Addressing fall protection for the construction industry

From Nationwide

In February, a contractor on a jobsite of a multi-story structure was working on the top level next to the leading edge. While conducting a common task, putting refuse into a trash chute, he slipped and nearly fell over the edge of the building.

According to the company’s safety director, the employee was saved from a potentially fatal fall by using proper fall protection measures. The company had recently improved their formal fall protection program.

Tragically, there are many other instances where lives are lost. In the construction industry, falls are one of the main concerns for employee safety and are second only to vehicle accidents in total deaths.

The most current Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that falls continue to be a leading cause of construction deaths and injuries on jobsites with more than 400 fall-related deaths each year and thousands of serious injuries, and this has been a consistent trend for over a decade.

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