If you use ladders or other elevated devices at work, you may feel proportionately more nervous the higher you get. At six feet from the ground, you’re not all that worried. If you climb a 25-foot ladder, though, it’s fairly unsettling.
There is good reason for this, as injury odds naturally increase with height. Climbers consider anything above 39 feet to be the danger zone, for instance, since falls are significantly more catastrophic at this height than any other. This also means that those who are fortunate enough to survive are likely to suffer serious injuries.
However, that does not mean that you have no risks until you get up that high. The statistics show that injuries can happen at almost any height.
3 stats paint a dismal picture about falls
To see how this works, consider the following statistics. Here are the percentage of falls that resulted in the most catastrophic injuries from different heights:
- Between six and 10 feet: 11.7%
- Between 11 and 15 feet: 19.7%
- Between 16 and 20 feet: 17.4%
Knowing that more than one out of every 10 fatal falls happened at a height between 6 and 10 feet can help you understand all of the risks you face at work and how you could certainly be injured, even in a relatively short fall.
You may deserve workers’ compensation
If you do get injured at work, you likely deserve workers’ comp for your medical bills, lost wages and other such incident-related costs. Make sure you know what rights you have and what steps you need to take.