Job-site deaths continue to plague workers in Sacramento and across the country. OSHA is responsible for monitoring and inspecting more than 8 million worksites around the nation, but even including its state partners, OSHA only has a staff of 2,200 inspectors. In simple terms, that means that there is only 1 inspector for just under 60,000 workers.
With constant budget cutbacks, and just the sheer scope of its responsibility, OSHA violations are all too common. Construction site injuries, and even deaths remain at shockingly high rates”
“Out of 3,929 worker fatalities in private industry in calendar year 2013, 796 or 20.3% were in construction―that is, one in five worker deaths last year were in construction. The leading causes of worker deaths on construction sites were falls, followed by struck by object, electrocution, and caught-in/between. These “Fatal Four” were responsible for more than half (58.7%) the construction worker deaths in 2013, BLS reports. Eliminating the Fatal Four would save 468 workers’ lives in America every year.”
According to OSHA, the 10 most frequent OSHA violations include:
- Failing to protect people from falling;
- Failing to properly communicate possible hazards;
- Scaffolding related injuries
- Failing to protect from inhalation of toxic and other respiratory issues;
- Various electrical injuries including faulty wiring
- Injuries from powered vehicles such as trucks and forklifts
- Falling from ladders
- Failing to control hazardous energy, and in particular lockout/tagout issues;
- Defective or fault electrical designs;
- Failing to protect and guard from dangerous machinery.
If you have been injured on the job, or even worse have lost a loved one to a construction related death, please contact one of the personal injury lawyers at Eason & Tambornini, A Law Corporation, to see if there is an OSHA violation that may provide a basis for recovery for the damages you have suffered.
