New York City wrongful death lawyers can provide legal representation whenever someone has been killed due to negligence or wrongdoing. A wrongful death attorney can also help families of workers killed on-the-job by any cause, as a workers’ compensation wrongful death claim can ensure benefits are available to dependents even if no negligence was involved on the part of an employer.
Unfortunately, many families are shattered by worker deaths or by workplace injuries every year. The AFL-CIO released its annual Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect report in April of 2017. The 2017 edition of this report covers worker fatalities during the year 2015, which is the most recent year that statistics are available.
This report shows that, while there have been around 553,000 fewer workers killed since 1970 when the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, there are still thousands of employees who lose their lives each year while doing work tasks.
Determining the Risks
According to the AFL-CIO’s report on worker fatalities in 2015:
- A total of 4,836 workers died in a year in the United States while doing job-related tasks.
- Close to 3.7 million injuries and illnesses related to job duties were reported.
- The fatality rate across all industries was calculated to be 3.4 deaths for each 100,000 workers.
- Latino workers had a fatality rate that was 18 percent higher than the national average. Their fatality rate was four deaths per 100,000 workers and 67 percent of the Latinos who died on-the-job were immigrants.
- Workers who are at least 65 have 2.5 times the chances of dying at work compared with the rest of the workforce, with a fatality rate of 9.4 deaths per 100,000 workers.
- More construction workers were killed than workers in any other industry. A total of 937 construction workers died on-the-job.
- The industry considered the most dangerous was agriculture, fishing and forestry, which had a fatality rate of 22.8 workers killed for every 100,000 workers. Transportation and warehouse workers also had a high fatality rate of 13.8 deaths per 100,000 workers.
- The mining and excavations sector is getting safer, as the fatality rate in this industry hit a record low this year.
- Workplace violence is increasingly a cause of worker fatalities, and a total of 703 workers killed during the course of the year died as a result of violence.
- The total cost associated with job-related deaths and job-related illnesses was estimated at between $250 billion and $360 billion annually.
- OSHA is understaffed and cannot perform needed inspections. There are enough state OSHA workers to inspect each business once every 99 years and enough federal OSHA inspectors to inspect each business once every 150 years.
New York City wrongful death lawyers can provide help in making a workers’ comp claim for death benefits and can also assist in filing a wrongful death claim against any defendants who could potentially be at fault for causing the fatality. Give Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff a call today to find out more about the assistance that we can provide.
