The Ten Most Dangerous Jobs For Worker Injuries

Most Americans will get a job and earn a living, making an honest day’s dollar for an honest day’s work. Unfortunately, some jobs have a higher element of risk than others. While a typical white-collar office job, for example, will introduce a relatively low amount of physical danger to employees, there are other jobs throughout the USA, where people earn their paychecks and risk their lives at the same time. Here are the ten most dangerous jobs in the USA.

General Agriculture Labor

People working on farms to harvest crops are prone to numerous injuries. Sometimes these are less serious, such as the strain of muscles from long hours of work. But many injuries are vehicle-related, such as mishaps around tractors as workers struggle to meet quotas and deadlines.

Construction

Unsurprisingly, people that work in construction are often at risk of injury. The most common accidents that occur on construction sites are falls. This is no real surprise as workers operate great heights, and may slip or trip on equipment, or the simple lack of a floor because it is their job to build that floor.

Farmers/Ranchers

In a bit of a surprise, it’s not just general agriculture labor that is prone to injury. Farmers, ranchers, and other management are often at a higher risk of injury than the general laborers. This largely due to vehicular accidents, such as mishaps with the tractor, or even crashes while riding all-terrain vehicles to survey the property quickly.

Drivers

When you’re on the road, it’s not just your driving skills that determine your safety, but the road conditions and the driving skills of others on the road. As a result, the more time you spend on the road, the more risk you may be the victim of an accident that has nothing to do with your driving. Professional drivers, such as truck drivers, or even salespeople that spend a lot of time driving, are at just such a risk of traffic-accident related injury.

Metal Workers

A more specific form of construction, people that work in iron or steel, especially when it comes to laying out the girders that are the initial framework of a building, are at risk of injury. People in this line of work are often in danger of getting struck by the objects they work with, as machines haul these girders from one location to the next. One moment of distraction can result in a blow and possibly a fall from a great height.

Collection Workers

People throw all kinds of things away that they shouldn’t. Unfortunately, it’s the people paid to take these things away that pay the price. Garbage and recycling workers can get injured on the job from the refuse they collect, such as hypodermic needles are thrown in the trash, but can also be injured by other vehicles as drivers on the road don’t respect these people doing their job.

Roofers

Another, more specific form of construction-related work, roofers are very busy throughout the year, and their job, by necessity, forces them to work at great heights. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the most numerous injuries sustained by roofers are slips and falls while on the job.

Aircraft Pilots

Pilots, surprisingly, are very high on the list of injuries at work, but in this case, unlike drivers, the risk doesn’t come from traffic. The most common injury sustained by pilots is usually due to over-exertion, as pilots often work much longer hours than other occupations, and can’t afford to take breaks when the lives of passengers are at stake. This often results in exhaustion-related injuries.

Fishing

Commercial fishing can be extremely dangerous for one major reason; the unpredictability of the sea. Even with all the care in the world, a storm, or other environmental elements can result in a slip, a fall, and in the worst-case scenarios, drowning and death. Working in the fishing industry can be extremely dangerous.

Logging

In one sense, logging is all about physics. Trees are huge organic structures, and an impact from a falling tree can easily be fatal. However, as long as you’re not in the way of a falling tree, you’re safe. This is where the danger of logging comes in, as forest settings and other environmental factors make this job less predictable. Falling branches from felled trees and getting struck by logs account for the highest fatalities on the job and non-fatal injuries of any occupation in America.

Stay Vigilant

It’s important in any job to maintain environmental awareness, but sometimes injuries happen through no fault of your own. If you’ve sustained an injury on the job, and it’s not your fault, you should be entitled to some workers' compensation. If you’re not getting it, it may be time to fight for what’s right. Talk to a lawyer experienced with workplace injuries to assess your case and find out what you should be doing next.