Connecticut Reports Increase in Workplace-Related Deaths

The number work-related deaths in Connecticut in 2018 was the highest it’s been since 2010, according to the state Department of Labor.

The agency said 48 people lost their lives to work-related injuries in 2018, the latest year for which information was compiled. That was up from 35 in the previous year, Hearst Connecticut Media reported Wednesday.

The number of people who died in 2018 is 23% higher than the average annual number of workplace deaths in Connecticut over a 26-year period between 1992 and 2018, according to the data.

Connecticut’s fatal injury rate was lower than the national rate.

The two sectors with the highest fatal injury rates in Connecticut in 2018 were construction and transportation and utilities.

Of the 48 workplace deaths in 2018, 41, or about 85%, were men.

There were 5,250 fatal work injuries recorded in the nation in 2018, a 2% increase from 2017, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in December.