One of the moderators of the subreddit, -eDgAR-, told Bored Panda in an earlier interview that above all, the online community is meant to be lighthearted, where everyone can come for a laugh at how ridiculous some people can be. "It's not meant to be a place for serious discussions about safety, although, often times comments can actually get into great analysis about the issues shown in posts, which is great," they said.
"We don't get a crazy amount of posts like other subreddits and have seen days with only a handful of posts. If you're one of the lucky first chances are you'll get to the top," -eDgAR- explained.
But even though this subreddit doesn't take itself seriously, its photos do represent a broader problem. There were 5,250 fatal work injuries in the US in 2018, with falls being the leading cause of death. A year before, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 5,147 workplace fatalities.
The United States consistently outpaces other industrialized nations in workplace fatalities: here, the average rate for these incidents has hovered at 3.5 deaths for every 100,000 workers over the past decade while workplace fatality rates in the UK have remained under 1.0 death for every 100,000 workers over the past decade, and under 1.5 deaths for every 100,000 workers on average for the 15 earliest member states of the European Union.
In the steel industry, for example, several workers die every year from a fatal fall, and the occupation is regularly cited as one of the most dangerous in the US. Even though
Sadly, Mike Wright, director of health, safety and environment at the United Steelworkers union, told The Guardian that all of these deaths are preventable. "I've seen a lot of fatalities where you walk in and you think: 'I can't believe this didn't happen 10 years ago," Wright said.
According to him, fatalities most often happen in shifts where supervision is lacking in cases where routine safety procedures are ignored, such as workers rushing to fix a broken piece of equipment to return to production as soon as possible.
Wright explained that many fatal falls are underreported because of how coroners rule on causes of death. If a cardiac event was included as part of a workplace fall, OSHA will often refuse to code these incidents as workplace fatalities even if the United Steelworkers union argues the victim would have survived the cardiac event otherwise.
#9 Happened A Few Years Back, Supervisor Of These Guys Said He Had Done This Technique For Years
Employers should not only look for ways to eliminate risks and hazards but also use administrative controls, such as proper training, providing personal protective equipment, and creating systems where production pressures, miscommunication, or poor training don't enable something to go wrong where it could cause a worker to get injured or die in the workplace.
#20 Holy Cow, How Fast Was He Going Or How Thin Walled Is That Metal Post?
