Workers’ Memorial Day: Things To Know And Remember This April 28

When we hop out of bed and get ourselves dressed for work each day, rarely are we concerned that it will be for the last time. Eat, sleep, work, repeat. It’s our routine.

But then there are the days, the tragic, unexpected ones, when a mishap or an accident changes everything. It’s sudden. It’s jarring. It’s the unimaginable, and yet it can and does happen.

In 2019, 5,333 workers lost their lives on the job as a result of traumatic injuries, an increase from 2018, according to fatality data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That number dropped in 2020 by 10.7%, likely a direct correlation to the pandemic, in which fewer workers were on a physical job site.

‘Employers have made incredible strides in creating safer workplaces, investing and innovating to protect their people. But the zero injury goal remains elusive, especially for high-risk industries,’ said Michelle Kerr, national workers’ compensation editor for Risk & Insurance and National Comp conference chair.

Employers, and the safety and workers’ compensation industries that serve them, work tirelessly everyday to put in place the policies, procedures, training and tools to prevent any type of on-the-job injury. Yet even with the best laid plans in place, accidents still happen.