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38 Pallet C e nt ral • May -Ju ne 2 0 25 OSHA BY ADELE L. ABRAMS, ESQ., ASP, CMSP PAY ATTENTION TO DISTRACTED DRIVING! O ccupational fatalities and serious injuries have plateaued in terms of rates and numbers in recent years— about 5,400 workers die in US workplaces each year. In 2023, for example, an employee died in an American workplace every 99 minutes. Various interventions have been attempted, notably focusing on things like the "fatal four" hazardous activities in the construction field. But dwarfing the rate of these on-the- job deaths in industrial and construction activities is the carnage on American roadways! Many times, workers are involved in these accidents, especially those in the haulage, delivery, and related transportation sectors—even drivers involved in the distribution of pallets! In fact, transportation incidents were the most frequent type of fatal event on the job, accounting for 37% of all occupational fatalities in 2023. e transportation and warehousing sector had the second-most on-the- job fatalities (over 1,000) in 2022 and 2023. Workers in transportation and material-moving occupations represented the occupational group with the most fatalities (1,495) in 2023, but not all of these incidents involved vehicles. Roadway collisions with another vehicle accounted for 249 fatalities, and roadway collisions with an object other than a vehicle accounted for 193 fatalities in 2023. Within the transportation sector, 314 fatalities occurred on an interstate, freeway, or expressway, and 117 occurred on local roads or streets. Beyond the raw numbers, demographically, transportation incidents were the highest cause of fatalities for both Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino workers in 2023. e private industry sector with the highest number of Black or African American worker fatalities was transportation and warehousing. Since 2023, OSHA has enforced a

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