Trucking the most dangerous job in Maine

LEWISTON – Truckers have had the most dangerous job in Maine in the past decade, according to the state’s Department of Labor.

The trucking profession in Maine had 54 on-the-job deaths between 1995-2004, officials said. Following trucking were forestry workers, excluding loggers, with 17 deaths; managers and administrators with 15 deaths; timber cutting and logging with 12 deaths; and laborers, who also had 12 deaths.

Between 1994-2004, truckers reported nearly 3,600 injuries, followed by laborers other than construction (3,337 injuries), nurse’s aides (2,841 injuries) and janitors and cleaners (1,964 injuries).

Besides the obvious dangers of truck crashes, truckers also suffer from working with loads and poor eating and sleeping habits, said Eddy Naples, a truck driving instructor at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico.

“You sit in a cab for 10 hours, you think it’s easy, but it’s beating up on your body in a different way by not moving,” he said.

The deaths of a dozen coal miners in early January in West Virginia has focused attention on workplace safety.

Tragedies like that on the national level “make you think about, are we doing all we can do?” said Bill Peabody, director of the Maine Bureau of Labor Standards.

In a look at private, state and municipal workers in Maine in 2004, the Department of Labor said 14,151 Mainers missed a day or more of work after a job-related injury or illness, down from 15,049 in 2003.

One-third of those people sprained, strained or tore something at work, while more than 660 of them broke a bone.

Nurse’s aides reported 929 job-related injuries in 2004, the most of any occupation.

“It’s not without risk, and we are seeing people with permanent injuries,” said nurse practitioner Gerald Lebel at WorkMed, a rehabilitation program of St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Maine generally ranks higher than average in occupational injuries nationally, but below average in worker deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Overall, 26 people died on the job in Maine in 2004, the same number as in 2003.

Twenty-three deaths were reported in the first six months of 2005, with trucking at the top with four. But no workplace is immune, with single deaths reported in jobs as varied as retail salesperson, food prep worker, broadcast news analyst and electrician.

The worst workplace accident in Maine occurred in 2002 when 14 migrant forestry workers died after their van went into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.