A death at work, today.

A man apparently died of dehydration. Add this to the death onsite due to a narcotics overdose, and the worker that fell from the low-rise roof a few days ago, I wonder exactly how dangerous construction work is.

In an excerpt of an article taken from The Socialist Worker, a comparison was made between work-related deaths of construction workers, to police officers, citing that most believe police-work is one of the most dangerous occupations in this nation:

"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2002, there were a total of 5,524 fatal work injuries in the United States. In the summary of the BLS’s findings for 2002, cops don’t even merit a mention. Construction, factory, forestry, mining, fishing and trucking workers accounted for the majority of fatalities. In 2002, 1,121 construction workers died; 789 agricultural, forestry and fishing workers; 563 manufacturing workers; 121 miners; 910 transportation and public utility workers; 692 wholesale and retail trade workers; and 580 service workers. Coming in second to last behind finance, insurance and real-estate workers (87 fatalities) are the police, with 106 deaths. Of the 106 police deaths, only 38 were from gunshot wounds. About that many people are shot and killed every year by cops in Detroit and New York City alone. The Stolen Lives Project, for example, compiled a list of 32 people killed by New York City and environs police in 1998."

It makes me wonder exactly how many of these jobsite accidents were preventable; how many were foolish mistakes and how many were based on a a false sense of safety.