Florida’s Workplace Death Problem: The Workers Who Don’t Come Home

Florida is often celebrated as a state where businesses can grow quickly and construction never seems to stop. But behind the cranes, trucks, landscaping crews and construction sites is a less visible reality: Florida workers continue to die on the job at a rate that deserves considerably more attention.

In 2024, 284 Florida workers died from workplace injuries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That was down from 306 deaths in 2023, but it still means that, on average, more than five Florida workers died from occupational injuries every week.

Nationally, 5,070 workers died from workplace injuries in 2024—approximately one worker every 104 minutes. The national fatality rate was 3.3 deaths per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers. Florida’s rate was lower, at 2.9 per 100,000.

But Florida’s overall rate can obscure some troubling patterns.

The Florida numbers

Florida’s 284 workplace deaths in 2024 represented a 7.2% decline from 2023. The state’s fatality rate also fell from 3.1 to 2.9 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That improvement is welcome, but the longer-term numbers show that workplace fatalities remain a persistent problem.

Florida recorded:

• 272 deaths in 2015

• 309 in 2016

• 299 in 2017

• 332 in 2018

• 306 in 2019

• 275 in 2020

• 315 in 2021

• 307 in 2022

• 306 in 2023

• 284 in 2024

The 2024 number was therefore lower than most recent years, but it was still considerably higher than Florida’s 218 deaths in 2012.

Transportation is Florida’s biggest workplace killer

The largest category of workplace deaths in Florida is transportation.

In 2024, 109 Florida workers died in transportation incidents, accounting for 38% of all workplace fatalities. That percentage was essentially identical to the national figure.

But there are some particularly important Florida details.

Thirty workers were killed in incidents in which pedestrians were involved with motorized land vehicles. Five of those occurred in road-work zones.

Transportation and material-moving occupations accounted for 72 deaths, including 36 heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers.

That means workplace safety in Florida isn’t simply a matter of hard hats and construction scaffolding. For thousands of workers, the most dangerous part of the job may be the road between one worksite and another.

Florida’s fall problem is worse than the nation’s

One of the most striking differences between Florida and the country as a whole involves falls.

Florida recorded 66 fatal falls, slips and trips in 2024, representing 23% of all workplace deaths.

Nationally, falls, slips and trips accounted for 17% of workplace deaths.

In other words, falls represented a substantially larger share of workplace deaths in Florida than they did nationally.

Construction is a major part of that story.

Construction workers face extraordinary risks

Construction was Florida’s deadliest major private-industry sector in 2024, with 88 fatalities—31% of all workplace deaths in the state.

Of those 88 construction deaths:

39 involved falls, slips or trips.

The construction and extraction occupational group recorded 82 deaths, including:

• 18 construction laborers

• 10 carpenters

• 8 electricians

• 8 construction equipment operators

• 8 roofers

The national picture is similarly troubling. Construction and extraction workers accounted for 1,032 workplace fatalities nationally in 2024, including 370 fatal falls, slips and trips.

Florida therefore sits inside a national construction-safety problem—but its particularly high share of fatalities caused by falls makes the issue especially relevant here.

Landscaping and tree work are another Florida danger zone

The risks aren’t confined to major construction sites.

Florida recorded 30 deaths among building and grounds cleaning and maintenance workers in 2024. Grounds-maintenance workers accounted for 26 of those deaths.

Within that category:

• 16 landscaping and groundskeeping workers died

• 10 tree trimmers and pruners died

That is significant in a state where landscaping, tree removal and storm cleanup are enormous industries.

Florida’s weather also creates unique occupational hazards. Hurricanes can generate months of dangerous cleanup work involving chainsaws, electrical lines, unstable structures, heavy equipment and flooded areas.

A racial disparity that deserves attention

Perhaps the most striking demographic statistic is the number of Hispanic and Latino workers who die on Florida jobs.

In 2024, 119 of the state’s 284 workplace fatalities—42%—involved Hispanic or Latino workers.

Nationally, Hispanic and Latino workers accounted for 24% of fatal workplace injuries.

That means Hispanic and Latino workers represented a dramatically larger share of Florida’s workplace deaths than they did nationally.

Florida’s other 2024 figures included:

• 100 White non-Hispanic workers — 35%

• 58 Black non-Hispanic workers — 20%

• 268 men — 94%

• 16 women — 6%

The data do not, by themselves, establish why the disparity exists. But they provide a compelling reason to examine access to safety training, language-accessible safety information, reporting practices, immigration-related workplace vulnerability and the industries in which Hispanic workers are disproportionately employed.

Southwest Florida: the problem isn’t abstract

The statewide statistics become more tangible when OSHA’s inspection records are examined.

Southwest Florida provides several recent examples.

A worker drowned while delivering sod in Cape Coral

On February 26, 2024, a 40-year-old employee of Quest Material Transport, Inc. was delivering sod when he fell into a canal and drowned.

OSHA opened a fatality/catastrophe investigation the following day. The inspection record identifies the employer’s industry as freight transportation arrangement and records one violation classified as “other,” with an initial penalty of $3,457. The case was closed October 23, 2024.

The case illustrates how seemingly routine work—moving landscaping material—can become deadly when workers are operating around water and other environmental hazards.

A 71-year-old construction worker fell 35 feet

On June 28, 2024, a 71-year-old construction laborer working for NCM of Collier County was scraping excess concrete on the fourth floor of a multifamily residential building.

He fell through an uncovered floor opening.

The fall was approximately 35 feet, and he died from blunt-force trauma while being transported to a hospital. OSHA’s accident record specifically identifies the uncovered floor hole, lack of protection and fall hazards.

OSHA’s subsequent inspection resulted in three serious violations and an initial proposed penalty of $45,167. The case was closed April 24, 2025.

This case is especially noteworthy because it mirrors one of the largest categories of Florida workplace deaths: fatal falls.

A crane boom killed a worker in Charlotte County

On May 28, 2021, OSHA investigated the death of a worker employed by Charlotte County Seawalls, Inc.

The company was engaged in heavy and civil engineering construction. OSHA classified the investigation as a fatality/catastrophe inspection. The inspection produced three initial serious violations, two of which remained current at the conclusion of the case.

The OSHA accident record describes a worker killed when a crane boom section fell during dismantling operations. The case demonstrates another recurring construction hazard: workers being struck or crushed by heavy equipment or materials.

Why OSHA records matter—but shouldn’t be confused with the death count

There is an important distinction between the BLS fatality data and OSHA’s inspection database.

The BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries is designed to count fatal occupational injuries across the country. The 2024 BLS census recorded 284 Florida deaths and 5,070 nationally.

OSHA records, by contrast, document investigations and enforcement actions.

Florida is under federal OSHA jurisdiction, rather than operating its own OSHA-approved state plan. Federal OSHA covers most private-sector workers in Florida. State and local government workers generally are not covered by federal OSHA in Florida.

That distinction matters when interpreting local numbers. An OSHA fatality investigation database should not be treated as a complete county-by-county census of every worker who dies.

Instead, OSHA records answer a different question:

When OSHA investigated a workplace death, what did investigators find?

That makes the records extremely valuable for accountability research.

The accountability question

The most important question isn’t simply how many workers died.

It is what happened after they died.

Was the employer cited?

Was the violation serious, willful or repeated?

How much was the penalty?

Had the employer previously been cited?

Did the employer correct the hazard?

Did the same type of hazard subsequently kill or injure another worker?

Those questions can reveal patterns that a statewide fatality statistic cannot.

The NCM case, for example, resulted in three serious violations and a proposed $45,167 penalty after a worker fell 35 feet through an uncovered floor opening.

The Quest case resulted in one “other” violation and a $3,457 initial penalty after a worker drowned while delivering sod.

These cases should not be compared simply by looking at the dollar amounts. OSHA penalties depend on the specific violations, their classification, statutory penalty rules, employer circumstances and other factors.

But the records demonstrate why worker deaths should be followed by scrutiny of the conditions that produced them—not simply recorded as unfortunate accidents.

Florida versus America: the numbers at a glance

Measure	Florida, 2024	United States, 2024
Workplace deaths	284	5,070
Fatality rate	2.9 / 100,000	3.3 / 100,000
Transportation incidents	109 / 38%	38%
Falls/slips/trips	66 / 23%	17%
Construction deaths	88 / 31%	—
Hispanic/Latino share	42%	24%

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2024.

The table tells a complicated story.

Florida’s overall fatality rate is actually below the national rate. That is an important fact and shouldn’t be ignored.

But Florida has an unusually large share of deaths from falls, and Hispanic and Latino workers account for a much larger share of workplace deaths than they do nationally.

Those are meaningful warning signs even when the overall rate looks relatively favorable.

The bottom line

Florida’s workplace death problem isn’t about one bad employer or one dangerous industry.

It is a combination of transportation deaths, construction falls, heavy equipment, landscaping and tree work, environmental hazards and other risks.

The state recorded 284 fatal workplace injuries in 2024. That’s 284 families who lost someone who went to work and did not come home.

And while Florida’s fatality rate is below the national average, the state’s 23% share of deaths caused by falls and 42% share involving Hispanic or Latino workers deserve considerably more scrutiny.

For Southwest Florida, the OSHA records show that these aren’t theoretical concerns. Workers have died from drowning, falls from significant heights and heavy-equipment incidents in the region.

The next question for policymakers, journalists and workers themselves is straightforward:

Are Florida’s workplace-safety laws, enforcement resources and penalties strong enough to prevent the next worker from becoming a statistic?

Because a workplace fatality is not merely a number.

It is someone’s father, mother, spouse, child or friend.

And when the underlying hazard could have been prevented, calling it an “accident” shouldn’t be the end of the conversation.

Sources

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fatal Work Injuries in Florida — 2024.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2024.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fatal Occupational Injuries in Florida — 2024 tables.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Quest Material Transport, Inc., Fatality Inspection.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, NCM of Collier County, Fatality Inspection.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Charlotte County Seawalls, Inc., Fatality Inspection.

U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Florida OSHA jurisdiction and state-plan information.