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In one week in May 2011, three B.C. workers died after falling from ladders. Though these incidents are currently being investigated, this tragic cluster of fatalities highlights the potential danger of familiar equipment like ladders and how a fall, even from a low height, can result in serious injuries and even death. Following are WorkSafeBC statistics for injury claims due to falls from ladders in B.C. for a 10-year period (2001-2010).
Accepted claims by sector, year of injury and accident type (fall from ladder) 2001-2010
Industry Sector |
All claims |
Serious injuries |
% of serious injuries |
| Construction (Sector 72) |
3,749 |
2,094 |
55.8% |
| Service (Sector 76) |
2,114 |
1,057 |
50.0% |
| Trade (Sector 74) |
1,347 |
579 |
42.9% |
| Manufacturing (Sector 71) |
1,230 |
552 |
44.8% |
| Primary Resources (Sector 70) |
428 |
267 |
62.3% |
| Transportation and Warehousing (Sector |
354 |
185 |
52.2% |
| Public Sector |
181 |
80 |
44.1% |
| TOTAL - All Sectors |
9,403 |
4,814 |
51.1% |
The sector with the highest number of accepted injury claims for falls from ladders is Construction, but a closer look at industry classes reveals that ladder falls are a concern in a many other industry areas. Following is a list of the industry classes with the most ladder fall claims.
Top 20 industry classes (CUs) for accepted ladder fall claims 2001-2010
| Industry classification (CU number) |
All claims |
Serious injuries |
% Serious claims |
| House or Other Wood Frame General Contracting, Construction or Renovation Work (721027) |
748 |
436 |
58.2% |
| General Retail (not elsewhere specified) (741013) |
532 |
241 |
45.3% |
| Painting or Wallpapering (721041) |
443 |
277 |
62.5% |
| Plumbing, Heating, Vent, Residential Air Conditioning, or Central Vacuum System Installation or Repair (721043) |
400 |
165 |
41.2% |
| Electrical Work (721019) |
383 |
180 |
46.9% |
| Industrial, Commercial, Institutional or Highrise Residential General Contracting or Construction (721028) |
261 |
136 |
52.1% |
| Steep Slope Roofing (721051) |
214 |
148 |
69.1% |
| Framing or Residential Forming (721024) |
188 |
112 |
59.5% |
| Siding, Awning, or Gutter Installation, Service, or Repair (721049) |
177 |
106 |
59.8% |
| Supermarket (741025) |
167 |
64 |
38.3% |
| Public School District (765008) |
163 |
74 |
45.3% |
| Orchard (701017) |
162 |
114 |
70.3% |
| Restaurant or Other Dining Establishment (761035) |
157 |
62 |
39.4% |
| Local Government and Related Operations (753004) |
145 |
61 |
42.0% |
| Department Store (741008) |
130 |
50 |
38.4% |
| Drywalling or Acoustic Board Installation (721018) |
121 |
78 |
64.4% |
| Building Management, Building Rental, or Mobile Home Parks and Strata Corporations (761033) |
113 |
79 |
69.9% |
| General Trucking (not elsewhere specified) (732019) |
101 |
64 |
63.3% |
| Low Slope Roofing (721036) |
100 |
62 |
62.0% |
| Home Improvement Centre (741014) |
100 |
40 |
40.9% |
Fatalities from ladder falls
Since 2001 there have been 13 accepted fatal claims for falls from ladders. They were in these sectors:
- Primary Resources: 2
- Construction: 6
- Trade: 1
- Service sector: 4
What is a serious injury?
WorkSafeBC's criteria for classifying an accepted claim as serious are:
- long duration of wage loss (28-plus days)
- high health care costs (equal to or greater than the cost of 28 days of wage loss)
- a serious medical diagnosis (one of 275 selected ICD-9 codes)
- or a fatality
Serious injury facts
- More than 1 in 2 injury claims for falls from ladders in B.C. meets the serious injury criteria
- Provincially, for all claims in all sectors, just under 1 in 3 claims meets the serious injury criteria
Fact Sheet - Ladder Safety 2001-2010 (PDF 354 KB)
Source: WorkSafeBC 
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