Sarasota and Manatee counties are growing by leaps and bounds. With that growth comes an expanding workforce in need of proper training and equipment to prevent accidents.

"The demand for labor is so high that unskilled and untrained workers are accepting positions they normally may not be in," says Donald Lee Bingham, executive director of the Manatee County Safety Council. "Anytime you have untrained or minimum-skilled people doing a job that requires a higher level than they're capable of, you have the potential for accidents."

There is some good news, though. "What I've seen over the years is companies taking a harder look at safety in the workplace," says David Simmons, president of Diversified Construction Safety and the Suncoast Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers. He points to rising insurance premiums, outreach efforts by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and a desire to keep on schedule as some of the reasons behind the interest.

"Job growth and the expanding economy do not have to equate to more accidents," says Robert Nesbit, program manager of the University of South Florida's OSHA Training Institute Education Center. "We feel that with good training and good employer involvement the area can have both-safe work sites and a growing economy at the same time."

BY THE NUMBERS

In Florida, 422 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2004, up from 347 in 2003. The top two causes were transportation incidents (198 fatalities) and falls (75 fatalities).

Workplace fatalities have also been on the rise in the 20 counties (including Sarasota and Manatee) covered by OSHA's Tampa-area office. In the 2001 fiscal year the office investigated 45 workplace fatalities. In 2005 it investigated 70, of which 61 percent were construction related. According to Les Grove, area director of OSHA's Tampa-area office, fatalities typically occurred as a result of the four most frequent workplace incidents: falls, electrocution, getting struck by something and getting caught in something.

One trend people are watching locally is the rate of injury among non-English-speaking workers. Thirty-four percent of the 70 fatalities investigated by OSHA's Tampa-area office in fiscal year 2005 involved Hispanic or Latino workers. It's still not clear whether a language barrier contributes to the number of accidents or whether it's simply a result of more foreign-born workers entering the workforce.

Age is another factor. Longtime workers can sometimes become complacent, which opens them up to accidents. "If you are used to stepping over that cord every time you walk into your office, you make that a habit and you don't see it anymore," says Peter Straw, executive director of the Sarasota-Manatee Manufacturers Association. And as veteran employees age, they're not able to lift as much. Almost half of the state's workplace fatalities in 2004 occurred among workers age 45 or older-precisely those workers to whom new hires tend to look for guidance. "Younger workers coming in watch older workers and pick up some of their bad habits, and that's what we're trying to change," says Simmons.

THE LOCAL PICTURE

Construction is big business in Southwest Florida, so it's not surprising that many workplace accidents occur in this field. But they also occur in manufacturing, agriculture and other industries. For example, in 2002 one member of a six-man crew was killed while working on a Sarasota County sewer project in Nokomis. OSHA found that the project's contractor, E.T. MacKenzie of Florida Inc., had knowingly allowed workers to enter a confined space at a construction site without proper training on hazard recognition and protection. It fined the company $49,000 and levied an additional $19,700 in fines for five other safety violations.

In the past year or so, OSHA's local office has investigated four workplace fatalities in Sarasota County and two in Manatee. In one case, an employee installing fascia fell off a three-story residence due to an improper scaffolding system. In another case, a construction worker was fatally injured when he fell from a metal folding chair on which he was standing to change a light bulb. A Punta Gorda construction worker died when he fell between a truck and a trailer and was dragged 83 feet.

Sometimes major accidents serve as a wake-up call. "Every time you have a high-profile accident, it makes people stop and think about what they're doing and how something like that could happen to them," says Nesbit. "Behind the scenes, there are a lot of companies we work with that are working to prevent those kinds of high-profile accidents. They deserve a pat on the back."

According to Greg Glass, who oversees the safety programs at Sun Hydraulics, manufacturer of screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds, workplace injuries and accidents have "definitely been on a downward trend over the last three or four years because of some proactive steps we took." Every Wednesday, workers can get a 20-minute massage for just $5. The company also offers twice-daily stretching sessions and twice-weekly visits from occupational therapists, all of which helps cut down on problems like carpal tunnel syndrome and back injuries.