Worker safety is a sensitive subject, especially in economies that are not exactly worker-oriented like in most of the developed countries these days. In the United States, workers enjoy certain protection, but accidents still happen. Today, we will be looking at the most dangerous American cities for workers and we will be using the comprehensive report done by OSHA, which investigated the period between 2009 and 2014.

The people from OSHA used their weekly Fatality and Catastrophe reports from the 2009-2014 period and they used the numbers to compile several interactive maps that show certain trends in certain cities in the United States. It is important to point out that their maps do not show relative values (the number of accidents in relation to the number of residents of various cities). Instead, the maps show the total number of accidents.

One of the most interesting things that this report shows is that the total size of the metro area does not always carry with it the increased number of accidents. For example, New York City, the largest metro area in the United States, ranks 7th with 28 fatal or catastrophic cases. Los Angeles is only fifth. The city that tops the list is Houston, Texas (with 92 fatal or catastrophic accidents) and this probably has something to do with the oil industry, which is inherently more dangerous than some other industries. Chicago, Illinois is the second most dangerous city in the U.S. for workers with 50 accidents while Miami, Florida is in third place with 41 accidents.

Las Vegas, Nevada comes in at #4 (39), LA is at #5 (30). Brooklyn, New York (29) actually ranks higher than New York City, landing at spot #6. Like we said, NYC is at #7 (28) and it is followed by San Antonio, Texas (28); Tampa, Florida (26) and Indianapolis, Indiana (25).

Two more cities in Texas have reported a relatively large number of accidents, Austin and Dallas, 18 and 21 respectively. Atlanta had 23 accidents while Kansas City and Memphis also reported 18 each. Philadelphia reported 22 cases.

Two large metro areas that reported an unexpectedly small number of accidents are San Francisco with only 3 and Seattle with only 13, which just goes to show that accidents have a lot to do with the most important industries and their inherent levels of danger.