The Unfortunate State of Texas Work Safety and How it Affects You
Our Texas work injury lawyers had mentioned in a previous article that Texas experienced the highest number of fatal work injuries of any U.S. state in 2011. You might want to believe that this is because Texas has more jobs than other states. But the rate of worker fatalities is more closely tied to the types of jobs the state provides.
Texas jobs are heavily concentrated in the oil and gas industry, which showed the largest proportion of work-related fatalities. The state also offers a large number of jobs in agriculture, another of the most dangerous occupations statistically. To compare, our Texas work injury lawyers note that California had the second-highest rate of fatal work injuries in 2011 and that state also has a high concentration of jobs in agriculture.
A Houston Chronicle blog by Loren Steffy (2/18/13) discussed Texas’ poor work safety record in conjunction with Governor Perry’s highly publicized invitation to Californians needing work to come to Texas. I don’t know if that campaign had a name. In the context of Texas’ work safety record as discussed in the blog, it could perhaps have been titled: “Dying for work? Come to Texas.”
Worker Safety isn’t just about the Numbers
Looking at the numbers or the prevalence of fatalities in two of Texas’ strongest industries does not tell the whole story. Governor Perry is probably correct when he says that more regulation won’t necessarily correct the actual worker safety problems. Fully 41% of all Texas work fatalities result from transportation accidents. 23% of those are roadway traffic accidents.
And a fair number of the fatal traffic accidents come out of the Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas development. The Texas work injury lawyers at Denena Points, PC have written frequently about how the sudden increase in heavy truck traffic has overwhelmed the narrow, rural roadways and transportation infrastructure of the Eagle Ford area. And about the heavy toll in lives and injuries from roadway accidents there, which are in part caused by fatigue among the truck drivers who often put in long hours before getting behind the wheel. To deal with the challenges of driving the overcrowded, stressed roadways of the Eagle Ford Shale area, drivers need to be more alert than average.
Is More Regulation the Answer? If Not, What is the Answer to Better Worker Safety?
Regulation alone can’t fix all the problems with worker safety in Texas or anywhere else. So long as the prevailing culture keeps people so desperate for work that they feel they must disregard personal safety to feed their families, worker fatality numbers will probably be too high. And much of the prevailing cultural climate results from government action. As long as the government encourages a culture of off shoring good jobs, devaluing worker safety over profit, and emphasizing quantity of jobs over quality of jobs, we’ll have a problem.
This isn’t just a Texas problem, by the way. You see it all over the nation and throughout the industrialized world. Our Texas work injury lawyers wish we knew the solutions for the worker safety problem, but we don’t. If you have ideas, feel free to post them as comments to this blog.
Learn More about Fatal Transportation Accidents in Relation to Texas Worker Safety
Click on this article by our Texas work injury lawyers. And if you’ve lost a loved one to a fatal Texas work accident or have received serious injuries from a job-related accident and you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free and confidential legal consultation. You have no obligation to hire an attorney. And our 15 years of experience successfully handling client injury claims could help guide you in making informed decisions about your future after a serious injury. Reach us at 281-369-4363 or through our online contact form.