS 712130
Iowa state avg (all industries) 5.33 OSHA ITA, state-level rollup

Industry benchmarks: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) program

Reportable Incident Timeline

Year-by-year reportable incidents (recordable injuries + illnesses + fatalities) submitted by Blank Park Zoo to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application. Each row anchors to OSHA's inspection records search where you can pull the underlying inspection case numbers and citations for that establishment-year.

Source: OSHA Inspection Information System (IMIS) - inspection case-number records

Year-by-Year Safety Data

Year TCR DART Injuries Illnesses Fatalities
2023 11.5 1.0 12 0 0
2022 8.1 4.0 7 1 0
2021 14.5 4.5 12 1 0
2020 6.9 1.2 6 0 0
2019 7.8 0.0 7 1 0
2017 6.5 1.1 6 0 0
2016 11.3 9.3 9 2 0

What this grade means for you

Use this grade as a relative read on Blank Park Zoo's reported OSHA injury record versus its Zoos peers, not a verdict on whether any single site is safe today.

  • At 307% of the Zoos benchmark, Blank Park Zoo reports more injuries than typical peers, ask specifically how the employer is reducing them. Know your rights
  • Judge this record against the wider Zoos sector, where injury rates vary widely, before comparing it in isolation. See the industry
  • Grades reflect 2016–2024 filings; check the latest establishment record straight from OSHA, or look up a different employer. Look up another

Safety grades reflect employers' self-reported OSHA Form 300A filings from 2016 to 2024 and can lag current conditions. A grade is not a guarantee that any specific workplace is safe or unsafe today. See our methodology and disclaimer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Blank Park Zoo's safety grade?
Blank Park Zoo has a safety grade of F (Failing Safety Record). This grade is based on their average Total Case Rate (TCR) of 9.5 compared to the BLS industry benchmark of 3.1 for Zoos.
How many injuries has Blank Park Zoo reported?
Blank Park Zoo has reported 59 total injuries and 0 fatalities across 7 years of OSHA data (2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2017, 2016). This data comes from mandatory OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) reports.

Similar Employers

Matched by safety record across the industry, by workforce size within Iowa, and by nearby establishments in Des Moines - a different peer set than the category browse links below.

Similar TCR (~9.5)

Similar size (~125 workers)

Nearby in Des Moines

Data Source: OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA), mandatory establishment-level injury/illness reports. Grades compare employer Total Case Rate (TCR) to BLS IIF industry benchmarks. Data covers years reported by this establishment: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2017, 2016. This is publicly available government data - not a legal determination of workplace conditions.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainSafetyScore Editorial

Every figure and grade on PlainSafetyScore is computed directly from OSHA's published Injury Tracking Application data and BLS industry benchmarks, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these safety grades, or report a data error. Data current as of 2016-2024 OSHA ITA release.