The Most Dangerous Summer Jobs in Canada

Aaron Broverman

Filed under: Employment & Careers, Health

Summer jobs are as much a part of the season as the good weather that defines it. As our Five Ways to Save Money This Summer blog entry reveals, putting the kids to work on summer vacation is a great way to save your pennies this season. However, if your kid is going to run his or her resume around town, there are some jobs they may want to stay away from. There are some jobs that can be fatal and industries are much more accident prone, so unless they are working for a corporation that makes safety a true priority, or you have an excellent medical, dental or life insurance plan, you may want to stay away from all five of these jobs.

1. Fisherman

The Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch was dead on in naming fishing and trapping the deadliest job on record. It also tops the fatality list in Canada. Except in this country, we're not just talking about crabs, the entire industry has the potential to kill your teen. The job averages 52 deaths per 100,000 workers and the hazards include getting your extremities caught in the lines, cold water immersion and death or injury from the fish themselves thanks to toxic spines from sea urchins, dogfish, rockfish and others. Thankfully, WorkSafe BC has some excellent safety guides and videos, advising ships on proper safety drills and the proper technique for life preservation if you ever find yourself in the frigid water.

2. Rig Pig

Finding themselves on the platform of an oil rig or underground in the darkness of a mine is one of the worst ways anyone can spend a summer for cash. The death rate among those drilling the oil wells or digging in mines is truly scary in this country, with 46.9 being buried for every 100,000 workers. Good thing they check your bags before you join the rig, ensuring that no flammable liquids, illegal drugs, firearms, alcohol or matches make it on board. The latest equipment is colour coded to let workers know it has been tested and meets the latest in safety standards.Still, recent news demonstrates that this isn't a job for the faint of heart.

3. Logger and Lawn Care Professional

These two popular summer jobs may look as though they have nothing in common, but , when you think about it, isn't forestry truly just lawn care on a grander scale? Both come equipped with spinning blades that show limbs no mercy, whether they be on a tree or on a youthful body. They also carry astounding risks, with 33.3 fatalities per every 100,000 people who volunteer to do the job. Of course, when mowing lawns it's always important to wear the proper footwear and in logging your boots must have teeth on the bottom and be insulated properly. You should also avoid situations where you have to pull the mower backwards, never trim hedges higher than your shoulders and never use your hands to unclog debris. When starting a chainsaw make sure you file the chain and start it only when you have good footing, are away from people and use an anti-kickback chain when possible.

4. Construction Worker

It's obvious that this notoriously dangerous summer job would be on this list. Full of booms and busts, peaks and valleys and always full of precarious situations, construction registers 20.2 fatalities for every 100,000 workers who suit up. Here I speak from anecdotal evidence. My friend told me a story about his job renovating high above the stage of Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre that only had two harnesses available between all the workers that took on the gig and not all beams were securely fastened. His supervisor was with him on the same beam and when his boss jumped to the next one, the weight he provided that was keeping it level suddenly disappeared and the tilting beam would've sent my buddy plunging to the stage below like Wile E. Coyote had he not jumped to the next beam just in the nick of time. "Oh sorry, I forgot to tell you that beam wasn't fastened," his boss told him. It was little comfort. "Stuff like that always happens in construction," my buddy confided. "It's all about how big a man you are."

5. Industrial Driver

Truckers spend day and night on the road on little sleep -- no wonder driving causes 16 deaths for every 100,000 workers. It's not isolated to truckers, it also includes forklift operators and all-terrain vehicles such as ATVs. Driving for long periods has always been inadvisable and cars in general are considered lethal weapons, so this one is way too self-explanatory to justify the space it takes to tell you about it. I mean does anybody really need to be told that driving on little sleep isn't a good idea? Still, negligence, irresponsibility and mistakes in general combined to put industrial driving on this list and that's saying something by itself: No matter how obvious the safety rules, people are still dying while driving for a living in numbers significant enough to make the top five most dangerous jobs.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

6-17-2010 @ 10:30AM

josh said...

i find it rediculous that whomever compiled this list, compares profesional logging to lawncare, obviously no one consulted the loggers or even the property maintenance companies involved in these industries, if you have ever been in the bush to fall some trees you know the difference i have never heard of anyone being killed mowing their grass or trimming their hedges and the accidents that do happen during lawn care are usually due too carelessness like allowing children to run around while mowing or reaching to far standing on a ladder trimming but i have known life long bushmen and loggers who have made simple mistakes like slipping and being crushed by a tree or having a widowmaker come crashing down out of nowhere not too mention a chain snapping and slicing through their face losing an eye and luckily nothing else, lawn care is done by everyone, logging or even falling one tree takes training and carefull planning and prep that's why you have professional tree trimmers, so yes drinking a beer and mowing your lawn in sandles is dumb and dangerous but many professionals have lost lives and limbs with tens of thousands of hours logging under their belt by making one minute miscalculation or misstep so show some respect to the professional and hardworkin loggers by not lumping them in with the average lawn care company, and don't worry about your sons or daughters being summer loggers because those positions don't exist either your in the logging business for good or your relative owns a company where you can be some cheap labour for the summer, it's not some mindless job you can take some kid and give him a chainsaw for the summer to make you money, it just seems they have no idea that you even have to get extensive training to be a logger, nuff said.

8-02-2011 @ 4:46AM

Arnold said...

BRAVO. Well said and I could not have said it better myself. As a 25 year veteran of the timber business (all of it on the end of a chainsaw) I have seen my fair share of accidents and fatalities. I have even come close a time or two myself. All it takes in this business is on moment of inattention and the ball game is OVER! Losing a hand or a foot =bad, does NOT equate with being killed. Just my opinion OK?

6-17-2010 @ 2:42PM

Larry said...

Right on Josh! Yes, you can get injured cutting the lawn or trimming the hedge if your not careful, but come on! It is completely absurd to compare it to logging. Professional loggers leave the house every day with a real chance of being hurt or worse. When I take my lawnmower out of the garage it's very unlikely I will be killed or seriously injured by it. Yes, it is possible but if I take simple precautions I will be completely safe. I admire the true professional logger and to compare them to Joe Sixpack and his Weedwacker is an insult to those guys.

6-21-2010 @ 9:14AM

Chris said...

I find it to be VERY poor reporting to say that truckers are driving on little sleep. Where is the proof to back that up? I own 2 highway trucks and drive one myself and I get plenty of sleep. Do you think it could be the gov't mandate that they may be refering to, to freefuly say without any investigating that truckers are driving on little sleep? Truckers are federally required to park for 10 consecutive hours after a 14 hour window, of which 11 is allowed to be driving time. How do they conclude we are tired after 10 hours off all the time? I think that truckers are being profiled and it is discriminatory and neglegent on the reporting staff's part on this.

6-13-2011 @ 3:40PM

gearjammer said...

I Worked in the long haul biz for over 25 years. 99% of the companies I drove for asked drivers to fudge the log books to skirt the rules. And more alarming is 99% of drivers go along with out question. As well I have run into countless drivers that will exceed hours on there own just to make it home for the weekend or to maintain a certin level of income. As long as the trucking industry pays by the mile and not by time there is going to be abuse of the hours of service.

6-23-2010 @ 10:55PM

Aaron Broverman said...

Proof truckers drive on little sleep and it often results in accidents and fatalities: http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/03/bus.crash/

and http://www.usroads.com/journals/aruj/9807/ru980703.htm

Oh, and: "According to Dr. Allan Pack, director of the Sleep Center at the University of Pennsylvania, roughly 28 percent of commercial drivers are likely afflicted with some degree of sleep apnea." from: http://www.todaystrucking.com/features.cfm?intDocID=23163

That's three independent sources, but who's counting?

6-22-2011 @ 10:43PM

ray said...

You quoted 1 accident only, you submitted 1 study, done in 1993. You quoted a study with a guesstimate. Boy talk about yellow journalism. If you really wanted to be honest you would quote some of the new statistics that show when a car and truck collide the large majority is caused by the car. There will always be some truck drivers who don't follow the rules however the majority percentage of the vehicles that don't are cars. Try riding with a trucker for a week and you will be a changed man.

7-05-2010 @ 5:55PM

kmtoad said...

come on now- Darwin was more of a prophet than an scientist, dangerous jobs? What ever happended to being able to use positive reinforcement when you didn't LISTEN or more so COMPREHEND what you were told by someone who has " been there done that". That smack across the head doesn't hurt as much as the whammy you are going to get when you think you are smarter or quicker than you are, when the real deal hits you.

6-13-2011 @ 6:43AM

b. jones said...

You people must live in la la land. is anyone buying your shit

6-13-2011 @ 10:28PM

charles said...

Now everyone who keeps saying that the Police have such a dangerous job can shut the Hell up.

6-13-2011 @ 10:41PM

brian_hunt5 said...

Lawnmower..Logger...Are you guys touched in the head?

8-01-2011 @ 12:06PM

mark said...

First off.. you sure as hell won't get a summer job as a truck driver without significant prior experience and a good record. Which students don't usually have. Also the safety record of truck drivers is a hell of a lot better than even above average auto drivers,this is'nt statistics this is fact.Auto drivers are the most common cause of truck accidents because they don't pay attention to there surroundings, most have the situational awareness of a slug. If you have been driving for more than a few months and are still alive and uninjured it's because a truck driver was aware of you!

8-02-2011 @ 12:29AM

Richard Atkins said...

cant believe they call rig pig a summer job , ohh well canucks are funny , been a wellsite geologist over 30 years , seen six deaths , all carelessness all doing what they knew to be incorrect , no kids out here anyway , and yet to see this inspection .

8-02-2011 @ 8:06AM

Roy said...

From this survey they want you to believe that any activity is dangerous where you have to use your brain or get a little sweat worked up . Maybe that is why the world is where it is today - maybe everyone is brainwashed into wanting to only be a warm body at a desk and aimlessly puinch computer keys ?? God Help Us All !