Florida's Most Deadly Jobs

Car accidents, gunshots and falls accounted for most on-the-job deaths in 2007.

» Transportation incidents killed 136 Florida workers in 2007 — more than a third of those who died that year.

» Workplace homicides — which were up 13% nationally — rose by 46% in Florida in 2007. The majority, 85%, involved shootings. Three resulted from stabbings and five from other types of assaults. The victims included police officers, restaurant workers, sales workers and others. The 610 workplace homicides nationally came after a low of 540 in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The killings included the shooting of Jonathan Foy during an attempted robbery of a BP gas station in Tallahassee. Among others killed on the job that year were Sgt. Ron Harrison, a 27-year veteran of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office who was gunned down while sitting in his patrol car after conducting a DUI checkpoint in Brandon.

» Falls accounted for 62 of the 362 deaths in 2007, making them the third-highest cause of occupational fatalities in the state that year. A wide range of workers — from roofers to cleaning personnel to construction laborers to agricultural workers — died from falls. On Nov. 24, 2007, Karen Price, a 63-year-old ride attendant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, was assisting passengers on the loading dock of a spinning roller coaster ride called the Primeval Whirl when one of the coaster’s cars hit her and knocked her to the ground, where she hit her head. Price died five days later.

» The remaining worker deaths in the state were attributed to contact with objects and equipment (45), exposure to harmful substances of environments (42), suicides (10) and fires or explosion (5). Two deaths were in categories not listed.

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