Nearly three construction workers die every day, on average, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). That’s a total of 991 per year in 2016, with construction fatalities accounting for one in five U.S. worker deaths. Additionally, across all industries, private employers experienced 2.9 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 FTEs, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
In addition to the human tragedy of these mishaps, construction firms face severe financial costs from workplace injuries, deaths – and even from OSHA safety violations that haven’t yet resulted in an accident.
As an indication of the high financial costs of one common construction injury, safety glove manufacturer Superior Glove tallies the direct and indirect costs of a hand injury. Using OSHA data, they note the average direct costs of a hand laceration total $19,713. Costs within this include:
Lost work time
Medical and rehabilitative care
Workers’ compensation benefits
Increased workers’ comp premiums
Further, Superior Glove notes that the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) estimates that indirect costs of an injury can be up to 20 times the direct costs. Indirect costs of a workplace injury include OSHA fines, legal fees, recruiting and training new hires, reduced productivity due to lower employee morale, and other factors.
The bottom line is a hand laceration could end up costing you more than a whopping $400,000 in direct and indirect costs, in the worst-case scenario. Imagine how much higher the costs could be for a more debilitating injury like a crushed leg or a broken back from a fall.
In light of these high costs – financial and human suffering – more building professionals are using pre-fab/modular construction as a way to improve job site safety. Among modular users, 58% report that “increased project safety” is a key reason they use modular, reports the Modular Building Institute.
Pre-fab/modular construction improves safety by removing the variability and adverse conditions inherent in working in an uncontrolled environment. Whereas job sites are subject to hazards imposed by weather and sometimes poor lighting conditions, pre-fab/modular work is completed in a climate-controlled and well-lit interior setting. What’s more, since products like modular bathrooms are manufactured at ground level, the risk of fall hazards on the job site is less.
Removing bathroom construction from the job site reduces workers comp rates, decreases the risk of OSHA violations and has the potential to reduce general liability insurance.
To learn more about how SurePods modular bathrooms can help you pay less insurance, contact us at: [email protected].