The S#*! That Can Kill You: Rethinking Safety on the Jobsite

Construction sites are full of risk — but not all risks are equal. The industry has long celebrated falling recordable injury rates, yet fatality numbers haven’t budged since around 2007.

The real threats? The “S#*! That Can Kill You” — those hazards that turn everyday tasks into life-or-death situations. Falls from height. Uncontrolled energy. Heavy equipment in motion. A growing number of teams are ditching weak metrics and zeroing in on these fatal exposures — naming them, tracking them and addressing them before they turn into tragedies no one should ever have to face.

In this article, we look at how Sundt’s construction teams are moving beyond surface-level safety metrics, shifting their focus to the most serious hazards, building smarter inspection systems and using targeted data to drive real results on the jobsite. 

Why a Low Incident Rate Doesn’t Mean Jobsites Are Safe

A clean safety record doesn’t always mean a safe jobsite. Many teams hang their hats on low OSHA recordables, but those numbers often reflect the minor stuff: twisted ankles, small cuts, bumps and bruises. Easy to track, easy to fix — and easy to celebrate.

But while leaders are focused on treating minor injuries such as hand lacerations, the real hazards — the fatal exposures — can go unchecked. Jobsites can operate for years with spotless logs and still be one misstep, one dropped tool or one unsecured load away from tragedy.

That disconnect is the problem. Safety metrics have become a comfort blanket, obscuring the bigger question: are we actually protecting people from what can kill them? A shift is underway—one that demands we stop using paperwork as a proxy for prevention and start redefining what safety success looks like.

The STCKY ^TM Framework: The S#*! That Can Kill You

Most jobsite risks are easy to spot — messy work areas, missing personal protective equipment (PPE), unmarked hazards — but not all risks are equal. Serious injuries and fatalities are most often caused by uncontrolled energy: a fall from height, a crush incident, an unexpected equipment movement.

The STCKY ^TM framework — short for “S#*! That Can Kill You ”— refocuses attention on these high-risk exposures. It groups hazards by energy type, rather than task or trade, allowing teams to identify and plan for conditions that have the potential to cause life-threatening harm.

These hazards are not new. What’s different is the emphasis: instead of treating all safety risks the same, STCKY ^TM brings a structured lens to the few that matter most. That focus helps project teams spot gaps in planning, verify controls and intervene before a serious event occurs.

By giving these risks a defined name and category, teams create shared language and accountability. It’s a shift from checking boxes to managing exposures that actually change lives.

The Fatal 8

These eight categories represent the most serious exposures found on a construction site — high-energy conditions where a single failure can result in a fatal incident:

Turning Safety Walks Into Risk Interventions

Traditional jobsite safety walks tend to focus on surface-level compliance: checking for clutter, confirming PPE or verifying that signage is in place. These efforts may support general safety awareness, but they often miss the exposures most likely to cause serious harm.

STCKY ^TM Walks are designed to close that gap. Rather than surveying an entire jobsite, each walk focuses on a single high-risk activity tied to one of the Fatal 8 categories. The form is short—typically just three or four binary questions—and structured around key controls. The goal isn’t to catch everything. It’s to verify that the most critical protections are in place before work continues.

For example, a STCKY ^TM Walk focused on working at height may include:

• Is access to the work area safe and stable?
• Is fall protection installed and being used correctly?
• Are ladders or platforms set up per the manufacturer's specifications?

If the answer to any question is “no,” work is stopped immediately and corrected before resuming. This keeps the focus on intervention, not documentation.

In one implementation, 16% of STCKY ^TM Walks identified missing controls, or evidence that even on well-managed projects, life-threatening gaps can still occur. The difference is they’re being caught — and addressed — before anyone gets hurt.

What Happens When We Actually Track the Right Things

Most construction teams collect safety data — but much of it never drives change. Tracking near misses or PPE violations has value, but only if it leads to real insight. The STCKY ^TM model shifts data collection toward the hazards that matter most.

Each STCKY ^TM Walk feeds into a digital platform where project teams log their findings. The forms are short, but the dataset grows quickly. Over time, this creates a detailed record of when, where and how high-risk conditions are being evaluated—and whether the right protections are in place.

Dashboards built around that data show walk frequency by team or project, stop-work rates and the most commonly missed controls. Patterns emerge. Supervisors can identify trends, address repeat issues and focus training or follow-up where it’s needed most.

These insights don’t sit in a report. They’re used in quarterly safety reviews with every project team —creating a feedback loop that builds accountability and drives continuous improvement.

The results speak for themselves. Projects using this approach have seen measurable reductions in serious incidents and insurance claims. That kind of impact doesn’t come from checking boxes — it comes from asking better questions.

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Safety Culture Shift Without the Buzzwords

Real safety culture change doesn’t start with slogans. It happens when tools reflect the way work actually gets done and when those tools are used consistently by everyone onsite.

STCKY ^TM programs fit naturally into the flow of daily fieldwork. Most project teams already walk the job every day. By formalizing that habit into a focused, high-impact safety walk, teams start looking at work differently. Instead of scanning for general housekeeping issues, they’re thinking about what could cause a fatal injury—and whether the right controls are in place.

That shift doesn’t require new job roles or more time on site. It requires clarity, structure and leadership that holds the line. When superintendents, project managers and executives are expected to participate—and measured against clear targets—safety becomes part of how the job is run, not just a box to check.

Over time, that consistency builds something more durable than compliance. It creates a shared understanding of what risk really looks like, and a routine practice of calling it out before it turns into something worse.

Writing Safer Stories in Construction

The best safety stories are the ones no one has to tell. When crews name the real threats and use simple, repeatable systems to manage them, the most dangerous work becomes the most controlled.

STCKY ^TM programs aren’t about doing more: They’re about focusing on what matters. And when the job is planned with the right risks in mind, workers make better decisions, teams respond faster and everyone has a better shot at going home. That’s the story worth repeating.

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