Michigan Officials Confirm on-the-job Fatalities Exceed Last Year’s Total

Safety at Work

Lansing, MI (WorkersCompensation.com) – Michigan officials confirmed that the number of workplace fatalities in 2025 to date have exceeded the last year’s numbers.

On Oct. 7, Michigan workplace safety officials confirmed two workers died on the job in separate incidents, bringing the number of on-the-job fatalities this year to 34. In 2024, the state had 31 reported on-the-job fatalities; in 2023, 36. Between 2024 and 2021, the state averaged 43 on-the-job fatalities per year, with the highest of 75 happening in 2020, and the lowest of 27 reported in 2012.

The latest incidents involved a painter and an oil well worker.

Officials said on Oct. 3, an industrial painter working on a hydro power station near Marquette was applying an overcoating inside a pipelike structure called a penstock, when he was overcome by fumes. According to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"During the task, the multi-gas meter alarmed, and the hole watch attendant notified both workers inside the space. One worker was able to exit the confined space, but communication was lost with the second worker," MIOSHA said. "One of the contractors was able to make it out to the access hatch and the other slid around 85 feet down the inclined pipe/penstock.”

In the other incident, a 32-year-old oil well casing crew operator was preparing to install a section of casing at an oil well drilling site on Oct. 4 when he was hit on the head by a piece of machinery.

MIOSHA said the lowest number of on-the-job deaths in a year was 24 in 2009.

Among the other workplace deaths so far this year in Michigan were a cement finisher who died of inhalation; a student support worker killed by a filing cabinet; a researcher crushed by a machine; and a 17-year-old killed by a chain saw.

On Jan. 3, in Almont, Mich., a 43-year-old cement finisher was using a propane-powered piece of equipment in an enclosed barn without ventilation. Officials said he died of “inhalation.” A second worker was injured in that incident.

On April 30, in Jackson, Mich., a 46-year-old student support specialist was found unresponsive with a metal file cabinet on top of them. The employee was pronounced dead at the scene and an autopsy found the cause of death was traumatic chest asphyxia (compression) from the file cabinet.

On June 22, in Muskegon, Mich., a 17-year-old hired to cut up a fallen tree at a home was found dead next to their chainsaw. MIOSHA said the teenager had “a laceration to their neck.”

On July 27, in Holland, Mich., A 34-year-old senior researcher was installing and setting up a machine when the machine activated. Officials with MIOSHA said the victim was caught between the frame of the machine and a lifting mechanism. The victim was crushed by the machine and died at the scene.

Other deaths included a 40-year-old mechanic technician who collapsed inside the vessel of a bobtail propane delivery truck on July 4. Officials said the worker dropped a mechanical component into the vessel and summoned an attendant before entering to recover it. Reports indicated the victim collapsed after entering and later died.

A 56-year-old co-owner of the Lewis Adventure Farm and Zoo died on July 6, in New Era, Mich. She was placing cones for customer parking and walking toward the office when she was struck by another employee driving their vehicle into the employee parking lot.

In fiscal year 2024, OSHA reported it investigated just 826 worker deaths, an 11 percent reduction from 928 in the previous year, OSHA said in its annual statement this year. The agency said, it was the lowest number of worker fatalities OSHA has been mandated to investigate since 2017.

That doesn’t mean there were only 826 worker fatalities, however, The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that for 2023, the last year for which the agency has a report, there were 5,283 fatal work injuries recorded in the U.S., a 3.7 percent decrease from 2022’s 5,486. The fatal work injury rate was 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, down from 3.7 in 2022.

In 2022, the statistics mean a worker died every 96 minutes from a work-related injury, the BLS said.

BLS said its Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses data for 2024 is scheduled to be released Nov. 19. 

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