State officials on July 25 said that a construction worker in Detroit was killed this week when they were struck by debris at a worksite.
The 44-year-old worker is the 20th person killed on the job this year in Michigan, according to the Michigan Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
The laborer, who was not identified in the release, was cleaning on the roof of a building under renovation on July 23, MIOSHA said. MIOSHA did not identify the company or location of the incident.
“Debris was being dropped through a chute into a dump truck on the ground. The victim was in the truck bed, trying to reposition the chute, when the building’s parapet wall collapsed and fell onto them. The worker died at the scene,” the release said.
The fatality was the fourth job-related death in July, according to MIOSHA statistics. In 2024, three Michigan workers died in the month of July, and four in 2023.
There were 16 deaths through June this year. In 2024, Michigan saw 12 worker deaths in the first six months of the year while 17 workers died through June 2023.
There were 36 MIOSHA-reported deaths in 2023 and 31 overall in 2024; 2009 saw the lowest number with 24.
What to know about worker safety in Michigan:
How many on-the-job deaths have happened in Michigan in 2025?
According to MIOSHA, in addition to the latest fatality, the following deaths have occurred in 2025:
Michigan worker deaths in recent years
The number of workers killed on the job by year:
How many workers died in 2024 nationally?
In fiscal year 2024, federal OSHA investigated 826 worker deaths, an 11% reduction from 928 in the previous year, the agency said. Excluding COVID-19-related deaths, fiscal 2024 was the lowest number of worker fatalities OSHA has been mandated to investigate since 2017.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Detroit construction worker killed by debris. What MIOSHA says happened
Reporting by Dan Basso, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
