Which Illinois workers are most at risk for workplace accidents?
On behalf of Jeffrey Frederick of Frederick & Hagle posted in Workplace Accidents on Thursday, November 1, 2012.
Any worker could fall victim to a workplace accident or injury, whether they are working high-rise construction or sitting at a desk in an office. According to the Illinois Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, in 2010, there were 203 Illinois workers killed while on the job. So which workers are at the biggest risk? While it would seem like construction workers and law enforcement officials would be at the top of the list in Illinois, the actual numbers may surprise some readers.
According to the CFOI for Illinois Department of Health, the professions most at risk for injury and death on the job are the following, in order:
- Transportation and material moving occupations
- Management occupations, including agricultural occupations
- Construction occupations
- Sales-related occupations
- Protective services occupations, including law enforcement and fire fighters
Further, an overwhelming 92.1 percent of workers killed on the job in Illinois are male. This is primarily because the jobs at the highest risk are male-dominated professions. Additionally, falls are recorded as the leading cause of deaths from fatal workplace accidents.
Readers might be surprised to learn that farming could be more dangerous to a worker’s safety than being in the line of duty. This is because farmers often work around heavy machinery that can cause devastating injury if mishandled. One farmer that almost lost his leg recently recounts of his accident, “Once he hit the button, I was halfway up the combine, and I could feel my leg being ground up. I was pinned in the head of the combine between belts and sprockets, but he didn’t know how to get me out.”
Workers in any of the aforementioned occupations, or any other field that are injured on the job could stand to see financial remuneration in the face of his or her injuries through workers’ compensation benefits as well as a possible third party claim if there is additional evidence of negligence present.
Source: Red Eye, “The most dangerous jobs in Chicago–and the state,” Melanie Zanona, Oct. 16, 2012
- Our firm has experience assisting injured workers seeking to financially recover. For more information, please visit our Illinois accidents at work page.
