Dive Brief:
- Numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics put electrical line workers among the top ten most dangerous jobs in the United States according to the agency's most recent census in 2014, Transmission & Distribution World reports.
- Electrical line workers have a 19.2 fatality rate per 100,000 workers, making it the second lowest on the list, but utilities are working "aggressively" to lower those fatalities even more.
- The number of job fatalities has declined since 1994, with utility companies reporting a decline in nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses because of "aggressive programs and policies utilities are putting in place to stress workplace safety," T&D reports.
Dive Insight:
The job of a lineman is fraught with dangers, so it's no surprise it made Bureau of Labor Statistics top ten list of most dangerous jobs. But T&D reports utilities are taking steps to protect those workers.
Walter Brown, General manager of power delivery with NextEra Energy Resources recently led a webinar and said achieving a high level of safety performance is a multiple step process while to obtain top decile safety performance rating, T&D reports.
Utilities are targeting a zero fatality rate, but about 3 million nonfatal recordable incidents reported in 2014.
Numbers for 2014 workplace accidents, set to be revised later this spring, show that electrical power line installers and repairers rank just above construction supervisors and extraction workers, who have a 17.9 fatality rate per 100,000 workers. Logging workers, fishers, and aircraft pilots and flight engineers topped the list, with loggers notching a fatality rate well above 100:
