State officials on Tuesday, Sept. 2, confirmed a second worker death in August — an individual who was killed when a piece of equipment rolled over onto them in St. Ignace.
A 55-year-old worker was killed Aug. 29 when a paving roller they were operating went into a ditch and rolled over onto them, the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration said.
An individual who touched a live power line while trimming trees was reported to have died by MIOSHA on Aug. 25.
The pair of deaths reported to MIOSHA for August represents a sharp decline from the seven work-related fatalities reported in July. Five worker deaths were reported in June. Two of the deaths reported in July resulted from injuries that took place in June, MIOSHA said.
The reported fatalities in August are among the fewest for the month in a dozen years. One worker died in August 2014, according to MIOSHA statistics. Two workers died in August in 2013, 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2024. In 2021, 11 died in August.
So far in 2025, there have been 25 reported work-related deaths in Michigan. There were 36 MIOSHA-reported deaths in 2023 and 31 overall in 2024; 2009 saw the lowest number in recent years 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: 2 Michigan workers died in August. What officials say about the latest on-the-job deaths
Reporting by Dan Basso, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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