OSHA Increasing Unannounced Safety Checks to Prevent Construction Injuries
Posted by
Dan DeutermanNovember 01, 2007 2:53 PMFor many construction workers, job safety is truly a matter of life and death.
It's hard to imagine putting your life on line everyday just by going to work. A startling number of construction workers are injured and die each year from falls, crushed by equipment, electrocutions and other causes. The number of construction-related injuries numbers more than 400,000 every year, according to OSHA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, more than 1,100 people die every year in construction accidents.
Those fortunate to survive a work-related accident have to enter the red-tape world of workers' compensation, and many people are only adequately compensated with the help of an attorney.
Common sense dictates the best way to recover from a work-related injury is to avoid it all together.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, is hoping to reduce construction-related fatalities and injuries, specifically, in the Southeast by conducting a series of unannounced construction site safety checks.
As part of a campaign dubbed "Swept Up in Safety Weeks," checks will be carried out over the next 12 months with unannounced visits to construction sites throughout the entire Southeast region, which includes the Carolinas.
OSHA hopes these checks will help spot and eliminate safety and health hazards at construction sites and reduce injuries and fatalities.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Worksite Injuies and Workers Compensation.