Low-Height Falls Can Also be Deadly
If you think fatal falls happen only to construction workers swinging off skyscrapers, consider the following incident: A maintenance worker died after a fall from an elevation of just eight feet (2.5 meters).
If you think fatal falls happen only to construction workers swinging off skyscrapers, consider the following incident: A maintenance worker died after a fall from an elevation of just eight feet (2.5 meters).
With 70-foot (21-meter) tall trees being felled on a lot that was only 100 feet (30 meters) square, workers didn't have a lot of room to get out of the way of falling trees. And one didn't.
A 22-year-old worker died after jumping 16 feet (five meters) from an elevated pallet on a forklift that was tipping over.

Not knowing English can cause all kinds of safety problems for workers, but a recent case in California shows how it may endanger non-workers too.

Workplace violence reared its ugly head in Caroline, VA, recently when a school maintenance supervisor was gunned down in his office.
Wanting to hype his audience up in advance of an acrobatic performance, circus ringmaster Jesus Vasquez
A 20-year-old man was working by himself changing a press punch at a small machine shop when a welded hydraulic hose coupling blew, killing him instantly.

A narcotics officer who died of cancer believed that exposure to the toxic products, solvents, and volatiles of the meth labs and drug factories he busted contributed to his death.
A 21-year-old assistant mountaineering guide fell to his death on Denali (Mount McKinley) while attempting to rescue another climber from falling.

Being experienced in your work does not provide immunity from injuries. Nearly a quarter of acute injuries happen to experienced workers - as a result of human errors.
A 49-year-old man was electrocuted when he leaned on a fluorescent light fixture while painting.
A 32-year-old laborer for a boring and tunneling company died when he was struck with a hydraulic hose.

An overhead crane operator died when a bale of steel slipped off the C-hook and hit him. He had positioned the bale incorrectly on the C-hook, so it was not balanced and centered. Ordinarily he
A worker painting a fence along a railway was killed when he stepped in front of an express train. He was part of a crew painting the fence located at a rail crossing barrier. The
A worker collapsed because of the lack of oxygen in a tuolene storage tank. A fireman who was trying to rescue him was killed when the tank exploded. The incident occurred at a bulk petroleum

While helping to reshingle a farmhouse roof, a worker was handling an aluminum ladder. The ladder contacted 7,200 volts of electricity when it hit a power line. The worker was electrocuted. An electrical entry wound
A broken crawling board sent two workers to the ground, where one died and the other received multiple injuries. The two workers were painting a barn roof. They were using a crawling board, also known
An ironworker foreman died in a fall from a roof under construction after he removed a safety barricade. The victim was supervising a crew building the roof of a cold storage warehouse. The final structural

Some workplace fire hazards are obvious. You toss a match into a pile of dry sawdust, and you get a fire. Other hazards are harder to recognize. Consider the chemical reactions which can result in
Would you trust your life to a hydraulic jack? You shouldn’t. Workers have been killed by vehicles and other heavy objects falling off jacks and improperly-placed jack stands. In one such fatality, a mechanic was
A large piece of equipment was being installed in a new paper mill. Two workers were making the final adjustments to a three-ton (2.72-tonne) machine suspended overhead by four threaded rods. They were supporting one
Most victims of heavy machinery collisions are workers, but occasionally passersby are also struck by equipment. For example, a street sweeper moving at about two miles an hour (three kilometers an hour) knocked down an

Heavy work on a hot day caused a fatal heat stroke for a laborer at an industrial waste processing facility. From the start of his shift in the morning to the time he collapsed in
A small business owner had been using an oxy-acetylene cutting torch. In an effort to save money on rental charges for the oxygen cylinder, he was attempting to transfer the remaining oxygen into a propane
A teenaged hardware sales employee was killed when he fell from a fiberglass extension ladder as he tried to change a lightbulb. He died of a skull fracture when he landed headfirst on the concrete