97-92. Employer's record and report of accidents; records of Commission not open to public; supplementary report upon termination of disability; penalty for refusal to make report; when insurance carrier liable.

(a) Every employer shall hereafter keep a record of all injuries, fatal or otherwise, received by his employees in the course of their employment on blanks approved by the Commission. Within five days after the occurrence and knowledge thereof as provided in G.S. 97-22 of an injury to an employee, causing his absence from work for more than one day or charges for medical compensation exceeding the amount set by the Commission, a report thereof shall be made in writing and mailed or transmitted to the Commission in the form approved by the Commission for this purpose.

(b) The records of the Commission that are not awards under G.S. 97-84 and that are not reviews of awards under G.S. 97-85, insofar as they refer to accidents, injuries, and settlements are not public records under G.S. 132-1 and shall not be open to the public, but only to the parties satisfying the Commission of their interest in such records and the right to inspect them, and to State and federal agencies pursuant to G.S. 97-81.

(c) Upon the termination of the disability of the injured employee, or if the disability extends beyond a period of 60 days, then, also, at the expiration of such period the employer shall make a supplementary report to the Commission on blanks to be procured from the Commission for the purpose.

(d) The said report shall contain the name, nature, and location of the business of the employer and name, age, sex, and wages and occupation of the injured employee, and shall state the date and hour of the accident causing injury, the nature and cause of the injury, and such other information as may be required by the Commission.

(e) Any employer who refuses or neglects to make the report required by this section shall be liable for a penalty of not less than five dollars ($5.00) and not more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for each refusal or neglect. The fine herein provided may be assessed by the Commission in an open hearing, with the right of review and appeal as in other cases. In the event the employer has transmitted the report to the insurance carrier for transmission by such insurance carrier to the Industrial Commission, the insurance carrier willfully neglecting or failing to transmit the report shall be liable for the said penalty.

(f) Any bill, report, application, and document of every nature and kind, which is required or permitted by Commission rules to be transmitted to the Commission by electronic media or is recorded among the Commission records on computer disk, optical disk, microfilm, or similar media and which is produced or reproduced in written form in the normal course of business or is certified as a true and accurate copy of the data recorded at the Commission in the normal course of its business shall be treated as a signed original in all uses before the Commission and as a duplicate within the meaning of Rule 1003 of the North Carolina Rules of Evidence.