Colorado oil and gas regulators receive dozens of reports about workplace accidents every year. But the regulators, lacking legislative authority, don’t punish companies with repeated worker safety problems or share the reports with federal safety officials. And the majority of deaths in the industry go undocumented by the regulators, The Denver Post has found.

That gap is just one example of a missed opportunity by state leaders to better understand occupational safety on oil and gas sites and to protect workers.

In Colorado, there is no commission devoted solely to worker safety, no agency that warns lawmakers about trends in worker deaths and no researchers who cull data on all workplace injuries.

The state, for instance, is one of only nine not participating in a federal survey that tracks when workers are hurt but not killed. The federal government provides a grant to pay for the state’s collection of data on worker deaths. But the Colorado legislature must pay half the cost of participating in the nationwide Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.

And that hasn’t happened.

“It’s cost-prohibitive for Colorado to participate in that process,” said Michael Van Dyke, a Colorado Health Department official who oversees the state’s collection of reports on workplace deaths.

Other states have been more proactive when it comes to monitoring worker safety, especially on oil and gas sites.

Wyoming has a researcher who does nothing but track workplace deaths and who produces an annual report identifying trends and recommending changes.

West Virginia formed a commission to study worker safety in the oil and gas industry. The commission’s work led the state legislature to pass a bill this year that will create a database of accidents at oil and gas worksites.

In Colorado, there already is a requirement that oil and gas companies report certain accidents to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state agency that regulates the industry. But state law says the COGCC should administer rules only to protect the environment and the general public. The statute specifically forbids the COGCC from imposing worker safety rules on companies already regulated by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.