In 2017, 5,147 workers in the U.S. were killed on the job, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, down slightly from 5.190 in 2016. The fatal injury rate in 2017 was 3.5 per 100,000 full-time employees. Three or four people out of 100,000. Not close to one percent. Meaning most everyone escapes being touched by a work-related death.
In rural America, where agricultural workers are dying at rates higher than those of coal miners, farmers often take risks that are no longer tolerated in other work environments. But in Minnesota and other Midwestern states, virtually no one is protecting small farmers. Safety programs have been dismantled, funding has disappeared and in most states rules prevent inspectors from visiting farms with fewer than 11 workers — which is where most of the fatal accidents are happening.
Based on 2014 published data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 261,930 private industry and state and local government workers missed one or more days of work due to injuries from falls on the same level or to lower levels1, and 798 workers died from such falls2.
The construction industry experienced the highest frequency of fall-related deaths, while the highest counts of nonfatal fall injuries continue to be associated with the health services and the wholesale and retail industries.
On January 14, 2016, a 22-year-old male laborer/carpenter (victim) employed by a residential contractor was fatally injured after falling from a single family house under construction.
While on the top plate of a studded exterior second story wall, the victim lost his balance and fell approximately 24 feet to the frozen ground below. The fall was not witnessed by any of the co-workers onsite, but the site foreman heard a noise and while trying to determine what the noise was he found the victim on the ground.
The 6th annual National Safety Stand-Down to prevent falls takes place the week of May 6-10, 2019.
The Stand-Down was conceived by OSHA in 2014 as part of the National Falls Campaign to raise awareness surrounding the severity of fall hazards in construction and the importance of preventing them.
In a construction setting, the term “safety stand-down” is used to describe a wide variety of activities where normal work is paused and the entire site focuses on a particular safety issue.
Three New York City construction workers died last week at three different worksites – two as the result of struck-by incidents.
In Brooklyn, news sources report that 34 year-old Gregory Echevarria was killed when part of a crane he was helping to assemble fell on him. The incident occurred at 3:15 a.m. on Saturday at the entrance to the Holland tunnel, when a 7.5 ton counterweight fell on Echevarria.
A downside of telemedicine visits, a safety coordinator and another manager indicted for obstructing an OSHA workplace fatality investigation and smartphone lessons from GM’s ban on using them while walking. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.
The family of a man injured in an explosion at a Nisku welding company said he is staying in positive spirits despite his serious, life-altering injuries.
Eric Fabbro, 42, was one of two men taken to hospital after a blast at Ja-Co Welding and Consulting; Alberta Health Services said the other injured man was in stable condition. A third man in his 40s died at the scene.
A 57-year-old man was killed in an accidental welding explosion while working on a boat at a Kemah, TX business.
According to the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, the blast happened at Gulf Coast Trawl Doors in the 900 block of Lawrence Road. Witnesses say the shop owner was welding on a gas tank of a small off-shore boat at the time of the accident.
Last August, Higinio Romero was working on the roof of a condo in South Florida when he slipped and fell two stories, landing on rocks below. Emergency workers found him unconscious and bleeding from his ears. Romero — a father of two children, 4 months old and 10 years old — died about an hour later. According to a sheriff’s report, he had unclipped his safety harness shortly before the fall.
