According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), falls are the leading cause of death in construction with 36 percent. Additionally, the industry has the second highest rate of fatal injuries.
Knowing this, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is focused on reducing the number of injuries and fatalities caused by falls on construction sites.
NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) created a national campaign that included sponsoring an event in early June called National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction.
The Stand-Down is a voluntary event for construction employers to talk to their employees about fall hazards and to remind them to be vigilant in reporting and working around those dangers.
Although falls are a persistent problem, NIOSH says that they are definitely preventable. Of the 9.1 million construction workers in the U.S., nearly 60 percent of the workers are required to use a ladder to do their job at least once a month.
In the last decade, 43 percent of fatal injuries were the result of falling from a ladder. Unfortunately, for construction workers, 81 percent of deaths were due to falling off a ladder.
Interestingly, nearly 90 percent of all nonfatal ladder falls were from heights less than 16 feet. The most common heights that caused injuries were six to 10 feet.
When injured in a fall, construction workers must take off a considerable amount of time to heal before they can go back to work.
NIOSH calculated the median days that workers had to take off to heal their injuries:
- 21 days from work for men
- 25 days from work for workers between 45-54 years old
- 42 days from work for construction workers
Find an Austin Workers Comp Lawyer
Taking this amount of time off from work is devastating to the paycheck of any employee. It is important to hire a workers’ compensation attorney so that you can rest assured that you are compensated fairly while healing from your injuries.
Did You Know? According to the CDC, in 2010, the construction industry accounted for 17 percent of all work-related deaths in the U.S.
The Law Offices of Aaron Allison – Austin Workers’ Compensation Attorneys