Construction Industry Sees Decrease in Serious Injuries and Fatalities

The number of serious injuries and fatalities in construction declined 17% in 2023 compared to 2022 – but fatalities have flatlined for the last 10 years across all industries, according to a recently released white paper.

Dallas-based contractor and supplier management consulting firm, ISN, released its latest Serious Injury & Fatality (SIF) Insights White Paper, which incorporates 2023 data into its expanded seven-year analysis with a focus on ASTM E2920-19’s Level One Injury Recording criteria.

The white paper examines incidents from 2017 to 2023, identifying 19,900 potential SIF incidents. According to a summary of the white paper published on Construction Dive, the number of SIF incidents in construction declined 17% in 2023 compared to the previous year. But the industry’s fatality rate has hovered around 10 jobsite deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers for over a decade, reflecting a larger trend across all industries.

“The bad news is on a macrolevel across all industries, even though lagging measures such as recordable rates and lost time rates have steadily come down from where they historically have been, fatalities have flatlined for the last 10 years,” said ISN Director of Health, Safety and Sustainability, Duane Duhamel. “The construction industry is what we would term a high-hazard industry in general because it has many moving parts of staffing and overlap with contractors and subcontractors all the way down. That introduces a great deal of complexity when it comes to safety culture.”

Duhamel told Construction Dive that organizations that employ a solid safety assessment program usually have lower SIFs numbers, adding that those with a program in place to assess hazards allow influencers within their companies to turn those assessments into measurable actions that create change for the better.

Duhamel recommends construction companies conduct a safety culture assessment to establish a baseline of where there are potential gaps in their organizations.

“There is a direct correlation with a strong health and safety culture that leads to the likelihood of SIFs being lessened,” he said. “Employees will tell you what they see and believe and how things really are. Additionally, really focusing on these high-consequence events and ensuring there are adequate controls in place to protect them and looking at the human performance side of why people make mistakes and what can be improved.”

While the construction industry has seen a decline in the number of SIFs cases since 2022, Duhamel said that more needs to be done to keep workers safe.

“There’s a lot of hurdles and struggles with workplace safety in the construction industry as a whole, and I think technology can help with this,” he said. “There are things that can allow humans to error and fail safely, such as crash detection in vehicles, enhanced barriers and protection systems that prevent an employee from falling and introducing wearable technology and drones to detect hazardous conditions. Capturing some of those is really vital for the next iteration of SIFs prevention.”

How GPRS Supports a Safe Jobsite

At GPRS, our entire team is committed to your safety and the safety of your job site so that you and your team can go home at the end of the day. Safety is always on our radar, which is why we are proud sponsors of Construction Safety Week.

During this event, our team members will visit job sites across the country to share best practices for a variety of workplace-related safety topics, including fall protection, confined spaces, heat stroke, and mental health. The focus of these safety meetings is on how each individual can make their space a safe space to work.

Together, we can reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities on your job site.

Click here to schedule your Construction Safety Week presentation today.