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More than four times a day, on average, city workers suffer some kind of injury and file for workers compensation.

From its 6,000 to 7,000 employees, depending on the season, the city logged 1,505 claims in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2006, according to the city's Risk Management Department.

The injuries run the gamut from the mundane to the deadly serious.

"Everything from `I smashed my finger with a hammer' to something much more severe," said Charles Kolberg, the city's risk manager.

While injury claims don't generally call for big headlines, the workers compensation system has been in the news after the death of Mary Carnes, a city environmental scientist who died alone at the Los Angeles Landfill in August. A cause of death has not been established.

That particular claim is in limbo, waiting for an investigation to be completed. But most others are settled quickly, Kolberg said. Typically, the city will have to pay for any required medical care and sometimes lost wages if the employee can't work. Only 330 of those 1,505 cases resulted in lost time.

Kolberg said the city spends about $7 million per year making the payments, running a clinic, doing immunizations and paying some other related expenses.

While office workers suffer repetitive stress injuries from time to time, the bulk of the injuries come from "any department that has a lot of folks that are physically active," Kolberg said.

That includes the Solid Waste Department, the Department of Municipal Development (which manages city roads) and the Police Department. Police especially, Kolberg said, are fastidious about reporting injuries.

Animal control officers are also prone to injuries. A report prepared for the investigation into Carnes's death catalogues 49 injuries in the Environmental Health Department, many of which are dog bites.

Death is rare for city workers on the job.

Besides Carnes, three other city workers have died on the job in the last five years. Police officers Richard Smith and Michael King were shot Aug. 18, 2005. And in December of 2004, ABQ Ride bus driver Pete Garcia died of injuries sustained during a crash on Zuni Road Southeast.

Overall, "I think the city is a very safe place to work, and obviously accidents happen," Kolberg said.