One of Toyota’s top car engineers literally worked himself to death. A Japanese labor office determined the 45-year-old Tokyo man died from working too many hours. The ruling will allow the man’s family to collect benefits from his work insurance.
His widow’s lawyer said the man had been under significant pressure as lead engineer to develop a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry. In the months leading to his death, the engineer averaged more than 80 hours overtime per month. Though if you think about it, doesn’t that work out to just about 60 hours work per week? That’s alot, but certainly not a fatal level.
Japan has been struggling to reduce deaths from overwork, known as “karoshi.” These deaths have increased steadily since the Japanese Health Ministry recognized the phenomenon in 1987. In 2006, 147 Japanese died from overwork, most from strokes or heart attacks.
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Bad day at the office? Probably not as bad as this man’s poor co-workers, who faced his destructive rampage. A 3-minute video of the incident is naturally making its rounds on YouTube and the Web. The video is set to Verve’s song “Bittersweet Symphony” and shows the man throwing computer monitors and whiteboards, tearing down cubicle walls, and taking a sledgehammer to the office copier.
Many have speculated the video is a fake, citing co-workers who stick around instead of fleeing the scene. There is also a video from a second angle, which seems a bit convenient. Taken from a cell phone, this video includes sound and shows a security guard using a Taser to subdue the worker. We do not hear “Don’t tase me, bro!” as the language appears to be Russian.
For many workers, the most dangerous aspect of their job is carrying a cup of hot coffee from the kitchen to their cubicle. But millions of people in the world risk their lives everyday protecting us, fighting for us and helping us when we’re hurt.
According to CareerBuilder.com, following are the most dangerous jobs in the U.S., with their fatality rate per 100,000 workers:
1. Fishing - 141.7
2. Aircraft pilots - 87.8
3. Loggers - 82.1
4. Steel workers - 61.0
5. Trash collectors - 41.8
UPickReviews takes this a step further and lists seven of the deadliest jobs in which workers are faced with "guns, dynamite, bombs and death-threats everyday."
Jobs That Kill
A city worker is dead after a horrible accident in Tustin, California. The man was trimming trees last Wednesday when he fell into a wood chipper.
The Los Angeles Times identified the victim as Gabriel Gonzales-Ferrer, 24. The man was “was standing at the back end of the chipper, throwing branches into it with his co-workers nearby,” Tustin police Sgt. Pat Welch told the newspaper. “One of them looked over, and he was gone.”
Safety inspectors are investigating the incident as an industrial accident. Thirty-one people have been killed in wood chipper accidents between 1992 and 2002, according to a 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association report.
MyFox Los Angeles Video
In spite of all our differences, the one thing that binds all living creatures is that we each have an expiration date. This finality to our existence is what makes life special, something to be cherished and protected. But occasionally things can go terribly wrong…
