It is often said that construction is one of the most dangerous lines of work, largely because of how many accidents occur while people are on the job. When taking a look at the numbers that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported for 2012, it can be seen that the statistics do back this up.
Though these statistics are from two years ago, they paint a good picture of what the industry looks like today. On the whole, OSHA found that there were 4,175 fatal accidents. Out of these, 806 of the accidents took place in the construction industry. This means that construction accidents accounted for over 19 percent of the whole.
Exten
Even within construction, there are four different types of accidents that are considered to be the “Fatal Four.” These are as follows:
— Falls
— Instances where workers were struck by various objects
— Electrocutions
— Situations where workers were caught between two things, such as pieces of equipment.
Overall, over 54 percent of all of the fatal accidents fell into these four categories. For 2012, that meant that 437 people were killed in one of these ways.
Falls were the most dangerous by a wide degree, accounting for 34.6 of the fatalities. Next were instances where workers were struck, with 9.8 percent, and then electrocutions, with 8.1 percent. Lastly, there were instances in which workers were caught or pinned, accounting for 1.6 percent.
Anyone who has been injured on the job in Ohio needs to know what rights they have to things like basic workers’ compensation that can help them in the wake of one of these injuries.
Source: OSHA, “Commonly Used Statistics” Sep. 10, 2014