You have probably heard people say that the most dangerous industry you can work in is construction. They will likely point to the fact that construction as a whole has the most fatal workplace accidents on an annual basis. And this is usually true, with statistics showing that there are many fatal accidents and those resulting in severe injuries, such as amputation injuries, spinal cord injuries or traumatic brain injuries.
But does that really mean that construction is the most dangerous industry? Not necessarily. If you look at the fatal accident rate, there are other industries that rank higher.
Working outside
Generally, these industries always revolve around people who are working outside, facing significant natural hazards, remote locations and injury risks from machinery and equipment. These industries include things like fishing, hunting, logging, forestry and agriculture.
These industries are much smaller than construction, so they are never going to top the total number of fatal construction accidents in a year. There is just a fraction of the number of people working in deep-sea fishing as there are in the construction industry.
But because these industries are smaller, even one fatal accident carries far more weight statistically, so the overall rate at which these serious accidents occur may be much higher. In this sense, workers actually have higher odds of suffering severe injuries in smaller industries, even if there are more total incidents in construction.
At the end of the day, this just helps to show that many industries carry significant dangers to workers. Those who have been injured or have lost a loved one must know what legal steps to take.