Analysis of data from the Health and Safety Executive by Intasite shows that construction continues to see the most workplace deaths
Construction fatalities remain high with 28 recorded deaths between May 2025 and March 2026, a full ten more than the agriculture sector with 18 deaths in the same period.
Falls from height, moving vehicles, and contact with machinery are the leading causes of fatal injuries across all industries.
Injuries remain despite regulation and guidance
For construction specifically, falls from roofs and scaffolding, collapsing structures, and workers being struck by objects are particularly consistent dangers that feature repeatedly in the observed data, for both employees and self-employed.
Danielle Croce, commercial director for Intasite, said: “The consistency of the findings across sectors is deeply troubling. Falls from height, moving vehicles and contact with machinery dominate the data year after year. These are not emerging risks, but instead they are long recognised hazards so the fact they continue to kill people tells us the issue isn’t a lack of knowledge, but how safety is being applied on the ground.
“It points to deeper problems in how safety is managed, particularly in industries with transient workforces. When people move between sites and contractors, inconsistent or informal inductions make it far easier for critical risks to be missed.
“Proper inductions and awareness raising of hazards are the only real chance for many workers to understand the specific risks of a site before they start work. If that moment is rushed or treated as a tick box exercise, the consequences can be severe.
“When workforces change daily, managers can quickly lose visibility of who has been briefed on what. Digital systems give clarity in real time who is on site, what they’ve been told, and whether essential safety steps have been completed. That visibility allows risks to be addressed before someone gets hurt.
“The tragedy is that so many of these deaths were foreseeable. Better inductions, clearer communication and stronger oversight won’t remove danger entirely, but they can greatly reduce the chance of someone not coming home from work.”
Fatalities have risen recently
As noted by Josh McNicholas of Evalu-8 EHS in August last year, the construction workplace has seen a crisis in safety, with the proportion of fatal accidents rising despite regulators calling for more robust health and safety measures.
Josh wrote: Beneath the surface of these devastating fatalities lies a pervasive issue of non-fatal injuries, largely stemming from everyday hazards such as slips, trips, falls and improper handling or lifting.
Across all industries in 2022-2023, slips and trips made up 32% of employer-reported non-fatal injuries, while handling injuries made up 17%.
These alarming figures are mirrored, and often amplified, within construction workplaces. Each year, about 78,000 construction workers report ill health, with injuries ranging from musculoskeletal disorders to lung diseases.
Read Josh’s full thoughts here.
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