Thirty construction workers died on the job in New York City in 2023 — the most in a decade, according to a new report.
The annual analysis of federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health (NYCOSH), a worker safety watchdog group, makes year-to-year comparisons at the death rate per 100,000 workers.
Though the city’s construction fatality rate is virtually unchanged from the previous year, 2023 marked the third consecutive increase in worker fatalities. And it marks the deadliest year for construction workers in New York since NYCOSH began tracking the data in 2013.
Among them were 19-year-old Ommatt Cruz, of Staten Island; and Francisco Reyes, 41, and Fernando Lagunas Pereira, 28, who were trapped under debris in a trench while working at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“We know these are not just numbers,” said Charlene Obernauer, the NYCOSH executive director. “These are whole families whose worlds collapse when workers are killed.”
Cruz was accidentally crushed by a mobile hydraulic lift, known as a cherry picker, that was operated by his own father. He was directing traffic at the time of the grim mishap, eyewitnesses and police told local media.
Reyes and Laguna Pereira were moving utility lines as part of the Port Authority’s $18 billion improvement plan at JFK when the concrete slab they were working under broke and collapsed on them. OSHA cited a Bronx-based contractor, Triumph Construction Corp., with fines totaling $59,153 in connection with the incident.
The report also found staffing deficiencies for local and federal regulators. Meanwhile the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s average fine for employers found responsible for fatalities decreased, falling to $32,123 in 2023 — the lowest average of the last six years, according to NYCOSH. The decrease “may reflect changes in OSHA’s enforcement policies, a shift in the type of cases being penalized, or broader systemic factors affecting these regulatory practices,” according to the report.
It’s a situation that is expected to worsen as the Department of Government Efficiency continues gutting federal agencies — with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Department of Labor as key targets.
The administration of President Donald Trump has already indefinitely suspended OSHA’s plans to establish national workplace heat safety regulations, as part of an executive order signed on his first day in office instructing all federal agencies to withdraw all ongoing rulemaking.
“We know that OSHA is not going to be as effective as it has been in the past,” said Obernauer. Instead, she said, what local and state lawmakers need to do “is show workers in construction that they are supported by increasing enforcement, and show immigrant workers in construction in particular, that they are safe on their job sites.”
That includes filling job vacancies at the city Department of Buildings and the state Department of Labor, says Obernauer. Under the administration of former mayor Bill de Blasio, she noted, the department’s budget increased consistently every year; the current vacancy rate for positions at DOB is 13.3%.
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