What are the Most Dangerous Jobs in America?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that there were 4,547 fatal occupational injuries in the year 2010. Many of these fatalities occurred in occupations where injuries and deaths pose significant risk. Fishermen are exposed to the highest risk and number 116 deaths per 100,000 workers. Loggers are second on the list and experience a fatality rate of 92 per 100,000 workers. Pilots and farmers/ranchers were rated third and fourth. Miners were rated as the fifth most dangerous job with a fatality rate of 20 per 100,000 workers. Those operating mining machines had an even higher rate at 38.7 deaths per 100,000 workers. Roofers and refuge and recyclable material collectors were sixth and seventh on the list.

Over-the-road truck drivers experience a fatality rate of 21.8 deaths per 100,000 workers and experienced 683 deaths during the 2010 year. Stunt men were ninth on the list, and law enforcement personnel were tenth with a fatality rate of 18 per 100,000 workers. One hundred thirty-four police and sheriff patrol officers lost their lives on the job in the year 2010, which was a 40 percent increase over 2009. Fifty-seven of these deaths involved highway accidents and 48 were homicides. Police and sheriff patrol officers practice the second highest non-fatal injury rate.

Many of these deaths could have been avoided if employers required safe working practices and abided by safety regulations, including OSHA and MSHA standards.

The West Virginia Wrongful Death attorneys and West Virginia Workplace Injury lawyers at the Fitzsimmons Law Firm have been representing employees injured at work and and familys of those killed in a work-related accident for over thirty years with many successful results. If you have been injured at work or lost a loved one as a result of a employment accident, call the attorneys at Fitzsimmons Law Firm to determine what your rights are.