A fall from a second-story roof in Sevierville. A deadly trench collapse in Knoxville. Fatal heat stroke in Clarksville.
These are just a handful of the dozens of work-related deaths investigated by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration during 2023. So far in 2024, TOSHA has investigated two workplace-related deaths.
“We’re tired of carrying caskets,” said Jacen Davidson of Nashville-based Ironworkers Local 492 at a recent press conference seeking more stringent safety measures at construction sites. “It stops now.”
Tennessee ranks among the most dangerous states for construction workers due to fatalities and injuries on job sites, according to a recent analysis of federal workplace citations and injury reports.
As the summer heat rises, so do health threats for construction workers who are busily reshaping the Nashville skyline and meeting booming demand from population growth statewide.
Tennessee’s private construction industry had the highest number of fatalities nationwide in 2022, the most recent year U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data is available. There were 43 construction-related deaths, up from 21 the year prior. In comparison, there were 173 total Tennessee workplace fatalities across industries in 2022.
In Nashville, recent work-related deaths on Metro-owned construction sites have prompted the introduction of legislation designed to add an additional layer of oversight to city-controlled projects. Support for the proposed law came from a coalition of construction unions and local politicians.
“It’s about people being able to go to work and come back safely,” said Charley Rodriguez, a local organizer for the Union of Painters and Allied Trades. “Some workers feel unsafe, day in and day out. They feel like nobody is listening to them.”
In the private sector, builders active in Nashville’s construction industry boom said proper safety starts with a strong workplace culture, consistent training and constant reminders.
“I think it’s our duty, as a company, to make sure people are safe,” Hardaway Construction CEO David Frazier said. “We can’t build projects without the workers that are on the jobs. It’s our responsibility to make sure they are safe, and I think it starts with our culture.”
Tennessee ranks highly for fatalities, workplace injuries
A recent analysis by Chicago personal injury attorneys Abels & Annes P.C., ranked Tennessee third in the nation with 129 fatalities per 100,000 workers from 2017 to 2024, behind only South Dakota and Delaware. According to the report, the state had the seventh-highest number of OSHA construction citations from Jan. 2017 to Jan. 2024.
In Nashville, where a construction boom has attracted workers from across the country, several high-profile deaths have brought the issue of safety to the forefront of the industry.
Denis Geovani Ba Ché, 20, fell to his death in October 2023 while repairing the roof at Glencliff High School. In 2020, 16-year-old Gustavo Ramirez died after falling approximately 120 feet at a LaQuinta Inn and Suites construction site on the East Bank. A total of 16 Nashville construction workers died in 2016 and 2017, a Tennessean analysis revealed.
The most common safety violations at construction sites? Lack of eye and face protection and lack of fall-protection training — especially at residential projects.
Heat and exposure in the summer months present another safety challenge to construction workers in Tennessee. High heat can cause cramps, dehydration and heat stroke. Underlying medical conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure can also be exacerbated in heat.
Regulators struggle to keep up with complaints
For TOSHA, the job of inspecting construction sites in Tennessee while also juggling inspections in the public sector and manufacturing industry has swelled beyond the office’s limited resources.
According to Wendy Fisher, assistant commissioner for TOSHA, the office gets 300 to 400 complaints per month that can include death, amputation, hospitalization and loss of an eye. The office conducts about 30 to 50 workplace death investigations each year.
When compliance officers are not completely booked with investigations, they visit construction sites for random inspections. But they are not able to visit every site.
“We just work through what we can with the folks that we have,” Fisher said. “We could bring all the compliance officers to Nashville and keep them busy.”
While TOSHA’s compliance officers are not able to visit every single construction site in the state, let alone in Nashville, Metro Council has introduced legislation to create an additional layer of oversight at city-controlled construction sites, like the one Denis Geovani Ba Ché worked at before he fell to his death.
District 30 Council member Sandra Sepulveda introduced on May 21 a bill to establish a board to monitor and inspect Metro’s existing construction projects to ensure safe working conditions.
The board would not have enforcement authority and would refer inspection findings to federal or state regulators.
Rodriguez, the Union of Painters and Allied Trades organizer, said support from Metro Nashville Public Schools, Metro Council and other unions and advocacy groups has been crucial to elevating the issue.
“Everybody has been willing to listen,” Rodriguez said. “There’s a problem here. It’s the contractors being irresponsible. All we’re trying to do is bring accountability.”
‘Going home safely at the end of the day’
At Skanska USA, one of the largest construction firms in the country, safety is deeply embedded within culture, according to Tennessee Vice President of Operations Rob Johnson.
Skanska was the lead contractor for Nashville’s Fifth + Broadway development, and has worked on construction projects in Franklin, Clarksville and Chattanooga, among other Tennessee cities. The Nashville-area office of the construction firm consistently scores highly in the Associated Builders and Contractors’ STEP Safety Management System, a program aimed at creating safer work sites.
Johnson said consistent standards for workplace safety start at the top with good planning and communication.
“Everyone on our job sites should have the same expectation that I do,” Johnson said. “And that’s going home safely at the end of the day. Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
All trade partners on Skanska construction sites undergo safety training before starting work. The company also uses a digital platform called Planit, which identifies potential hazards during a day’s tasks and outlines a safety plan.
Internal programs like the “Good Catch” initiative, which allow all workers and trade partners to digitally upload photos and track information on the work site, ensures that accountability can come from all levels.
“It’s not about catching someone doing the wrong thing, it’s about preventing someone from doing the wrong thing,” Johnson said.
Hardaway, a Nashville-based construction firm that builds numerous multifamily and residential projects, also uses consistent and persistent training to hold high safety standards. The company, like Skanska, offers safety trainings and orientations to trade partners in English and Spanish to prevent language barriers from causing unsafe work sites.
Frazier, who bought the company from the Hardaway family in 2018, said safety challenges are exacerbated by layers of subcontractors who act more like labor brokers than employers. For this reason, he hires trade partners who have gone through a prequalification process.
“We have pretty strict guidelines with these guys,” Frazier said. “But I’d rather lose the labor or lose the construction than have somebody get hurt.”
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Construction workers unions, TN OSHA work to address fatality rate
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