LESSONS LEARNED
Construction is among the most dangerous industries and in recent years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that there are more than 800 fatal on-the-job injuries to construction workers annually - more than any other single industry.
OSHA has identified the 4 leading causes of fatalities in the construction industry and Caught-in Hazards are one of the Focus Four.
Caught-in or Caught-between hazards are defined as Injuries resulting from a person being squeezed, caught, crushed, pinched, or compressed between two or more objects, or between parts of an object.
In this incident, as reported in The New York Times, a concrete slab weighing thousands of pounds crashed to the ground, trapping and killing a worker at a New York construction site.
Caught-in hazards don't just exist where a line worker might get their glove caught in a gear or where crews on jobsites need to remember to stay out of the way of the swing areas of excavators or cranes.
Caught-in hazards exist on every job site and all team members need to be trained to recognize potential caught-in hazards to ensure they will avoid placing themselves in areas where materials could fall or tip over and they never crawl or enter into potentially unstable areas.
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