A report on work safety released on Friday by the Laborers Health and Occupational Safety Assembly (İSİG) has revealed that occupational accidents claimed the lives of at least 1,923 workers in Turkey in 2018, the Diken news website reported.
Data showed that traffic accidents were the foremost cause of work-related deaths, accounting for 21 percent of the total, followed by incidents of crushing and falls with 20 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
From a gender perspective, male workers dominated the number of fatalities with an overwhelming 94 percent.
Another noteworthy aspect was that at least 67 of those who lost their lives in workplace accidents were minors, 23 of whom were below the age of 15.
Among a total of 110 migrant workers who were included in the statistics, 48 Syrians and 28 Afghans represented the two largest groups.
A total of 1,875 of those who died were non-union workers and 48 of them belonged to labor unions, while the report recognized the possibility that there might have been other deceased labor union members who weren’t shown in the records as unions do not always provide clear information as to their members.
İstanbul, as the most densely populated province of the country, ranked in first place with 226 workplace deaths, followed by the industrialized provinces of Kocaeli with 81, Manisa with 70 and Bursa with 69 deaths.
The breakdown of fatalities by sector demonstrated a predominance of agriculture and forestry (24 percent), construction (23 percent) and transportation (12 percent).