Deaths during railroad construction
From: "Karen Zahm" thezahmmer@yahoo.com
I'm looking for information on deaths that occurred during the construction of the railroad. Numbers, causes, safety hazards that were ignored, any narrative information would be great.
Workplace fatalities since 1933. Courtesy Peter Risdon's Weblog.
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 9:10 PM
6 Comments:
The phrase "safety hazards that were ignored" is a misconception based on a fallacy.
Safety is something that is more valued by richer societies, so as the United States became wealthier, safety improved dramatically (90% drop in workplace fatalities from 1923 to 2003). The construction of the transcontinental railroad was not less safe than current construction because hazards were ignored, nor due to racisim, but because the country was less wealthy so that the costs of making jobs safer were in that era simply unaffordable. The construction of the transcontinental railroad made the country richer so contributed to safety. (For example, deaths due to transportation accidents dropped by about sixty fold with travel by rail instead of by horse.)
See the graph of improvements in occupation safety over time. (Noting that any effect of government regulation with the creation of OSHA is undetectable.)
Kyle Xanders said...
These types of accidents are what OSHA safety training prevents. OSHA helps employers, employees and the industry as a whole by saving life, time, and money. It definitely helps to develop the industry as it reduces extra expenses that occur from hazards like accidents, injuries and chemical related illness.
Again, the fact that the slope of the curve is unchanged shows that OSHA's creation in 1970 had no effect on safety.
See related discussion.
See related discussion.
As an example of the ability of a wealthy society to afford increased safety, U.S. childhood traffic fatalities dropped 41% from 2000 to 2009.
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