BOSTON–The Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health (MassCOSH), extended its condolences to the friends, coworkers and family of Igor Alves, 20, killed after exiting his vehicle on the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Alves was working for Boston Best Construction driving a truck pulling a trailer carrying scrap metal on the Massachusetts Turnpike. Noticing the cargo was not secure, Alves and his co-worker got out of the truck to tie down pieces that had become loose. They were then stuck by a BMW.
Alves was pronounced dead at the scene and his coworker was injured and taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The loss of Alves is a tragic reminder of the dangers low skill laborers face on the job every day.
MassCOSH has worked with many Latino workers who make a living doing unsafe jobs, including lead paint removal, storm cleanup, waste sorting, and construction jobs. According to MassCOSH’s Dying for Work in Massachusetts, an annual report detailing the toll of occupational fatalities and injuries on Bay State workers, in 2016 eight immigrant workers were killed due to occupational injuries, accounting for 13% of workers killed on the job that year.
Alves is the sixth worker killed by a vehicle this year. As was the case in 2015, transportation incidents were the leading cause of fatal injuries in Massachusetts in 2016, contributing to the deaths of 25 workers.
