SUN INVESTIGATES Fatal workplace injuries on rise

Four worker deaths in Baltimore area in eight days reflect ongoing trend

The spate of four worker deaths in the Baltimore area in eight days this month reflects a rise in fatal workplace injuries in Maryland depicted in the most recent government data.

In 2016, 92 people died of injuries while working in Maryland, a 33 percent jump from 2015, when 69 work-related fatalities were reported, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.

While such deaths remain uncommon, it is unusual to have so many occur in such a short time as happened this month in the Baltimore region.

On June 5, 20-year-old construction worker Kyle Hancock died when a deep trench where he was working on a sewer line in Baltimore’s Clifton Park neighborhood collapsed around him. A 31-year-old construction worker, Michael David Zeller of Essex, was pronounced dead June 8 after an accident in which he fell down an elevator shaft at a building being remodeled for McCormick & Co.’s planned headquarters in Hunt Valley.

Another worker was fatally injured after being pinned by a branch from a tree he was trimming on Sunday in Annapolis. And, on Wednesday, another construction worker was standing on a scaffold while installing siding on a new house in Odenton when he came into contact with a live electrical wire and was electrocuted.

All four separate deadly incidents this month are being investigated by the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health office, and it could be weeks before any of the investigations are concluded.

All too often, employers fall short when it comes to knowing what is required under federal and state occupational and health safety laws, said Jeffrey Lancaster, president and CEO of Lancaster Safety Consulting Inc., a workplace safety consultant based in Wexford, Pa.

When companies need to cut costs, departments that oversee safety often are targeted, said Travis Trader, director of industrial hygiene for Environmental Health and Safety Solutions in Parkton, a safety consultant on transportation and government contracts.

“Quite a few of them cut back a few years ago, and we haven’t really seen the growth back in those divisions yet,” Trader said.

Statistics from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics show workplace fatalities in Maryland peaked in 2006, with 106 deaths reported that year. The number dropped to 60 in 2008 before increasing slightly each year through 2013, when 79 deaths were reported. In 2014, 73 deaths were reported. Results for last year won’t be published until December.

Workplace fatalities rose nationwide in 2016 as well as in Maryland. In the United States, 5,190 workplace deaths were reported, up from 4,836 in 2015.