Worker, 26, dies in umpteenth work accident

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 21 - A 26-year-old factory worker died in the umpteenth fatal accident in a long spate of workplace accidental deaths in Italy near Venice Friday.
    The man was killed instantly when he was hit byn ion panel at a condo construction site at Sottomarina.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni recently announced the recruitment of 1,600 new labour inspectors, amid the alarm about the spate of workplace deaths.
    National labour accidents and occupational illness agency INAIL said recently that 860 fatal work-related accidents were reported to it in the first 10 months of 2024, a rise of 2.5% on the equivalent period in 2023.
    Concern over workplace safety was heightened by the June death of Satnam Singh, an off-the-books 31-year-old Indian farm labourer who bled out after being dumped outside his hut with an arm severed by wrapping machinery placed beside him on a fruit picking box at Latina south of Rome.
    Five men died after inhaling toxic gas in a sewer network near Palermo in May, and seven died in a hydro power plant blast near Bologna in April.
    The latest multiple tragedy came in December when five men were killed by a blast at an Eni fuels depot near Florence.
    Meanwhile there has been a steady stream of almost daily individual deaths. (ANSA).