It’s been a little over a month since we last wrote about construction accidents. In our November 1 post, we took note of evidence that immigrant workers tend to be affected at disproportionate rates by fatal workplace accidents.
Though the evidence was from the New York City area, the issue it calls attention to broadly affects workers in the Baltimore area and across the nation.
In today’s post, let’s look close to home again and discuss a recent fatal construction accident in Maryland.
The accident occurred in Silver Spring on Thanksgiving morning. A 56-year-old worker died at a construction job site after a fall.
A police officer with knowledge of the accident scene said that the accident seemed to be freakish one. The construction worker apparently slipped on an ice patch on the floor and fell. A hard hat was later found near his body, but the worker apparently hit his head in the fall. Sadly, the blow proved to be fatal.
The man who died was a carpenter and the job involved working on some unfinished townhomes. Even though a police officer described the accident as freakish, the case is still a stark reminder of how dangerous construction work can be.
That is why we continue to follow the issue of construction accidents so closely in this blog. As we pointed out in our September 20 post, there is often a serious lack of compliance with fall protection standards on residential construction sites. This is the case despite the fact that nearly two-thirds of fatal accidents on these sites are from falls.
Source: WJLA, “Silver Spring fatal construction accident on Thanksgiving,” Kris Van Cleave, Nov. 28, 2013
