We are lucky to live in a State with beautiful peaks, canyons, plains and plateaus. That diverse beautiful environment comes at a price of varied hazards. Many dangerous occupations in Denver and throughout Colorado often involve open-air jobs.
Exposure to the elements is often the largest contributing factor to injury when Social Security and Workers’ Compensation is filed in Denver. The Front Range is a burgeoning and while Denver booming urban metropolis, we are no strangers to the wild outdoors.
Here’s a list of the most dangerous jobs in Denver and Colorado:
The top 10 most dangerous occupations in the U.S. in terms of worker fatalities include (rate per 100,000 workers in parentheses, source United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor and Statistics):
Fishermen (116.0)
Logging workers (91.9)
Airplane pilots and flight engineers (70.6)
Farmers and ranchers (41.4)
Mining machine operators (38.7)
Roofers (32.4)
Sanitation workers (29.8)
Truck drivers and delivery workers (21.8)
Industrial machine workers (20.3)
Police officers (18.0)
Logging:
Consistently a dangerous occupation throughout the country, loggers face numerous risks making a living. The peril of handling cutting machinery is present but isn’t the largest threat as one may think, but the risk of falling debris. The massive momentum, force, and weight of plummeting wood and sliding logs are gigantic concerns for loggers.
5 Things Every Injured Worker Needs To Know From An Experienced Denver Workers’ Compensation Attorney
With an average salary of $32,870/year Social Security and Workers’ Compensation are important if an injury should take place because of the loss of income and medical bills that pile up. Injuries could be a myriad of things from broken bones and back injuries from the heavy weights of the work, to severe illness like acute pneumonia due to being out in poor weather for extended periods of time. In 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported loggers and timber cutters behind only pilots and fishermen on deaths on the job per capita. Out of every 10,000, 91.9 loggers were killed in 2010, over 5 times the national average of workplace fatalities.
Miners:
Miners had a surge in work-related deaths due to the 2010 mainly due to multiple deaths that occurred at the Upper Big Branch mine and the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.
Pilots/Flight Techs:
It’s hard to believe soaring above Denver and the Rocky Mountains would be more dangerous than say a police officer or taxi driver given flying is one of the statistically safest forms of travel. However that’s for travelers mainly, maintenance of aircraft mishaps, the unfortunate crash and occasional on-the-ground accidents boost the fatality rate at 70.6/100,000.
Roofers:
In a booming front range and Denver, roofers are in high demand. They are also at a high risk of injury. Falls, strains from working from heights, and other unfortunate accidents from roof collapses contribute to the rate of roofers. Roofing in the case of accidental injuries and death comes under intense scrutiny and human harm usually results in fines and OSHA violations being issued.
Farmers/Ranchers:
The maintenance and development of country land for farming, especially in the case of America for the sheer size of arable land acreage, requires some of the largest machinery in industrial production, some machines crash, malfunction or some disastrous human error takes place. There have even some instances of farmers and ranchers being killed by animals and livestock.
Truck Drivers/Delivery:
In terms of numbers, professional drivers lose the most in work-related fatalities, yet per capita they are lower on the list. The sheer number of drivers on the roads account for the statistics. Many factors can play a part in injuries on the vast interstate system, sleep deprivation of drivers, alcohol and drug use, mechanical failure of automobiles or equipment.
Overall, there were 4,547 workplace deaths in 2010, which is slightly down from the 4,551 fatalities that occurred in 2009. This number though makes 2010 the safest year on record and represents a decline by nearly a quarter in worker fatalities since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting data in 1992. If you or a family member has been injured on the job, you need to make sure you have adequate representation to help you get the workers’ compensation benefits you deserve. Call Kaplan Morrell at 303-780-7329 or click here to get a FREE consultation on your workers’ comp rights.