Workplace deaths up 40% in south-central Pennsylvania, including Centre County
Workplace fatalities in south-central Pennsylvania — which includes Centre County — have increased 40% so far this fiscal year, prompting a call Friday from the federal agency that monitors workplace safety.
Three of the 21 workplace deaths investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s south-central Pennsylvania office since October were in Centre County.
That is tied for the second-most in the 14-county region. Seven workplace deaths were in York County.
The increase prompted south-central Pennsylvania OSHA Director Kevin Chambers to speak out Friday, urging workplaces to better protect employees.
“Every workplace fatality is an absolute tragedy. It’s an awful, but unfortunately routine occurrence,” Chambers said. “We’ve reached this benchmark and it was weighing on my heart, it was weighing on my mind. (I was) thinking, ‘Let’s try to do a little something extra here to try to make everybody aware this is happening. You’re losing your friends. You’re losing you family members. You’re losing your neighbors. You’re losing your bowling league guy, your fishing buddy, your Girl Scout leader.’ It’s just enough.”
The warning came Friday despite there being six weeks left in the 2022 fiscal year, leaving time for the increase to creep even higher. There were 15 workplace fatalities during the 2021 fiscal year.
The deaths were not limited to just one industry, whether large or small. Some employees worked in construction and automotive, while others worked in education or in a warehouse.
Most of the deaths, federal workplace safety regulators found during their investigations, were preventable.
“Do the proactive things so that, at the end of the day, the workers can go home unharmed to their families,” Chambers said. “That’s at the heart of this whole thing.”
Two of the three workers who died in Centre County were electrocuted during installations. The third fell five stories while performing demolition work at the former Days Inn in State College.
Abel Construction Co. paid more than $14,000 after a Clearfield County man was killed in October.
The operator of an excavator came in contact with an overhead, energized power line while excavating a trench at a new housing development in Spring Township. The electricity found its way to Anthony R. V. Laterzo, who was standing about 42 feet away.
A Centre WISP worker was killed earlier this month while installing broadband service in rural Gregg Township. He was working from a bucket truck, which came into contact with live electric wires.
An OSHA investigation into his death, as well as the worker who fell in State College, is ongoing.
There were nine workplace deaths in Centre County during the past decade. Two-thirds involved workers who were either electrocuted or fell.