Florida Man Falls to Death While Working on Church Roof
A Florida man fell to his death while doing construction work on the roof of a church.
About the Fatal construction Accident
According to several news outlets, Garrett Marshall, 29, working for Lester F. Paulk and Sons Roofing, died Thursday after falling 20 feet from a church roof to the ground below.
The accident took place at the First Baptist Church, near 1021 Gulf Road, in Tarpon Springs, Florida around 10 a.m.
According to the Tarpon Springs Police Department, Marshall was taken to a local hospital after he fell, but did not survive his injuries.
On the Job Injury Statistics
According to the 2015 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries released by the U.S. Department of Labor, there were a total of 4,836 fatal work injuries recorded for the year, a slight increase from the 4,821 fatal injuries reported the previous year in 2014.
Falls to a lower height accounted for roughly 40% of all fatal work injuries in the private construction industry in 2015.
In 2015, there were a total of 648 fatal injuries sustained from falls to lower levels, with 8% of them comprising falls at a height of 26 to 30 feet. Notably, of the cases where the fall heights were known, more than 40% of them were actually from heights of 15 feet or less.
According to the November 2013 News Release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (a unit of the U.S. Department of Labor), there were a total of 209 fatal injuries in Florida related to work in 2012, with construction and extraction occupations having the highest number of fatal work injuries, at 48 fatalities, and construction trade workers accounting for most of these deaths, at 36 fatalities.
Overall, 21% of the total worker deaths resulted from falls, slips and trips, and 91% of all work-related fatalities in the state were men at 191 fatalities.