America's Most Dangerous Job
Fishing? Yes, fishing. An article in this week's edition of US News and World Report tells us that an average of about one fisherman dies on the job every week. Seems there has been legislation proposed that would enact safety rules to PREVENT accidents (such as licensure for for boat captains and mandatory dockside safety checks), but these have never been passed. The Coast Guard, the article tells us, conducts voluntary inspections, but only 6% of boats participate. According to one Coast Guard professional "Until we make inspections mandatory, we're going to have 60 people drown and 140 boats sink every year." The naysayers of such legislation say that the industry is already over regulated.
Nice. We should expect that people die every day just so we can have minimal regulation?
The article also noted some fatality rates of the other occupations for comparison. According to 2003 data of deaths per $100,000 workers:
- Loggers - 131.6
- Fishers - 115
- Aircraft Pilots - 97.4
- Police Officers - 20.9
- Firefighters - 17.4
- Office Workers - 0.6