AFL-CIO Calls Attention to On-the-Job Deaths in Ceremony at State House

Friday, April 29, 2016

Michael Davidson was seeing patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital when he stepped away to talk with the son of a deceased woman he had treated and the son shot him.

Lawrence O’Leary was on a parking garage under construction at Logan Airport when he fell off the building.

David Sutherland was trying to get from his sinking fishing boat to a rescue boat in the ocean off Gloucester.

Joseph Brady was crossing a road to a lot in Stoughton where he was selling Christmas trees when he was run over.

Lenore Travis was operating a tractor on her small family farm in Lincoln when the vehicle flipped over.

These were just five of the 63 persons who died on the job last year in Massachusetts, according to the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.

Yesterday, the AFL-CIO released its annual report on deaths in the workplace, “2016: Dying for Work in Massachusetts,” in conjunction with a ceremony at noon outside the State House.  The purpose of the event, as reported by the State House News Service, was “to remember those who died or were injured while working in 2015, and to call for changes aimed at creating safer conditions on job sites.”

Fifty-five of the 63 persons who were classified as on-the-job fatalities either died or were killed while working.  The remaining eight persons in that category were firefighters who died from work-related diseases.

The average age of workers killed by injuries in 2015 was 47, and workers in their twenties accounted for 16% of all fatal injuries, the report states, while workers 60 and older accounted for 27% of all fatal injuries.  The AFL-CIO described the construction sector as “one of the most dangerous for workers,” with 18 on-the-job fatalities in 2015.

In addition to Dr. Davidson, a revered cardiac surgeon, five persons lost their lives through violence in the workplace, the report notes:

“…a delivery man and a taxi driver were both robbed, shot, and killed…,” “a sous chef was stabbed with a 12-inch shushi knife by a co-worker; a clerk was found shot in the parking lot of a cell phone store; and a young man participating in a job-ready program was shot and killed by a rival while shoveling snow.”

You may find the report by going to the web site of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, www.masscosh.org/ and clicking on NEW REPORT: Workplace fatalities in Massachusetts at a five year high.

Anytime we talk about death in terms of numbers and statistics, the individuals who form the data are unavoidably obscured, their deaths become abstractions, and we have difficulty seeing the deceased as the daughters and sons, the brothers and sisters, the mothers and the fathers, the neighbors and friends they were.

I'd like to push back against those tendencies, even if I can do so in only a small way.  I want to put the names alongside the numbers.  These were individual, living souls, not statistics.  Here is every person who died on the job in 2015, as determined by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.  They're listed with their ages, occupations, place and date of death:     

A. “PHIL” PHILIP BOUCHIE JR. - 55
Acting Fire Lieutenant, Gloucester, 01/13/2015

STEVEN REIS - 37
Carpenter, Boston, 01/14/2015

MICHAEL DAVIDSON - 44
Cardiac surgeon, Boston, 01/20/2015

JAVON BROWN - 36
Cell phone store clerk, New Bedford, 01/22/2015

JOHN TEMPLETON
Fire fighter, Marshfield, 01/22/2015

JONATHAN PERKINS - 38
Arborist, Berlin, 01/23/2015

RONALD KAWEJSZA - 73
Chemical processing machine operator, North Andover, 01/29/2015

PATRICK SLATTERY - 44
Brewery Operator, Lowell, 02/06/2015

CESAR MOYA-PADILLA - 60
Production baker, Medford, 02/09/2015

KENNY LAMOUR - 21
Snow removal, Boston, 02/11/2015

KEVIN “GEORGE” ST. PIERRE JR. - 22
Tow truck driver, Auburn, 02/11/2015

RENE PAQUIN - 55
Logger, Westminster, 02/18/2015

SEAN CORRIGAN - 42
Carpenter/contractor, Canton, 02/22/2015

WAYNE PARMENTER - 52
Auto body foreman, Wayland, 03/08/2015

ROBERT MAJOR - 45
Office cafeteria manager, Wellesley, 03/14/2015

ADAM FRANCO - 32
Fire fighter, Fall River, 03/16/2015

MICHAEL WILLETT - 54
Fisherman, Nantucket Sound, 03/29/2015

BRUCE ALAN WOOD - 62
Bulk mail driver, Plympton, 04/10/2015

RAYMOND THOMAS - 61
Fire fighter/EMT, Hull, 04/13/2015

KIP BILLINGS - 62
Salesman, Spencer, 04/14/2015

TIMOTHY MELCHER II - 24
Disaster restoration technician, Wareham, 04/15/2015

JOEL REED JR - 36
Welding supply driver, Plympton, 04/17/2015

LENORE TRAVIS - 67
Farmer, Lincoln, 04/26/2015

BRIAN “BUDZY” WHITE - 43
Drum technician, Westfield, 05/03/2015

JEFFREY SCHNEIDER - 60
Accountant, Burlington, 05/04/2015

TODD “DEMSEY” ZULLO - 40
Musician, Westfield , 05/05/2015

JOHN THEBEAU JR. - 62
Construction dump truck driver, Saugus, 05/13/2015

NEIL FAIRNENY - 61
Maintenance worker, Melrose, 05/30/2015

SCOTT MARK “SCO” SALMAN - 59
Fire fighter, Boston, 06/04/2015

RICHARD “ROB” O’RILEY - 51
Construction worker, Holyoke, 06/10/2015

RONALD “MOOSE” MORSE III - 40
Iron worker, Somerville, 06/11/2015

SCOTT ROY HOLLIS - 26
Tree worker, Littleton, 06/30/2015

CHARLES PACE - 65
Loader operator, Plymouth, 06/30/2015

BRUNO FERRARA SR. - 55
Construction company owner, Mansfield, 07/13/2015

JOSE LUIS MEDARDO TOBIAS-VALLE - 28
Car wash employee, Malden, 07/19/2015

LAWRENCE O’LEARY - 54
Iron worker, Boston, 07/24/2015

JOSE CHAVES REGO - 60
Construction worker, Hudson, 07/25/2015

ROBERT HACKETT JR. - 58,
Paramedic, Springfield, 07/25/2015

VASILIOS “BILL” PAPPAS - 61
Toll collector, Auburn, 07/31/2015

DAVIDE NASCIMENTO - 28
Construction worker, Longmeadow, 07/31/2015

JOSE LUIS VASQUEZ PEREIRA - 38
Garage worker, Revere, 08/13/2015

RONALD MCKEAN - 49
Carpenter, Boston, 08/17/2015

KEVIN MIRANDA - 48
Crane operator, Taunton, 08/17/2015

ROBERT CHARPENTIER JR. - 68
Plumber, New Braintree, 08/23/2015

ELIVELTON DIAS - 38
Restaurant sous chef, Peabody, 08/29/2015

NICHOLAS DUMONT - 24
Construction worker, Taunton, 09/04/2015

KENNETH MONTGOMERY - 74
Fleet manager, Braintree, 09/15/2015

DONALD “SPONGY” SPONGBERG - 52
Commercial truck driver, Lexington, 09/30/2015

ROBERT “BOBBY” QUINN - 57
Fire fighter, Somerville, 10/04/2015

KYLE ASHWORTH - 21
Motorcycle mechanic, Boylston, 10/16/2015

ANTHONY COLARUSSO - 39
Fire fighter, Plymouth, 10/20/2015

ROLAND WILLARD SHAW - 85
Mechanic, Newton, 10/24/2015

JEFFREY MARHEFKA - 44
Master builder, Worcester, 11/04/2015

NICHOLAS KOBUS - 28
Licensed electrician, Paxton, 11/04/2015

FAN CHEUNG LI - 40
Deliveryman, Springfield, 11/07/2015

DONALD DEPINA - 66
Taxi driver, New Bedford, 11/28/2015

JAMES BURGESS - 45
Construction worker, Boston, 12/02/2015

DAVID “HEAVY D” SUTHERLAND - Eel boat captain,
Cape Ann, 12/03/2015

ALCIDES VEIGA - 43
Warehouse worker, Easton, 12/09/2015

JOSEPH BRADY - 71
Christmas tree salesman, Stoughton, 12/11/2015

FREDWILSON DOSSANTOS - 23
Construction worker, Marion, 12/16/2016

PAUL SULLIVAN - 48
Fire lieutenant, Somerville, 12/19/2015

EDGARD NIEVES - 30
Machinist, Holden, 12/24/2015

2016

 

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