An experienced carpenter with a stellar safety record died on the job at a North Dakota remodeling project. The man’s untimely death doesn’t make sense when you look at his day to day practice of producing high quality work safely. Something must have gone wrong somewhere along the way. The investigation into the accident revealed that the man felt pressure to produce and to perform, and that may be why he kept working on the job site even though it had not yet been checked out by an electrician. The man had asked his supervisors repeatedly to get the site assessed by an electrician, but no one came, so he kept working. He died from accidental electrocution, and members of his family say that this tragedy would not have happened if he had been working somewhere other than North Dakota.
North Dakota has the worst worker safety record in the nation, with the highest worker fatality rate per capita. The state has held that title for four out of the past five years, which is even more concerning. Forty-seven people died on the job in North Dakota in 2015, which works out to 12.5 deaths per hundred thousand workers. Other states also have high worker fatality rates. For example, in 2015 Wyoming had 12 deaths per hundred thousand workers, Montana has 7.5, and Mississippi had 6.8. Across the nation, a total of approximately five thousand workers got killed on the job.
Further exploration of the worker safety landscape in North Dakota reveals that injured workers do not get much attention, they have to actively pursue compensation and care at every step of the way. When workers die, the state’s worker’s compensation pays out, on average, less than four thousand dollars per death. In other states, the payout is closer to fifteen thousand dollars. Also, safety inspections are few and far between. With seven health and safety inspectors assigned to the entire state, it is estimated that it would take those inspectors over a century to inspect every workplace in North Dakota.
Workers do not always know the safety records of the companies that they work for, nor do they feel as though they can ask their employers questions if they have a concern about workplace safety. In an economic climate where those Americans who are employed are grateful just to have a job, people tend not to ask a lot of questions about safety which is why state and federal oversight of workplace safety is so critical for keeping workers safe.
Barrett Law PLLC: Help and Hope for Mississippi Workplace Accident Victims
If you feel pressure at work to produce, you are not alone. Unfortunately, the pressure to produce often pushes aside safe work practices, and sometimes the results are tragic. People get hurt and killed when safe work practices get set aside in the name of profit and production, and injured workers and their families are left to pick up the pieces. To learn more about how to pursue a workplace accident claim, call the Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorney at Barrett Law PLLC today, at 1 (800) 707-9577.
