State officials confirmed two worker deaths this week, the fourth and fifth on-the-job fatalities in Michigan for the month of June.
On June 28, a gutter installer was killed while working in Ludington, and a laborer was killed in Brighton Township on June 30, according to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
In the June 28 incident, a 24-year-old Wayland man working for an Ada-based company was using a boom lift to install gutters when he came into contact with electric lines and suffered a shock at a location on West Ludington Avenue in Ludington, police said in a release.
“While the victim was in an elevated lift, they came into contact with overhead energized electrical lines and fell out of the lift approximately 30 feet,” MIOSHA said in a release.
In the June 30 incident, a 23-year-old St. Clair Shores worker was in an excavated hole in the area of Grand River near Interstate 96 in Brighton Township, between the bucket of a large excavator and a concrete structure, MSP First District said in a news release.
The operator of the excavator moved the bucket and struck the victim, MIOSHA said.
So far in 2025, 16 workers have died on the job, state officials say.
In 2024, Michigan saw 12 worker deaths in the first six months of the year — just two in June — while 17 workers died through June 2023, including five that month.
There were 36 MIOSHA-related deaths in 2023 and 31 overall in 2024; 2009 saw the lowest number with 24.
“Employers and employees are urged to use extreme care and safety diligence in all work activities,” MIOSHA said in an email. “Every life is precious. Our mutual goal must be that every employee goes home at the end of every shift.”
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-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: More Michigan workers are dying than in 2024. What the numbers show after 2 latest deaths
Reporting by Dan Basso, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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