ABOUT THE SERIES
The Journal-News is reprising its special series “Following the Money,” which examines how government spending impacts business and job growth.
Last year’s inaugural series included six stories and was recognized by the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors. It placed second for Best Enterprise Reporting in 2014 by Ohio newspapers with daily circulation of 25,000 to 74,999.
New stories on this topic will publish every Thursday and Sunday in September. Find all articles online at: www.journal-news.com/projects/following-the-money/
SEPT. 20: Winning new jobs costing taxpayers more in Ohio
SEPT. 17: Why some companies don't own their own buildings
SEPT. 13: CORE Fund properties still a hard sell to private investors
SEPT. 10: Townships balance need for new business with wants of residents
SEPT. 6: Changes at this government agency may impact your job search
SEPT. 3: New government created in Butler County just for Liberty Center
CONTINUING COVERAGE
This news outlet has been following workplace fatalities over the last year to bring light to the important safety issue.
July 2014: OSHA focuses more on accident response, hazards than prevention
Jan. 2015: Number of fatal workplace accidents on the rise
Feb. 2015: Lack of safety training, experience blamed for rise in work fatalities
March 2015: West Chester Twp. man dies in seventh fatal work accident this year
March 2015: OSHA resources to prevent deadly job accidents strained
April 2015: Companies cited for preventable workplace deaths
April 2015: Middletown union remembers lives lost at annual workers memorial
Ohio is one of 24 states where deaths on the job increased last year from the year before, according to newly updated state and federal data.
There were 184 work-related fatalities across all occupations statewide in 2014, compared to 149 the year before, according to Ohio Department of Health, which tracks the state-level statistics in partnership with the federal government.
Overall, 4,679 fatal work injuries in all private and public sectors were recorded in the United States in 2014. That grew 2 percent from the 4,585 deaths that occurred in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But when adjusted for the number of workers and hours — taking into account total U.S. employment grew approximately 1 percent in 2014 from 2013 — the death rate remained unchanged; there were about 3 deaths for every 100,000 workers in each of the last two years, according to the federal labor department.
“Far too many people are still killed on the job – 13 workers every day taken from their families tragically and unnecessarily,” said Thomas Perez, U.S. secretary of labor, in a written statement. “These numbers underscore the urgent need for employers to provide a safe workplace for their employees as the law requires.”
Deaths in what can be dangerous manufacturing and construction industries are on the rise both locally and nationally as employment in those sectors recovers from the economic downturn, according to the estimates.
In Ohio, deaths in these trades grew by double digit rates. There was a 21 percent increase in construction workers killed on the job last year; an 11 percent increase in manufacturing workers killed and a 23 percent increase in trades, transportation and utility workers killed, an industry that represents the largest share of workers killed nationwide.
Nationally, fatal injuries in manufacturing occupations increased 9 percent in 2014 from the year before, fatalities in construction increased 6 percent and fatal agricultural accidents increased 14 percent nationwide. But work-related deaths dropped year-over-year in the government and some services sectors, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released new estimates on Sept. 17.
The findings support assertions from regional work-safety inspectors that a worrisome trend was occurring in Ohio.
While labor statistics reported the numbers mentioned above for calendar years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration tracks accidents under its watch in budget years of Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
The number of fatal occupational injuries is also a broader measure than what involves OSHA.
The national labor statistics figure counts accidents investigated by OSHA as well as those under the watch of other government jurisdictions such as local law enforcement and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as traffic accidents that could happen when someone is clocked in on the job, for example. OSHA does not investigate, or count, those types of fatalities.
For the 2014 budget year ending Sept. 30, 2014, OSHA investigated 46 fatal work accidents in Ohio, down from 48 in 2012, but a major increase from 38 work-related deaths in 2011, the former OSHA Cincinnati Area Director Bill Wilkerson previously told this news outlet. He has since retired.
Wilkerson had attributed the increases to include a lack of attention paid to safe work practices and training, a younger and newer workforce in manufacturing and construction, and strained office resources. Due to new reporting requirements in effect since Jan. 1, companies nationwide must now notify OSHA within 24 hours of any amputations, workers hospitalized overnight or loss of an eye. Previously, employers only had to report all work-related fatalities and hospitalizations when involving three or more employees, according to the federal government agency.
As a result, Wilkerson previously said his office has been "inundated."
So far, 10 workers have died in various types of industrial accidents in the Cincinnati, Dayton and Springfield areas since October 2014, the beginning of the current fiscal year, according to the most recent information provided by OSHA. The year before, 14 people died over the whole 12 month period in the area overseen by the Cincinnati office. Most recently, a worker was killed in June in a highway construction zone on Interstate 70 when they were struck by a semi-truck. The semi entered the construction zone while switching lanes after it was hit by a dump truck, according to OSHA.
"Safety and health is not a fight," Gaye Johnson, assistant area director for OSHA in Cincinnati, told union members and their families gathered for an annual workers memorial in April in Middletown. "It should be jubilation to everybody to know that there is somebody out there and someone who cares enough about what you do on the worksite that they say 'hey, let's just all take a minute and stop, and say, how do we do this safely?'"
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