If you had to guess which city center job came with the highest risk of death, what would you go for? Something in construction or refuse management, perhaps? Well you’d be wrong, as it turns out that the deadliest job you can have in New York is a delivery rider.
There are currently more than 65,000 people working as delivery riders for various apps across New York City. Many of these use electric bikes and mopeds to get around town with ease, and this leaves them susceptible to some of the city’s greatest dangers.
Now, a new report from the city has revealed just how dangerous the job can be, with as many as 36 in every 100,000 delivery workers in NYC dying on the job, according to Autoblog:
The fatality rate for these workers was at least 36 per 100,000 between January 2021 and June 2022, the city Department of Consumer and Worker Protection reported. That’s more than 5 times the fatality rate for construction workers in New York City, which was seven per 100,000 in 2020, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most driver deaths are a result of traffic crashes, though workers are also subject to a high rate of violent robbery.
What’s more, it’s not just death that delivery riders are facing, with many reporting severe injuries while on the job. According to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection report, almost a third of e-bike and moped delivery riders received injuries that “forced them to miss work, lose consciousness, or seek medical care” while on the job.
The matter is further complicated by the fact that many delivery drivers are migrant workers who are less likely to report injuries such as these or the crimes that cause them to police or hospital workers.
And it’s not even as if these workers are just a little more at risk that those in other industries, they’re significantly more likely to die or pick up serious injuries on the job. The second most deadly job in the city is in construction, which saw just 13 deaths per 100,000 workers.