How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 57 severe cases involving bridges, dams, and locks over the past decade. Fractures are the most common injury type, appearing in 65 percent of reported incidents and often requiring extensive surgical intervention and long-term rehabilitation.
These injuries are particularly severe because they frequently involve high-altitude falls or structural failures.
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Check My BenefitsHow these injuries happen
Most injuries involving bridges and dams stem from falls to lower levels, which account for 75 percent of all reported incidents. You are often exposed to significant gaps, unstable surfaces, or collapsing structures while installing overhead components or chipping concrete. These accidents occur when safety protocols for fall protection are ignored or when structural integrity is compromised during the construction phase.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Other fall to lower level | 40 |
| 2 | Fall on same level | 3 |
| 3 | Collapse, engulfment— building or structure | 2 |
| 4 | Fall to lower level from collapsing structure or equipment | 2 |
| 5 | Struck against stationary object | 2 |
| 6 | Caught or wedged between objects— nonrunning | 1 |
| 7 | Struck by suspended or swinging object | 1 |
| 8 | Struck by falling object | 1 |
Where injuries happen most
Construction accounts for 82 percent of all reported injuries, as the nature of building and maintaining massive infrastructure requires constant work at height. Professional services also see recurring incidents, likely due to the specialized engineering and inspection roles that place you directly on active bridge decks or dam sites.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these incidents include falling through gaps in bridge decking, being struck by falling materials, or suffering crush injuries from heavy hydraulic equipment. If any of these scenarios sound like what happened to you, an attorney can help you review the specifics of your incident to determine if employer negligence contributed to your injury.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | OH | Construction | "An employee was working to install overhead brackets for bridge construction. They went to move a generator and fell 38-feet from the bridge deck that was under construction. The employee sustained fractures to their hip, right femur, left wrist, and ankle. " | |
| 2025 | GA | Manufacturing | "On April 24, 2025, an employee was opening a cylinder door on a hydraulic bridge to remove lumber when their left middle finger was caught between the door and the hydraulic bridge, resulting in an amputation without bone loss." | |
| 2025 | FL | Administrative Services | "An employee was working on the construction of a bridge when an orange cone fell where the bridge was going to be placed. The employee went to remove it and fell through a gap approximately 9 feet to the ground. The employee was hospitalized with fractures to her ankle and arm." | |
| 2025 | MS | Construction | "An employee had been chipping out concrete from the outside curve of a bridge. The employee fell approximately 15 feet from the bridge to the ground. The employee was hospitalized. " | |
| 2024 | PA | Manufacturing | "An employee was walking across a foot bridge at the workplace. They rolled their right ankle on the transition between the bridge and the ground and fractured it." | |
| 2024 | GA | Construction | "On October 19, 2024, an employee on an ariel lift was unbolting angle iron from a bridge section being set with a crane. The bridge section moved and the employee's right hand was crushed between the steel and the concrete." | |
| 2024 | OH | Construction | "An employee was cleaning broken-up concrete off a bridge deck. He stepped out on a wood deck that was supported by bridge hangers. The bridge hangers at this area of the deck failed and the deck fell. The employee fell 26 feet to the ground below the bridge. The employee sustained fractures to their C7, T5,and T6 vertebrae, and their right hip was dislocated." | |
| 2024 | FL | Construction | "On May 21, 2024, temporary concrete barriers along a bridge edge were being moved two feet back using a front-end loader with forks. The forks became entangled in some rebar, so the barrier being lifted was set back down. The injured employee went to investigate, lost his footing, and fell backward off the edge of the bridge deck 24 feet to the lower boom of the mobile elevated work platform (MEWP). He then fell from the MEWP another 5 feet onto soft mud ground. He sustained a head laceration, punctured lungs, and fractures to his pelvis and leg." | |
| 2024 | LA | Arts & Entertainment | "A prom was being lifted due to the water level of a river. A cable gave way and the prom collapsed, hitting the first level of a barge and injuring seven employees. Two of the employees were hospitalized, having suffered broken bones, head injuries, and leg injuries." | |
| 2023 | NJ | Professional Services | "An employee was visually observing the work area on a pedestrian bridge and photographing the conditions. As the employee was inspecting the exposed rebar from the outside of the staircase structure along the edge, they slipped on construction dirt and debris. The employee fell approximately 12-13 feet to the concrete sidewalk below, resulting in fractures to the L1 endplate, right humeral shaft, right elbow, right distal radius, 8th rib, pelvis, and right ring finger." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.