FACTS
- The worst heavy equipment accidents can cause potentially fatal injuries to the spinal cord, head, and neck, such as concussions, broken bones, and amputations.
- Ensuring adequate rollover protective structures for heavy equipment, requiring fastening of seat belts, adoption of a lock-out/tagout standard, establishing restricted access zones around heavy equipment, and requiring spotters for workers who must be near heavy equipment or trucks would reduce the risk of heavy equipment- and truck-related deaths in construction.
- There are many different construction site accidents associated with heavy equipment such as cranes, bulldozers, front-end loaders, dump trucks, and excavators.
STATS
- About 75% of struck-by fatalities involve heavy equipment, such as trucks or cranes.
- According to Injury Facts 2016, there were 721 workplace deaths due to these types of incidents and more than 232,570 injuries with days away from work in 2013.
- Heavy equipment crashes caused more than 7,600 deaths at a rate of almost 404 deaths per year.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries identified 253 heavy equipment related deaths on construction sites in the Excavation Work industry.
- Around a thousand construction workers are killed on job sites every year in the US. And that numbers gradually increased every year since 2013 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). An alarming number of those deaths and injuries were caused by heavy equipment. Most occurred when the victim was either struck by moving equipment or caught-in or between heavy machinery and another impediment (wall, another machine, etc).
- Heavy equipment operators and construction laborers made up 63% of the heavy equipment- and truck-related deaths. Rollovers were the main cause of death of heavy equipment operators. For workers on foot and maintenance workers, being struck by heavy equipment or trucks, and being struck by equipment loads or parts were the major causes of death.