Addressing Electrocution Hazards in Construction: Insights from Recent Research and Future Innovations

Two new research papers kicking off 2026 shine a light on the persistent need for more and better focus on construction worker safety, each referencing the opportunity to utilize technology more fully to make more progress.

One, published in the journal Discover Public Health, examines the subject of electrocution in the construction industry, concluding that more can and should be done to address what remains one of the sector’s top causes of fatalities.

The other, “2025 Construction Industry Safety Challenges,” looks at the growing pressures contractors face to address safety alongside the emergence of promising new methods for assessing, managing and reducing risk.

In “Electrocution in the Construction Industry: a systematic review,” researchers conducted in-depth case studies of construction electrocution incidents to try to understand the contributing factors. They were numerous and varied — “multi-factorial,” with root causes spanning “failures of de-energization and implementation of effective lockout/tagout practices, poor engineering protective measures and clearances, degraded/temporary wiring and equipment, wet or constrained working environment, deficient PPE use, and organizational failures involving oversight, training, and reporting.”

Construction-site electrocutions that cause both death and serious injury have largely been on the decline over decades, the paper notes, although recent spikes have been documented. While the researchers note that technology and better regulation have helped reduce risk “electrocution continues to be a significant hazard in the construction industry,” and “electrical incidents remain frequent,” not only for electrical trades workers who are most exposed, but increasingly for non-electrical workers susceptible to indirect contact “primarily through conductive tools or equipment that interacts with live electrical sources,” commonly overhead power lines.

But the fact that electrical workers in construction continue to sustain electrocution fatalities and injuries is evidence of fundamental safety lapses, the paper notes. Electricians and power line workers, the study notes, have the highest rates of electrical-related fatalities in construction-related occupations (see Table below).

Citing government data showing 105 construction electricians died from job-site electrical exposure between 2011 and 2015, researchers contend schedule pressure, bypassed safety procedures, and misjudgment are prime causal factors. Many electrocutions stemmed from performing routine tasks, such as wire installation and junction box repair, that their training and experience should have prevented. The culprit is often bypassed lockout/tagout protocols and improper PPE use.

Greater organizational attention to safety could go a long way toward reducing electrical injuries in construction, the report suggests. “Companies can adopt innovations such as wearable voltage detection devices, real-time risk assessment apps, or AI-based analytics to predict and prevent hazards,” the authors say, adding that “high-performing sites actively benchmark themselves and use findings to drive continuous safety enhancements.”

Such high-tech approaches to improving construction safety are not only needed but in the pipeline or on the drawing board for leading firms, according to the “2025 Construction Industry Safety Challenges” report. Based on responses to a survey of construction firms conducted by American Society of Safety Professionals and J.J. Keller & Associates, Inc., the report found growing recognition of the need for developing and deploying more advanced and tested approaches to ensuring worker safety, broadly defined.

“Safety is both a foundational imperative and a persistent challenge,” the paper states. “It captures a tipping point between longstanding practices and emerging innovations, highlighting the industry’s need to adapt for greater safety, even amid complex pressures.”

The key findings of the survey, whose sample was dominated by general contractors but included an 8% representation by electrical contractors, showed an industry eager to take safety to a new level but constrained partly by the daunting task of organizational change.

Top takeaways were an industry committed to safety but preoccupied by labor shortages and rising costs; recognition of the need for modernizing safety training to be more immersive, personalized and task-specific; and optimism about the role of AI, virtual reality and other technologies to advance safety, tempered by worry about costs, resistance and integration challenges. Another top finding was growing interest in addressing worker mental health as part of a holistic approach to improving worker safety.

Based on the survey findings, the report fashioned a possible five-point roadmap for how the construction industry might start approaching worker safety from a different angle: Continued integration of AI for predictive, real-time risk prevention; expanded utilization of digitization and automation for key safety touchpoints; staying alert to the possible issuance of AI-specific standards for safety compliance by OSHA; deeper integration of advanced training methods using VR simulation combined with AI-driven modules; and utilization of next-generation PPE incorporating sensors and alerts.