As a construction worker, your various job sites present numerous opportunities for you to become seriously injured. From heavy equipment to faulty power tools to roofs and ladders and various other hazards, yours is a dangerous job.
In fact, construction workers face such a high risk of injury and death that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration created a list of the top four types of injuries that account for 64.7% of annual construction worker deaths nationwide. Known as the construction industry’s Fatal Four, Construct Connect breaks down these accident types and their respective percentages as follows:
- Falls that result in 38.7% of the deaths
- Struck by object accidents that result in 9.4% of the deaths
- Electrocution accidents that result in 8.3% of the deaths
- Caught-in or caught-between accidents that result in 7.3% of the deaths
Falls
Falls outweigh all other types of accidents that could cause your death. Not only that, when you fall from a tall ladder, scaffold or roof, your also face high risk of sustaining a catastrophic nonfatal injury such as a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury.
Struck by objects
You work around an almost never-ending number of things that could strike and injure or kill you. Even such an innocuous tool as a falling or flying screwdriver could cause you serious injury if it pierces your skull.
Electrocutions
Surprisingly, electricians do not suffer the most construction-related electrocutions. Laborers do. Whether you come into contact with an overhead power line or a faulty or improperly grounded power tool, your job sites contain an extensive number of things that could electrocute you.
Caught-ins and caught-betweens
Unfortunately, you can easily become caught in a machine’s mechanisms or caught between a heavy object and an unforgiving hard surface such as a wall, a floor or the ground. These types of accidents not only cause death, but also catastrophic crush injuries that could result in amputation of one of your limbs.