Utility work: An especially dangerous job?

Unfortunately, workers sometimes suffer major injuries on the job. Such injuries could drastically change a worker’s life, or even cut it tragically short. Risks of serious workplace injuries and workplace fatalities can come up in all kinds of industries. There are some fields though where these risks can be particularly high. A recent study points to utility work being one of these fields.

The study looked at over 1,000 workplace incidents from 11 utility organizations to estimate risk of exposure to serious injuries and fatalities for utility workers. The study found such risk for such workers to be higher than the average for all industry workers.

Within the utility industry, the risk was highest in water utilities and lowest in gas utilities, with electric utilities taking the middle spot.

The report found the most common type of accident behind serious injury and death exposure in the utility field to be motor vehicle crashes. Taking the No. 2 spot were things such as struck-by and line-of-fire incidents.

What sorts of steps would you like to see taken here in California to help make utility work safer?

When incidents leading to serious injuries or deaths happen in workplaces here in California, workers’ comp claims can play an important part in getting victims and their families the financial relief they need. Now, sometimes, workers and families encounter roadblocks in their pursuit of workers’ compensation benefits. Skilled workers’ compensation lawyers can provide guidance on what can be done to try to overcome such roadblocks.