Three New York City construction workers died last week at three different worksites – two as the result of struck-by incidents. In Brooklyn, news sources report that 34 year-old Gregory Echevarria was killed when part of a crane he was helping to assemble fell on him. The incident occurred at 3:15 a.m. on Saturday at the entrance to the Holland tunnel, when a 7.5 ton counterweight fell on Echevarria.

Last August, Higinio Romero was working on the roof of a condo in South Florida when he slipped and fell two stories, landing on rocks below. Emergency workers found him unconscious and bleeding from his ears. Romero — a father of two children, 4 months old and 10 years old — died about an hour later. According to a sheriff’s report, he had unclipped his safety harness shortly before the fall.

Falls are the leading cause of construction-worker fatalities, accounting for one-third of on-the-job deaths in the industry. In 2017, there were 366 fall fatalities out of 971 total fatalities in construction. According to the CPWR, from 2011-2015, 61% of fatal falls in construction occurred in small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Almost two-thirds of fatal falls were from roofs, scaffolds, and ladders.

A worker who was replacing a roof at a Jefferson County, Kentucky high school died March 28 after falling through the roof. News sources say 40-year-old Fredy Godoy-Mendoza died shortly after 5 p.m. at Waggener Traditional High School. Godoy-Mendoza was reportedly employed by a roofing contractor. In Pacoima, California, a forklift operator was killed March 31, when he was struck by a car while making a delivery.

The construction workers who participated in a recent poll on behalf of Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) have some very complicated attitudes towards automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Some 31 percent said they fear that their jobs were at risk from automation, but far more – 46 percent – worry that their safety is at risk from their non-human co-workers.

The most dangerous jobs in the U.S.; good news and bad news about opioid use and evidence mounts about the hazards of e-cigarettes. These were among the top stories featured on ISHN.com this week.

A Michigan man is hospitalized with critical injuries after he was struck by a co-worker who was backing up in a construction zone. News sources say Daniel Clark Jr. has collapsed lungs, broken ribs, a fractured pelvis and other injuries. The incident occurred Wednesday morning along I-75, in Troy, a suburb of Detroit. Troy police responded to the accident at around 9:30 a.m. Clark had reportedly started working for the company on Monday.

The Travelers Companies, Inc. reports that it has reduced opioid use by nearly 40 percent among the injured construction workers it has helped, thanks in part to the Early Severity Predictor® model, which helps predict which injured employees are at higher risk of experiencing chronic pain. Additionally, the insurance giant implemented a comprehensive pharmacy management program that monitors drug interactions, excessive dosing and abuse patterns to reduce the risk of opioid dependency.

The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) – the leading association for the construction industry - will hold its first-ever Construction Safety, Health + Environmental Conference on July 23-25, 2019, in Seattle, Washington. The AGC says the conference will “hone in on the most critical safety, health, and environmental compliance and risk issues impacting the business of construction.”