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For further perspective, over a thousand individuals died during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. OSHA might have reduced the death count, bu
by voakbasda 5y ago
For further perspective, over a thousand individuals died during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. OSHA might have reduced the death count, but that comes at the expense of efficiency. Compound the endless other regulations implemented since that time, and it's surprising that anything gets built at all anymore.
- WalterBright 5y ago20,000 people died on the Oregon Trail, it's predecessor. The thousand deaths is a claim that has never been verified. https://www.iccsafe.org/building-safety-journal/bsj-dives/the-human-cost-of-construction-an-inside-look-at-the-worlds-most-notable-and-deadliest-construction-projects/ https://www.iccsafe.org/building-safety-journal/bsj-dives/th... I couldn't find a reference to how many people worked on the railroad, other than 20,000 Chinese. I suppose it was likely on the order of 50,000 people. When you have 50,000 people for 6 years, some of them are going to die no matter what. Disease was common and untreatable, and medical care was poor, too, in those days. In other words, without context, saying 1000 people died is meaningless.
- voakbasda 5y agoThe context was that one single new bridge that has taken a full one-third of the time that it took to build a railroad across the majority of this country. Given the standards put forth by OSHA, I strongly suspect that construction of that new bridge has not been the proximate cause of even one death.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]