From the flyer:

You don’t want to take the risk that a serious incident could happen on your property. Falls are the leading cause of death among construction workers, and falls from rooftops are the most common type of fall. Even years of experience does not negate the need for safety equipment.

Please email us at falls@cpwr.com if you want to become a partner so that we can add you to this list. Please also contact us if you have any questions or suggestions for the campaign.

Organizations involved in the national campaign to prevent falls at U.S. construction sites have re-launched it this week and hope to do even more to raise awareness of workers and safety managers during the 2013 construction season. The campaign reached hundreds of thousands of workers in 2012 with the message “Safety Pays and Falls Cost,” and the three campaign websites received more than 500,000 page views during the year. Webinars, e-mail blasts, radio and TV broadcasts, publications, and training and outreach events also spread the word.

Continue reading the article and the OHS Online site.

“Too many times we hear the phrase, ‘it was an accident.’ We know these incidents are preventable, which means that hundreds of fall-related deaths and thousands of injuries can be prevented,” said Pete Stafford, executive director of CPWR. “Our years of data collection consistently show that falls constitute one-third of all construction fatalities, which makes falls the leading killer of construction workers. We’re eager to re-launch the campaign and see fall protection used when workers are at heights.”

Read the rest of the press release here.

Read the announcement for more information on why preventing falls in the construction industry is important.

In the heavy and highway construction industry, we don’t often talk about fall hazards. While falls from heights are the leading cause of accidents and deaths in other segments of the construction industry, many of us who work on roads, ports, tarmac and other un-elevated projects have the impression we are immune from falls on the jobsite.

That perception is wrong.

Insurance claims data show falls (from heights and resulting from slips and trips) account for approximately 25 percent of our workers’ compensation claims. They are one of the most frequent sources of injury and death. This fact alone should command our attention.

To read on about the business and personal reasons to support the Campaign to Prevent Falls in Construction, click here [PDF].

The construction industry makes up only 7% of our nation’s workforce. But when we compare our industry to other industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and mining, we consistently have the most number of workers killed on the job. Even when the numbers of construction-related fatalities dropped, as they did during our current economic downturn, we are still at the top of the list in workplace fatalities.

Even worse, we know what constitutes the top killer of construction workers. And it remains consistent, year after year.  One-third of all construction fatalities are from falls. Falls from rooftops; falls from ladders; falls from scaffoldings; and falls from staging.

That’s why it’s important that we all pay particular attention to the famous words spoke by that fearless fighter for worker justice, Mother Jones, who said, “Pray for the dead. Fight like hell for the living.”

Read the rest of the post at their blog.

To view the data that makes up the map, click here to download an excel file.

For more information about this year’s Fatality Map or the Fatality Map in general, please see our Fatality Mapping Project page.

If you are aware of a construction worksite fatality that has occurred since January 2013, please email fatalitymap@cpwr.com for it to be included in the project.

2013 – Preliminary Data

• In the first quarter of 2013, CPWR recorded 95 construction fatalities, including 37 fatal falls.

2011 & 2012 Annual Data

• CPWR recorded 595 construction fatalities that occurred during the 2012 calendar year, including 197 fatal falls.
• During 2011, the first year of the mapping project, CPWR recorded 578 fatalities that occurred during the calendar year, including 180 fatal falls.
• Revised BLS data for 2011 show 738 fatal construction injuries, including 262 fatal falls.  CPWR’s 2011 maps, which recorded results in real time, reflect approximately 78% of the fatalities and 69% of fatal falls reported by BLS for the construction industry. Note: as a result of how data were collected, the fatality maps may include deaths excluded from BLS reports and vice versa. (BLS Source: Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) – Current and Revised Data.)
•  As a point of reference, prior to the onset of the construction downturn in 2008, BLS reported more than 1,200 construction fatalities annually.

To access selected data used to create these maps please click on the links below:

• Construction Fatalities 1^st Quarter 2013
• Construction Fatalities 2012
• Construction Fatalities 2011

Methodological Changes in Data Collection

For 2011, CPWR included OSHA records of suspected or confirmed on-the-job heart attacks and aneurysms.  Ten deaths of this nature were included.  Starting in 2012, in order to be more consistent with BLS data, CPWR excluded confirmed and suspected heart attacks and aneurysms, unless coupled with a traumatic injury.  For instance, a worker who suffered a heart attack before falling from a ladder would still be included in the 2012 maps.  Deaths described as “occurring due to natural causes” were excluded for both years.  Events in which the cause of death was unclear or unknown (e.g. a worker found dead on a worksite with no witnesses to the incident) were included for both years.

 Read more about the efforts in Massachusetts to prevent falls in construction here.