As a construction worker, the last thing you want to hear is that the number of accidents taking place is on the rise. You do your best to stay safe; you wear safety equipment as required and try to do your job within the guidelines you’re given. Not all workplaces are 100 percent safe, but using common sense and following guidelines for safety can help. With increasing safety laws and better protective equipment, your safety should be guaranteed, right?
That’s not the case, according to this article documenting data from 2014. It reports that on-the-job deaths and injuries have increased for 2014 with a worker dying around once every two hours every day of the year.
The Death on the Job report, which is issued each year, stated that there were 3.4 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2014, which is up from the previous year. In 2013, the total was 3.3 deaths per 100,000 workers.
The number of deaths reported in the document rose substantially from 4,585 in 2013 to 4,821 in 2014; That doesn’t include the farm workers who have passed away from illnesses such as black lung disease or silicosis. Although the numbers are increasing, and that’s a troubling sign, another issue is that not all worker deaths and injuries are reported. That means the data is incomplete and can’t be fully vetted.
The most-fatal occupations are in farming, logging, oil wells and refining, construction and fishing. In total, 899 construction workers were killed on the job in 2014, and most of those workers died from preventable falls.
Source: Peoples World, “AFL-CIO: Workplace deaths, injuries on the rise,” Mark Gruenberg, April 28, 2016