It’s estimated that 15% of all workers in the USA are lone workers, meaning that they work where colleagues can’t see or hear them. These people have careers in a wide range of industries, including sales, customer service, healthcare, driving and delivery, energy, manufacturing, and agriculture.

There is no doubt that these tens of millions of people face extra risks when working alone. Because they’re by themselves, they are more vulnerable to crime. If they experience a medical emergency, there’s no-one around to know or get help. They won’t get assistance, either, if they face a work-related accident. Managers may not even know that something is wrong until hours or possibly days later.

All this means that lone worker safety isn’t just about ticking boxes for legal compliance. It’s an urgent issue that all employers need to act on.

In this article, we’ll discuss the tragedies that happen when lone worker safety is ignored. We’ll talk about the risks that lone workers face in general and within specific industries. And we’ll zoom in on some specific sad cases of injury and death that occurred when workers were alone.

How dangerous is lone working?

The National Safety Council, a US nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting health and safety, has identified lone working as a type of work that increases risks to workers.

In fact, the NSC says that almost seven out of ten organizations contacted in a survey said they had experienced a lone worker safety incident in the past three years.

Specific industries also carry extra risks for lone workers. For example:

Farm, industrial, and construction workers are more likely to be working with heavy machinery, which makes working alone extra dangerous.
Home healthcare workers, like caregivers and nurses, are vulnerable when they go alone into patients’ homes.
Retail workers running a small store alone can face robbery and assault.

When workers have no colleagues around to help or notice that they’re in distress, these dangers multiply.

Below, we’ll look in depth at some specific examples of dangers to lone workers, including common problems for lone workers in different industries and real incidents that have occurred to lone workers.

Home healthcare workers and violence

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 3,961,900 home health workers and personal care aides in the USA in 2023. That’s almost 4 million workers who are often at work with no colleagues nearby.

Unfortunately, the isolation of home healthcare workers exposes them to violence from patients and their families. These workers, the majority of whom are female, are also vulnerable to sexual assault.

In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published a list of the industries facing the most workplace violence in 2021-2022, and “health care and social services” was at the top of the list.

The CDC points out that home healthcare workers face further risks because they are not working in a regulated space owned by their employer. For example, a lone worker in a factory or store can be protected by physical safeguards like fire alarms and safety barriers. In contrast, a home health worker is in someone else’s home, which may be unsafe because it lacks proper alarms, has uneven floors, or isn’t clean. And, of course, there is no employee-only space where workers can be safe from patient attacks.

The CDC reports on a survey of home healthcare workers that found over one quarter of them frequently experienced problems with aggression from clients’ pets. And about one in five frequently faced difficulties with poor lighting and crime in the patient’s neighborhood.

But violence and abuse from patients and their families may be the greatest problem.

In 2023, a 63-year-old nurse went to give medication to a patient who was a convicted rapist and lived in a sex offenders’ halfway house. That patient has now been charged with her murder.

What’s more, OSHA investigated the case and concluded that the nurse’s employer did not adequately protect her from risks. It suggested the employer could have taken steps like informing her about her patient’s history and providing her with a device to call for help in an emergency.

The nurse’s husband is also suing her employer for wrongful death.

It’s clear that the safety of home healthcare workers is a serious matter. Employers need to analyze risks fully and put systems in place to protect their workers, such as providing them with panic or SOS buttons to raise an alert. This type of lone worker device could also be used to call for help in situations where, for example, a worker trips and falls due to uneven flooring or clutter in a patient’s home.

Delivery workers and extreme weather

Postal workers and delivery workers are vulnerable in their own ways, too. Like home healthcare workers, they’re not working in a space that’s been designed for safety, and they can be attacked by pets. Outdoors, they can also face abuse from members of the public as well as hazards of extreme weather. Slippery ice can cause falls, and high temperatures can cause heatstroke and heat exhaustion.

In June 2023, a mail carrier in Dallas died from a combination of heart disease and the effects of extreme heat outside. The US Postal Service was fined by OSHA for failing to protect him from the hazards of the weather.

And in 2024, a UPS driver in Texas fainted from heat and then crashed his vehicle. Fortunately, he survived.

Numerous measures are needed to protect delivery drivers during extreme weather, including heatwaves. Air-conditioned trucks are one measure that has been emphasized by unions.

But it’s also essential that drivers have ways to call for help if they feel ill. And if a driver passes out on a sidewalk outdoors, they need a device that will raise an alarm for them, even if they never manage to press an SOS button. Automatic fall detection is a function on lone worker devices that can do this.

Oil and gas extraction workers and heart attacks

Many people in the US are at increased risk of heart attacks due to factors like high blood pressure and heart disease. For lone workers, this is an even graver problem because they may be alone when they suffer a medical emergency. There might be no-one around to get help. The worker’s employer and family might not even know they are ill until it’s too late.

Any type of lone work that involves hard physical labor comes with a high chance of heart problems. For example, oil and gas extraction is one field where the danger of heart attacks and other physical dangers is a serious risk for workers. Temperatures on oil and gas extraction worksites may be very high, and workers may breathe in vapors that increase their chances of sudden cardiac death.

A 2023 research study argued that lone workers in oil and gas extraction need more protection from deadly heart problems. The study suggested measures like checks on heart health and lone worker programs.

Lone workers in other industries that involve tough labor in high temperatures, such as workers in factories and on construction sites in summer, should also be aware of the dangers they face, including heart issues.

Retail workers and crime

The CDC says, “Workers at gasoline stations and convenience stores are at increased risk of both severe and multiple incidents of violence.” Violence was more likely to occur in 24-hour stores and in stores that were open through the night.

In fact, according to the CDC, convenience store workers were 14 times more likely to die from workplace violence than overall privately employed workers.

It’s common to find a lone worker behind the register at a gas station or small convenience store. And lone work may be more likely to occur at night, when the business is less busy. All of these factors are more appealing to thieves and other criminals.

In 2024, OSHA said that a chain of convenience stores failed to protect a cashier who was shot and wounded by thieves. OSHA proposed a fine and said that ways to reduce risks could include a workplace hazard analysis, training, bulletproof barriers, and panic alarms. Of course, this is just one of many countless incidents that occur across the US each year.

Given the rates of violence that workers face in retail, it’s no surprise that New York state enacted a law protecting retail employees. The law, which will go into effect in 2027, means that employers with 500+ retail workers must give their employees silent response buttons so they can call for help in emergencies.

The need for a full approach to protect lone workers

This article offers just a small glimpse into the world of lone worker safety. We haven’t dived into risks to lone workers in construction, farming, taxi driving, or real estate, all of which can be dangerous fields in their own way.

There is no simple answer to protecting lone workers. A detailed approach to implementing lone worker safety solutions is needed. This often includes:

Risk assessments
Developing lone worker procedures
Training workers
Implementing risk reduction steps, and
Preparing for emergencies.

The steps involved in risk reduction vary widely depending on the industry involved. For example, tractor rollovers are a massive risk for farmers. Rollover protection structures can protect drivers if a rollover happens, so they should be implemented as a part of a lone worker safety system.

In contrast, convenience store owners can implement lots of safety measures in their stores and store procedures, like keeping exit routes clear, ensuring security cameras cover the whole store, and posting signs explaining that employees don’t have access to large sums of money.

But there are some steps that benefit many different industries. And one of these is giving employees a lone worker device, sometimes called a wearable panic button, SOS button or panic alarm.

What does a lone worker device do?

A lone worker device can protect workers against a range of risks. In cases of crime, a worker can simply press and hold the button to call for help.

But a lone worker device can also make all the difference when a worker suffers a health crisis like heatstroke, a heart attack, or an accident involving machinery. When a worker starts feeling sick or faint, they may be unable to go through the steps of dialing a phone. But a lone worker device worn on the belt or as a pendant is always within reach, and a worker only needs to press a button on it to call for help.

What’s more, if a lone worker suffers an emergency and isn’t able to press a button at all, automatic fall detection steps in as a second layer of protection. With this function, sensors on the lone worker device feed into an algorithm that’s constantly assessing whether or not the alarm wearer has fallen. If the sensor data says a fall has occurred, the device will call for help all by itself – no need for the lone worker to do anything.

SureSafe’s advanced lone worker devices have more features to protect lone workers, too. For example, they include GPS tracking, which allows employers to locate workers after they trigger a call for help. And even if there’s no call for help, if employers are worried, they can use the GPS tracking’s location history to check on their workers’ movements and see where they are.

Commit to lone worker safety with SureSafe

There’s no question – employers can’t afford to ignore lone worker safety. Without proper safety measures in place, lone workers can suffer injury and even death. And employers can face fines and reputational damage if OSHA finds they didn’t fulfil their duty of care to protect their employees from hazards on the job.

A simple-to-use yet effective lone worker device is a great way to give workers peace of mind and ensure they have a way to call for help if needed. With SureSafe’s lone worker solution, you can even choose who the call goes to after your worker presses their SOS button. You have the option of using an expert response center or sending the call for help to an internal line or even up to three contact phone numbers.

If you’d like to know more about how our lone worker devices can keep you or your employees safe, just reach out to us – our experts are here to help. You can fill in our contact form or call us at 888 540 7193. Alternatively, email us at [email protected], use our live chat, or request a call back.