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Saw a stat that tower crane accidents are way lower than I thought
Was reading through some OSHA reports last night and found out that about 42 crane-related fatalities happen per year in the US. I always assumed it was way higher given how dangerous our job looks. Is that number actually low compared to other construction trades?
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victor21919d ago
That stat about 42 fatalities sounds low until you consider there are only about 125,000 tower cranes in the US total, and most accidents don't make the news unless a building collapses. What people miss is that crane accidents often happen when nobody's around, like during setup or disassembly, not during lifting. The real number is probably higher too, because OSHA only counts what gets reported and cranes on small sites might not get investigated the same way. I remember reading about a 2019 incident in Seattle where a crane fell during a storm and killed four people, and that one spike kind of threw off the averages for that year. So yeah, it seems low compared to something like roofing or electrical work, but the consequences are usually way worse when they do happen.
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