The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released its top 10 violations of OSHA rules for fiscal year 2022, which showed that failing to protect construction workers from falls continues to be the most common hazard that OSHA inspectors are citing employers for. In addition, OSHA’s most cited rules included three other construction fall prevention measures—protecting workers on scaffolds, ladder safety and training workers to avoid falls.

According to an analysis by the Center for Construction Research and Training of fatality data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, falls, slips and trips at construction sites led to an average of 376 deaths annually from 2018 to 2020.

The top 10 list of violations cited by OSHA includes: (1) Fall Protection, 5,260 violations; (2) Hazard Communication Standard, 2,424 violations; (3) Respiratory Protection, 2,185 violations; (4) Ladders, construction, 2,143 violations; (5) Scaffolding, construction, 2,058 violations; (6) Lockout/Tagout, 1,977 violations; (7) Powered Industrial Trucks, 1,749 violations; (8) Fall Protection—Training Requirements, 1,556 violations; (9) Eye and Face Protection, 1,401 violations; and (10) Machinery and Machine Guard, 1,370 violations.