Attorneys Who Understand Their Clients

Construction’s fatal four: the accidents and their causes

As a Pennsylvania construction worker, you may face some of the most dangerous conditions in any profession. The legal team at Douglas, Joseph & Olson Attorneys At Law often assists workers in the construction industry to pursue compensation to cover the costs of their damages caused by an accident.

But what makes your job so dangerous? According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, there are four types of accidents that frequently kill construction workers. Here are the most recent statistics, compiled for 2016:

  1. You are most likely to be killed by falling; 384 workers died because of injuries suffered in a fall.
  2. There were 93 workers who died when an object on the job site struck them; while there were far fewer casualties than falls, it still presents a significant danger.
  3. Almost as many workers died from electrocution as from struck-by accidents; 82 suffered fatal electrical accidents.
  4. A close fourth, accidents that involved workers becoming caught, compressed or crushed by machinery, equipment or collapsing structures caused 72 deaths.

The law requires your employer to follow safety guidelines. OSHA inspects job sites and issues citations for noncompliance, and it is not too difficult to connect the most frequently cited violations to the most frequently occurring deadly accidents. For example, the most citations were issued for a lack of fall protection. Also in the top 10 were scaffolding violations, ladder safety violations and a lack of fall protection training.

Electrical and wiring violations and lockout/tagout violations were common, as well as failure to meet machinery and machine guard regulations. Citations were also given to companies that did not meet safety standards for powered industrial trucks.

More information about workplace accidents is available on our webpage.