BOSTON–The recent death of Mark Camire, killed working at a Woburn Public Library construction site on Tuesda is a tragic reminder that construction is a highly dangerous industry that claims far too many lives every year, said the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety & Health (MassCOSH) in a statement.
Camire is the ninth construction worker to die on the job in 2017. 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, the construction industry experienced 24 deaths on the job. Of those deaths, five were caused by contact with objects or equipment.
According to media reports, Camire was killed when a rock stuck him while he was working alongside the foundation of the library. He was declared dead on site.
Regardless of the type of work, employers bear the full responsibility for keeping their workers safe on the job, MassCOSH said.
At the time, Camire worked for Schnabel Foundation Co., which according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had 10 OSHA violations dating back to 2009 in six states. In Massachusetts, it had one violation deemed “serious” by OSHA in 2015 related to safety training and education for its employees. It was ordered to pay a final penalty of $4,500, according to MassCOSH.
“We are deeply upset to hear about the death of another young construction worker,” said MassCOSH Executive Director Jodi Sugerman-Bozan. “Every year we work with families who lost a loved one on the job. For many of us, we read about worker deaths in a passing paragraph in the news, but these families are affected by these tragedies for the rest of their lives. With their assistance, we are working towards a future where unsafe jobs and the shattered families they leave in their wake become a thing of the past.”
