Hauling Secrets

A severe ankle sprain (or worse?) has prevented me from hauling much of anything these past few weeks. And now’s when I need very badly to find some new items to renovate and furnish my friend’s new house with. I’m scheduled for an MRI on Friday. In the meantime, I’ll keep updating the site with stories from the past few years, including the one I get asked to tell the most - practically begged sometimes - at social gatherings. And maybe Flores or the Edge (Edge, are you out there?) will pick up the slack and post something good.

I didn’t sprain my ankle on the job, but I’ll use the occasion to make a point. Elizabeth Royte writes:

According to New York’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, refuse collection is classified as “high-hazard” work, along with logging, fishing, driving a taxicab, and mining. While the fatality rate for all occupations is 4.7 deaths per 100,000 workers, garbage collectors die at a rate of 46 per 100,000. In fact, they’re approximately thee times more likely to be killed on the job than police officers or firefighters.

And the US Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks “refuse and recyclable materials collectors” 5th in a 2004 list of America’s ten most dangerous jobs (just behind steel workers, fishers, aircraft pilots, and loggers; truck drivers, which haulers also are, rank 9th) with an average of 43.2 deaths per 100,000 employees.

These numbers might be declining as more and more cities switch to one-person trucks with a robot arm that does the lifting. But the number one cause of death in our industry is frustrated motorists trying to pass a garbage truck and running over the worker.

So be patient, everyone, and be careful.