"Tower climbing, a small field of roughly 10,000 workers, has been called the most dangerous job in America. And as ProPublica and Frontline reported in 2012, cell phone carriers and tower owners have insulated themselves from legal and regulatory liability for on-the-job injuries by delegating this work to layers of subcontractors."
by Liz Day , ProPublica, 1st April 2014
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration will systematically track who subcontractors were working for when accidents occur on cell tower sites.
This story was co-published with Frontline
In a two-week span last August, four workers died from falls on cell towers scattered across the country. Before the year ended, another worker had plummeted to his death, this time in Kansas.
A Deadly Surge in Tower Climber Accidents
by Liz Day and Sisi Wei. Apr. 1, 2014
Then, in early February, two workers were killed and two more were hospitalized when two cell towers collapsed in West Virginia.
Spurred by a drumbeat of deadly accidents, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is changing how it investigates and assigns responsibility for injuries to tower climbers, the workers who build and maintain America’s cell phone networks.
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